I am looking for suppliers of electromagnetic brake units that can be installed between my transfer case and the rear axle. Has anybody got experience with such units on there IDI Diesels.

I am looking to install one of these brake units as the brakes on my F-250 tend heat up to much and start to burn up when going down looong and steeeep hills with a 35' fifth wheel in tow.

Truck is a 93' F250, 7.3 IDI Turbo, ZF5, 4x4, Borg Warner Transfer Case, 3:55 axles, There seems to be lots of room for shortening the rear drive shaft to make a brake unit fit.

Any leads

 

How much weight is on that 35' trailer? Seems large for a 3/4 ton truck. I'd look about upgrading the brakes, installing a trans cooler (if not one already) and shifting to a lower gear. Remember just cause your truck can pull it doesn't mean it can stop it. Overloading your rig is dangerous to you and everyone around you.

Never heard of one of those units on a small truck.

Good luck with that and let us know what ya find.

 

I am from Western Canada and the truck is a mountain goat that does significant amount of time climbing up and down the Rocky Mountains. The trailer is probalbly borderline weight for an F-250; however I got lots of power with the turbo so no trouble going up those hills, the problems usually start going down when the brakes heat up.

I figure an electric brake could help take the load of my regular brakes.

 

Doesnt your trailer have electric brakes on it? Any trailer of that size i would think would have them on it. If not i would think about putting a set on.
Jeremy

 

It does but they heat up too. My understanding on the Electromagnetic brake is that it is better designed to handle the heat dissapation. (i.e. it is not a friction type brake. No brake linings to burn as the device turns electrical energy directly into heat.

 

Try here:

http://www.telmausa.com/telma_htm/default.htm

http://www.industrialautomatic.com/html/telma1.htm

What you're describing is called a Telma driveline retarder. Basically an electromagnetic brake. I've seen them on firetrucks, busses and ambulances. Since some of those ambulance bodies are on F-series chassis, there's a good chance it might work on the pickup.

 

Interesting concept, wonder what the cost is.

 

Around $6K, give or take. Not cheap. there's more info here:

http://www.industrialautomatic.com/html/toppage1.htm

 

It is not that interesting.

I think I would be more inclined to try an exhaust brake at those prices even though I may damage the lifters.

 

You are SOL a Telma brake is too heavy for a 3/4 ton P/U plus you have to have one h*ll of a electrical system those Telma brakes suck alot of juice. They work good but like I said they are heavy you will add another 100lbs atleast to the truck maybe more.

I'am from B.C. yes we have some steep hills here which burns your brakes pretty good when your decending a 10% grade you gotta know what you are doing.

You are pulling a decent sized trailer for a F-250 which means those trailer brakes must work no ands ifs or buts. The best thing to do is spend the money on rebuilding the trailer brakes replacing everything so they work to max capacity.


Things should be done on the truck

1) Change vacuum assist brakes to Hydroboost
2) Install slotted rotors on front with reman calipers with Raybestos Severe Duty brake pads.
3) Buy rear disk brake conversion kit for the 10.25 rear end
4) While your at it you might aswell replace the two front and rear rubber brake hoses.

The hydroboost conversion is a really worth while conversion you can find the parts from any 88-97 F-Superduty (F-450) the vacuum brakes are no comparison to hydraulic assisted brakes. The parts you will need is the hydrualic booster, P/S pump,F-450 Master Cylinder and the required hoses.

Changing the front disks to slotted (aka vented) rotors helps dissapate the heat and if you use Raybestos brake pads it will increase the braking power some. The rear brakes you can convert the drums to disk if you don't want to-do that then rebuild the rear brakes with new drums,new wheel cylinders,adjusters and Raybestos shoes.

How many kilometers are on this truck ?

You may want to consider buying a newer truck something like a 99 F-350 and newer if you want to pull the trailer you have. Do you have your trailer endorsement I know the DOT checks that they give you a warning for the first time the second time your parked.

Like I said at the start of my post the trailer brakes must work to max capacity so you need a good brake controller and good trailer brakes. When you put the trailer brakes on manually you should feel a decent pull back. Also decending the hills use 3rd and 2nd gear use 1st gear if you have to the other problem you have is the truck has 3:55s the truck wants to freewheel more. If you had 4:10s you would have more hold back power because it will spin the engine a little faster.

Anyhow last thing keep in mind you are maxing the capacity of a old truck to past its limits. You will never get away from the lack of brakes for the size of the trailer you have you should be pulling it with a 99 or newer F-450 or a 88-97 F-Superduty (450).

 

Thanks,

All good suggetions, unfortunately I can't afford the $CDN 60,000 price tag for one of those new F-450's. (Don't get me wrong I would be at the Ford Dealer the same day that I win the 6/49)

I did recently purchase used 91 F350 Crew Cab with very low kms on it (42,000) from a local company. It is coming back from the paint shop this week.

The drawbacks are the 91 does not have a turbo "yet" and it is equipped with one of those darn E40D trannies which are not the greatest for towing trailers I hear. Also I will have to figure out whether I can live with the lower fuel milage with the 91. The E40D together with the 410 axles seems to run about 15 to 16 l/100km versus my 93 F250 turbo with 355 axles which gets 12.6 km/100km (all city, no load) For me that translates into about $500 in fuel savings a year.

 

Where did you find the 91 with that low kilometers you must have paid atleast 10 grand CND for the truck.

As for the E4OD I'am not a fan of it either or any kind of juicer transmissions but for the kilometerage on the truck how can you go wrong you can always convert the truck to a 5spd later.

I converted my mileage to metric I'am 23l/100kms which I don't use I go by mpg to see how my truck is doing I converted what you are getting with the 91 and it comes to 17 mpg which is damn good and your 93 is getting 22mpg which is hard to beleive I wish I was getting that.

My old 88 F-450 with 460 gas power used to only get 6 mpg which comes to 47l/100kms

With my 95 F-450 with a full load and climbing a hill like Boundary Road I would burn 10 bucks in diesel

The price of diesel here is 104.9 litre

 

It was the Fire Chief's Truck from the local refinery, paid $CDN 2,500 for it.

They auctioned off the truck because they thought the E4OD tranny was shot (atleast that is what the local Ford Dealer told them) but turned out all that needed fixing was a couple of sensors and a new solenoid body which was damaged when somebody put a dent in the tranny oil pan last year. Did all the repairs myself for about $CDN 800 in parts.

I am getting it back from the paint shop later this week. It will be one sweet looking ride once I get the interior redone later this year. My only wish now is to replace the E4OD with a ZF5 (or maybe a ZF6) to get my milage up a bit and have the ability to do some serious trailer towing with it.

Based on my dads experience towing with the E4OD in his 92' I don't think I will be doing much trailer towing with the E4OD. He burn out his torque converter and overheated the tranny going up Jack *** mountain with a trailer load of firwood a few years back.

The best thing you can do for a tranny is to change your oil frequently. Even on my ZF5 in my 93 I noticed the Mercon had a distinct discoloration and burn smell when I changed it at 100,000 km, probalby from going in OD to much.

PS, I am an engineer so I don't really talk Canadian Gallons that much, the US Gallon (or preferrably "Liter") is the only gallon in my vocabulary.

You are right in the price of diesel these days. The refiners are making quite a hefty margin on diesel, starting to get sqeezed on the gasoline margin so. It will all reverse again next April once gasoline season starts. We should be back to Diesel being 10-15 cents per liter cheaper than gasoline; I hope.

 

PS. Love climbing that Boundry Road hill every morning around 6:00am on my way to the refinery. There is nothing like the whistle of the turbo to wake you up that early in the morning, watching that Pyro needle edge up to about 1000 deg. F. Sometimes I keep it out of the OD just to see if I can't get the Pyro to go even higher.

 

Thats a good price for the truck I guess the only way to find deals like that is be in the right place at the right time. To do the transmission swap you should find a donor truck so you can get the clutch pedal assembly etc also you can reference to the truck where the brackets etc bolt too.

I think I would prolly do a transmission swap over a turbo for most benefit for the first part of the project. You will be limited to a 5spd behind the IDI it will be the cheapest too a 6spd is mighty pricey.

The reason why I don't like automatics is you have to engine braking capacity you drop a juicer into low gear it really doesn't do much like putting a 5spd into low gear.

I changed the ATF in the 5spd in my 95 PSD 450 it smelled burn't plus it smelled like 80w-90 and it had the similar consistancy of it plus it was sort of a barf brown with a red tinge. I went and bought 4 litres of Penzoil Synthetic blend ATF it was all I could get. After I changed the oil I noticed a difference the transmission was a little smoother and quieter. I don't think allot of people even mechanics realize ZFs need ATF the diesels need synthetic ATF.

I try to use OD in my truck as much as I can as my truck has 4:63 diff gear plus the truck weighs 8400lbs just with me and a full rear tank. I also try drive the truck like its underpowered so I take good runs at the hill so I don't have to drop down to 4th which is like 3rd gear in any regular P/U.

If I have to I pull the engine right down to 1500rpm in OD and drop to 4th rev the engine past 2000 grand your burning extra fuel. Most of my up shifts are no more than 1800 I progressive shift the transmission like I do with 13spds in the dump trucks.