Do You Keep Your Cummins Exhaust Brake On All the Time?

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Goose55

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I am hearing that it is beneficial to the turbo charger to keep the exhaust brake on all the time, but not sure why. I am wondering what some of you seasoned Ram Heavy Duty owners say about that. If this is true, do you keep it on full exhaust brake or automatic? Looking forward to hearing from you good folk. Thank you!
 

Billet Bee

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I have always left mine on full to aid in breaking and have never used the lesser automatic setting. I only use the even more increased exhaust braking by using tow haul mode while pulling our home and not truck alone due too extra on/ off jerking back and forth and any extra possible fuel consumption.
 
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Goose55

Goose55

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I have always left mine on full to aid in breaking and have never used the lesser automatic setting. I only use the even more increased exhaust braking by using tow haul mode while pulling our home and not truck alone due too extra on/ off jerking back and forth and any extra possible fuel consumption.
Thank you for your reply. So far in the 17,000 miles on my 3500 dually, I have only manually applied full exhaust brake when I need to further slow, after letting the engine and transmission slow me down. I have done this with a mindset to economize fuel consumption, and conserve physical braking/ wear on rotors and pads.
 

Billet Bee

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Thank you for your reply. So far in the 17,000 miles on my 3500 dually, I have only manually applied full exhaust brake when I need to further slow, after letting the engine and transmission slow me down. I have done this with a mindset to economize fuel consumption, and conserve physical braking/ wear on rotors and pads.

I'm at 30k miles and exhaust brake still working amazing with being on full all the time
 

Green_Manalishi

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I have always left mine on full to aid in breaking and have never used the lesser automatic setting. I only use the even more increased exhaust braking by using tow haul mode while pulling our home and not truck alone due too extra on/ off jerking back and forth and any extra possible fuel consumption.
+1. First button I push after starting.
 

mtnrider

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Nope, only when towing. It's annoying using it for daily driving. And before someone chimes in and says it saves your actuator from sooting up and failing, that is false.

.
 

Choupique

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I only use mine when towing. It operates via the VGT actuator which is constantly working during normal driving, so IMO it doesn't "help" anything other than shorten stop distances and save wear on the service brakes.
 

BossHogg

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I am hearing that it is beneficial to the turbo charger to keep the exhaust brake on all the time, but not sure why. I am wondering what some of you seasoned Ram Heavy Duty owners say about that. If this is true, do you keep it on full exhaust brake or automatic? Looking forward to hearing from you good folk. Thank you!
I've heard that also and wondered about it, so I asked the diesel tech when I was in for service a while back. He told me it wasn't necessary because, at ignition on, the computer cycles the turbo's veins.

I only run the EB (on auto) when I'm towing. I've noticed that when towing with tow/haul on and EB on automatic, it becomes a system that plays very well together, it seems to downshift to the right gear and engage the EB at a reasonable level to slow me down. I only use the vehicle's brakes to bring us to a final stop.
 

18CrewDually

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Yes I run full EB. Like others said, once I start the truck pressing that button follows immediately. I've got 44k miles.
But I'm also use to driving full exhaust brake all the time. My previous truck was tuned and had exhaust brake on all the time upon startup. In the 200k miles I put on that truck I changed rear pads once and front pads twice. The second pad change was only because I also did new rotors. I drive accordingly, giving myself space so the exhaust brake does most of the slowing and only using the brake pedal at slow speeds.
When I put new tires on I checked the pads on this truck and they are like new.
 

John Jensen

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I'm tuned so my EB is automatically on all the time. I leave it on auto except when towing. When towing I run with TH on and select auto or full EB as needed. Before I was tuned I used a blank 7 pin trailer plug with a resistor across the trailer brake pins. Made the truck think a trailer was in tow and kept the EB on all the time
 

18CrewDually

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I'm tuned so my EB is automatically on all the time. I leave it on auto except when towing. When towing I run with TH on and select auto or full EB as needed. Before I was tuned I used a blank 7 pin trailer plug with a resistor across the trailer brake pins. Made the truck think a trailer was in tow and kept the EB on all the time
Did you put the resistor between Trailer Brake (blue wire) terminal and ground to trick it?
 

tmcgraw

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I carry a cabover camper on my 2018 3500 dually. Loaded weight approx 5K. I keep the diesel brake and tow haul mode on continually to aid in braking.
 

nlambert182

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Yep. First thing I always turned on when I got in the truck.

It cost me $1,200 to have the rear brakes replaced (since the axle shafts have to be removed to get the rotors off) when I bought the truck so my goal was to decrease the wear as much as possible and extend the brake life. To be honest, it's one of the things I miss the most now that I've gone back to a 1500.
 

mtnrider

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Yep. First thing I always turned on when I got in the truck.

It cost me $1,200 to have the rear brakes replaced (since the axle shafts have to be removed to get the rotors off) when I bought the truck so my goal was to decrease the wear as much as possible and extend the brake life. To be honest, it's one of the things I miss the most now that I've gone back to a 1500.

$1200 to change the rear brakes???? Wow, they bent you over and tagged teamed you.... And you don't have to remove the axle shaft to remove the rotor unless it's a dually and even then it's a simple job.

.
 
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18CrewDually

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$1200 to change the rear brakes???? Wow, they bent you over and tagged and teamed you.... And you don't have to remove the axle shaft to remove the rotor unless it's a dually and even then it's a simple job.

.

Complete job is about $800 alone in parts on a dually including calipers, pads, seals, rotors, hoses, ect. Then add shop labor.

Can we do it ourselves for alot less, yup. Cutting corners, shopping around for bargain priced parts, not replacing everything, ect. Some people don't have the option so they're forced to pay high shop rate and full retail on parts. Then factor in it's not a 1500 and considered HD makes the price of everything go up.
I'm not justifying it but it is what it is.
 

Timsdually

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I never keep the exhaust brake on.
If I am towing *really* heavy, then yes. That is rare though. Tow/Haul is good enough for me 9 out of 10 times.
 
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