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Your avatar reads 2012 Cummins. You mentioned you have a 2022 2500 Tradesman. What motor are you running in the 2500?
On the right bottom of your steering wheel are the controls for your ERS (Electronic Range Select) with +/- buttons. After you are in gear, hit the (-) button to engage your ERS. Then from there you can push either the + or - button to go up and down in gear range. You can only go up to the highest gear, and if you push the + button again it will disengage your ERS and you have to start over. And it's not 'engine braking' unless you have the Cummins; it just your transmission gearing up and down.
It IS engine braking...it's not exhaust braking. The terms get conflated often enough that I find myself using them interchangeably when they really shouldn't be.
^This.
Yes. On my 2022 2500 6.4L, when desceding, I have in tow/haul and just set the cruise control to the desired speed. It will not over rev the engine. I I do try to manually down shift it will refuse to do it if the result would be an over rev. The key with the gas engine is to start the descent at a slow speed so its able to downshift as needed. For example I once went down a 12% grade pulling my travel trailer where the speed limit was 30 MPH. Set the cruise on 30 and had it been in a straight line I could have made it down the descent without touching the brakes. But there were some tight turns where I wanted to go even slower so used the brakes. A other time I was going downnan 11% grade and started out at 55. But trying to go 55, it quickly go to the point where it couldn't downshift any more so it just let the speed increase. Had to use the brakes then. Best to start slow. Speeding up is easy down hill but slowing down is hard and your brakes can heat up fast. Final example: was going down Wolf Creek Pass west bound in Colorado. I thought I was ot using my brakes that much. But to be sure, when I got to a pull out, I stopped to check. The brake disks on the truck we so hot I burned my fingers on them and the trailer brakes were hot too. That's when I started using my start out slow method.^This.
My 2014 Laramie with 5.7L/3.21 rear/8-speed will downshift and engine-brake
even before I typically use the brake pedal and always makes a bigger difference
than me trying to manually downshift with ERS.
And that's either with or without TOW-HAUL mode. Tow-Haul does make everything
a bit more "aggressive" though... and fun.
^^^ this exactly
Exactly. That's why diesel guys have the 'auto' setting on the exhaust brake. We can set our speed at, say, 55, and when going down a hill, if we start to exceed that, it'll engage the exhaust brake to help keep things slower. If the cruise isn't set, it won't do anything until you set a speed or get on the brakes. The 'full' setting will engage the exhaust brake any time you aren't on the throttle.
You are correct. I use the terms interchangeably sometimes myself.
