exhaust brake/trailer brakes

[Eric_77]

JOE WE ARE ON THE SAME PAGE! #ad




You ARE cycleing the brakes and allowing them to cool. That was my point. Now knowing how you are running it with the Cruise causing the ebrake and trailer brakes to cycle makes sense and is what I was getting at the brakes should not be ridden all the way down the hill which with a just an e-brake coming down a hill it is active for the whole downhill section; I guess by use of the trailer brakes and the slopes you are on it slows enough to turn the ebrake and trailer brakes off.





Did not mean to get into

:-{} with you.

 

[Joe G.]

That's exactly the situation. Most all hills on four lane highways work that way. I haven't tried the Grapevine on I5 so I don't know how it would work that long and steep of a grade. It works fine on Donner and the grades on I5 in OR. On some two lane roads that are steep and crooked I turn the feature off. If I didn't turn it off by the time I got to the bottom of Buckhorn on SR299 in CA I could light fires with the brakes. 20MPH steep hairpins and other nifty turns on that road. I thought I would have to turn in off on Whitebird in ID, but it worked fine. One of the grades in OR caused me to turn if off, but I started down that one too fast the first place. I don't know if it would work with an inertial controller other than a Prodigy. It might be too aggresive and make for an unconfortable ride. With my Prodigy I can fine tune it so it does not jerk the truck when the trailer brakes come on. If I am not using the cruise I do have enuff sense to give it some fuel once in a while.



I just made the post for information purposes. Certainly did not want to start a war. It works for me towing or not. I have brake lights when the e-brake is on. That way ricer tailgaters don't hit me when I am not towing. A diode can be used to get the lights without turning on the trailer brakes.

 

[clem]

If you read your Owners Manual, it States Do NOT USE E-brake WITH CRUISE CONTROL ON,also Don't use Cruise Control while TOWING,but who reads manuals anyway? 1999 5sp The E-brake installed by D/C will work,but as stated the Owners Good BOOK and the paper work received. Tells me not to use Cruise with the E-brake or Towing.

 

[Joe G.]

I guess they left that out of my '95 owners and service manual because it's sure not there.

 

[klenger]

My 01. 5 would not engage the ebrake (ECM controlled) if the cruise was on, even going downhill with my foot off the go pedel.

 

[Joe G.]

That's very interesting. One of the early tricks to get an e-brake to work with an automatic transmission was to use the cruise control. The TCC for a 47RH transmission used in the '94 and '95 trucks does not let go right away with the fuel pedal is lift. It takes a few seconds for that to happen. So if the cruise control was used with an e-brake speed would usually drop below the cruise setting before the TCC would let go. I think John Holmes came up with that one. Then Russell Ward invented the "mystery" switch and using the cruise control was not necessarry to keep the TCC locked. (See page 29 issue 10, 39 issue 11, 26 issue 12, and 62 issue 13) I'll bet going across NV or eastern MT is a nuisance if the e-brake won't work with the cruise control. I guess Dodge is cracking down on us sinners.