Exhaust Brakes??

[PLaFrombois]

I've seen an exhaust brake by U. S. Gear called the D-Celerator advertised on a website I visited. It mounts farther down the exhaust system and away from the turbo like most of the exhaust brakes. Has anyone seen this product? Pros/cons compared to the others available (Pacbrake, BD, etc)?

Thanks

Paul

 

[milehiscott]

We just had the stock show here in Denver and I spoke with some guys about it there. It's pretty beefy. The solonoid that it has is extremely responsive (at least on the demo they had sitting there). It is supposed to close off more area than all of the others. It then has a bypass valve to let some of the exhaust pass the butterfly valve. When all is said and done they say it has 30% more braking power than the "others".

I've only seen the model, however. I haven't seen it on a truck and working.

Scott

 

[PLaFrombois]

Thanks for the reply Scott. I'm going to have to do some more research, but I'm definitely interested. Sounds impressive if what they claim does actually happen.

Paul

 

[milehiscott]

Let me know if you get one. They sound and look good.

 

[HC]

It then has a bypass valve to let some of the exhaust pass the butterfly valve. When all is said and done they say it has 30% more braking power than the "others".

My BD will take that bet, and raise you one!



Seriously, I don't know, but it sounds like one of those advertising claims that may or may not be true. I don't think it could have 30% more "peak" retarding power, or you would need springs heavier than the 60# springs. But it might have 30% more than some of the competitors at certain rpms. The "bypass" sounds like their version of BD's "variable orifice" approach, which gives the BD much better retarding power at low rpms.



Keep us posted on your research.

 

[paccool]

I have one on my 93. Don't know how much better it would work on a 24V but on the 93 it ain't worth a darn! The only thing I use it for is to speed up the warm up on a cold morning. It seems to be because of the auto transmission and the non-lock up converter I have. With the newer locking converters it may work better, don't know.



It also make's it easy to find any exhaust leaks as you can't miss the hissing noise when activated. Had one when I changed the turbo housing and there waas no question of a leak!

 

[David Oxland]

If you do a search on US Gear or some such I remember hearing some guys being in a rage because the exhaust pipe ahead of the butterfly ruptured. When you think about it, it's a fairly likely scenario. It's worth doing a bit of digging around.

 

[TPCDrafting]

I've been looking for an exaust brake myself. I know a truck driver who put a pacbrake on his Dodge and thinks it works better than the jake on his tandem dump truck. The nice thing about the pacbrake is it is mounted directly after the turbo. On my '98 anyway all I need to do is remove the elbow after the turbo and install the pacbrake in it's place. I'll let you know how it comes out. My buddy has a '91 and has an exaust brake right after the turbo (not sure which brand) and has had no trouble after many years of use. He likes it there because it stays clean from the heat passing through and it has no thin walled exaust piping before it that could rupture. good info guys!

 

[Rockcrawler]

Happy with my US Gear ex brake

I bought and installed the US GEar brake just before the holidays. They make 2 models with about a $300 price spread. I got the "standard model" which suits me just fine.



The US Gear brake is nothing new- RV guys been using them for years. If I was hauling 80% of the time in hilly areas I would have reached deeper for the $300.



I am 100% satisfied with the standard version though. I grossed 19k through southern Colorado and all around the 4 corners area as well as some pretty decent hills in AR. You hardly ever use the service brakes. I dropped into Albuquerque on I40 without touching the brake pedal. Running empty I still use it on off ramps or long downhills to save wear on the service brakes. Noise is minor, not like the internal brakes on big trucks. The higher the RPM's the more braking force.



With that said- they're probably all good. The Banks unit is overpriced in my opinion. With the US Gear you get the same benefit of moving the butterfly down stream so you dont have an interuption of the tornado coming off the turbo. Good luck!

 

[BCFAST]

Had one on my old 95 truck. It was a trouble-free unit, and no exhaust valve changes needed!! I prefer the US Gear unit over the turbo-mounted units because of the exhaust restrictions. BTW, that 95 truck has nearly 300k on it now, and the US Gear unit has been trouble-free!!