towing with a stock diameter OFE?

[Forrest Nearing]

the previous owner of my truck rarely hauled anything more that ~8-10k lbs, and not very often and not very fast... so he went with the 12. 25 OFE... can't say that I blame him as the price was right and it should be plenty of clutch for the truck with little load.



but, I'm looking at starting to haul trailers for my buddy's dad... he builds custom trailers of all sorts, and I'm looking at hauling ~20k lbs 1,000 miles at a time.



what should I do? put a valet switch on the truck and tow in "neutered mode"? keep the boost below a certain level? I don't care about being able to do 75mph the whole way, I just care about getting there without hurting the clutch center!!!



obviously the larger diameter clutch would be ideal, but there just isn't room in the budget right now.



Peter? anyone?



TIA,



Forrest

 

[Mad Bomber]

OFE

Keeping the RPM's up while towing will help. If you lug it that's where you get ton's of tourque

 

[PRout]

Keeping the R's up will help, but I bought the 12" ConO (truck was down & didnt have much time to research clutches), and when I was unloaded (had not towed in weeks), the center hub started coming loose. It only had about 5k miles on it, and I didnt run it hard.



Try to avoid shock loading it (keep things smooth), and you may be ok. At least mine didnt leave me stranded, as it gradually got worse, but it cost alot of money in the long run.



Maybe you can make enough money with what you have now, and in the future replace it, with a 13" FE, dual disk, or a JD Sachs like I did. What a difference.



At least you have a good truck.



Good luck.

 

[Forrest Nearing]

just for clarification, were you towing with your ConO? I realize it went bye-bye when the truck was unloaded, but had it seen a decent load before it went?



thanks,



Forrest

 

[Jetson]

The smaller diameter clutch has a problem handling the reverse torque of downshifting aggressively to slow the load down. The stock clutch didn't have as much problem because it couldn't hold that much torque anyway, so downshifting just caused it to slip. The OFE can handle a lot more torque. Accelerating is not a problem as the clutch center is sprung to handle the torque in that direction. It can NOT handle large amounts of torque in the reverse direction.



Moral of the story: Just use your brakes to slow down when you are hauling. When you downshift, rev the engine to match transmission speed before letting out the clutch.

 

[Forrest Nearing]

great information! I am very gentle on downshifting now, and I just use the service brakes to slow the truck... the trailers I'll be pulling have awesome brakes on them too. I realize I will still have to take it easy over the divide without an engine brake and I'll probably be replacing my service brakes more frequently, but it'll have to do untill I can afford a better clutch and an exhaust brake.



thanks again guys,



Forrest

 

[South Bend Clutch]

Forrest,



Sorry for the delay in responding. But, after reading Jetson's response I have nothing more to say. Awesome job Sir... you hit the nail on the head.



Peter

 

[RustyJC]

As the proud owner of a South Bend Con OFE, this discussion does not make me warm and fuzzy regarding the use of my Jacobs exhaust brake when towing our 36' 5th wheel. We hit the road at 21,180 lbs GCW (21,500 lbs GCWR), so slowing this rig down requires a great deal of negative BHP. This negative BHP can be generated by the brakes (with resultant wear and heat) or by engine "drag" with the use of an exhaust brake.



As far as the technical acceptability of the exhaust brake, it is a Dodge/Cummins accessory that was dealer installed on my truck. Furthermore, Dodge recommends the use of an exhaust brake in manual transmission applications with trailer weights in excess of 10,000 lbs (ours weighs 13,500 lbs).



So, am I hearing that, now that I have a South Bend clutch, I should turn the exhaust brake off for good?



Rusty

 

[WadePatton]

Rusty, that's only for the 12. 25 OFE. If yours is the 13" version (I think that it is), then relax, be happy! The 13" has all the hub that you need for acceleration/deceleration as you wish.

 

[RHARVEY]

My 97 has the 13" upgrade Con OFE and has been in there for over 2 years now. I have used 2 different exhaust brakes on the truck and I also down shifted when slowing a load down. I dont even think about the clutch when I do this. .

We pull a 5th wheel that weighes in at appox 10k... and the clutch handles it all great!



Rick

 

[Forrest Nearing]

Originally posted by RHARVEY

My 97 has the 13" upgrade Con OFE and has been in there for over 2 years now. I have used 2 different exhaust brakes on the truck and I also down shifted when slowing a load down. I dont even think about the clutch when I do this. .

rub it in whydoncha?!







Forrest