Engine braking

[Verteuil Man]

Back in the day when I was on the road laying roadmarkings around the country we had Ford D series and Cargo lorries with all our kit on them. One thing I do remember is the floor mounted button I could hit with my heel was the exhaust brake.
Travelling around the rolling hills and dell's of Europe I wished I had such a device fitted to my motorhome on those long decents.
What has happened to the exhaust brake?

 

[garry55]

Our Toyota CHR Hybrid has artificial engine braking achieved via the electric motor - I just switch from "D" to "B" when going downhill and it slows down (except on steep gradients where it just about holds it's own). It can also be driven as per normal in this mode too. Clever and effective.

 

[tacr2man]

The exhaust brake is still fitted to lots of heavy vehicles , and is now supplemented with other endurance braking eg telma electric retarders , hydraulic retarders on auto gearboxes , but due to improvements in braking systems , the main system is considered adequate for the vast majority of lighter vehicles

 

[Fdhadi]

The efficiency of modern day braking systems often make it unnecessary to change down through the gears. Braking to the correct speed and then changing to the most appropriate gear ie missing gears out & block changing helps keep both hands on the steering wheel for longer.

Exhaust Brake and Engine Braking are totally different things.

 

[The Wino]

Our EV in maximum regeneration braking mode has quite a strong braking effect so much so that a problem at the three year service is said to be corroded discs due to lack of use.

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[L' Hobo]

Back in the day when I was on the road laying roadmarkings around the country we had Ford D series and Cargo lorries with all our kit on them. One thing I do remember is the floor mounted button I could hit with my heel was the exhaust brake.
Travelling around the rolling hills and dell's of Europe I wished I had such a device fitted to my motorhome on those long decents.
What has happened to the exhaust brake?

An Exhauster brake on a D Series? I had a few of them and can't remember any
Exhauster brake?
I still have the FULL official workshop manuals for all, I'll have a look tomorrow?

 

[Googlebot]

I wish we had exhaust brakes on ours, it doesn’t handle long downhills well. You really have to keep under 40mph, bit difficult on the motorways.

 

[funflair]

We have the Telma retarder option on our IVECO chassis, neither light nor cheap but a great option and I would have it again.

 

[stewartwebr]

We have the high efficiency Mercedes engine brake on our Atego based MORELO. Very efficient in that it works completely automatically when braking. Takes a bit of getting used too as the engine brake is applied the revs of the engine increases, as the engine slows and the revs drop the efficiency of the engine brake drops off and you need to catch the gap between the engine brake dropping off and the system changing down a gear and starting the engine brake process again, it takes a bit of getting used too. There is also a lever which allows you to apply the engine brake manually, it has two settings. When using cruise control it also uses the engine brake to maintain set speed when descending a steep gradient.
It is an extremely efficient addition to the Motorhome and would certainly fork out for it again.

 

[Two on Tour]

Back in the day when I was on the road laying roadmarkings around the country we had Ford D series and Cargo lorries with all our kit on them. One thing I do remember is the floor mounted button I could hit with my heel was the exhaust brake.
Travelling around the rolling hills and dell's of Europe I wished I had such a device fitted to my motorhome on those long decents.
What has happened to the exhaust brake?

I don't know if it was the same system on your truck, but what you described sounds like a "Jake Brake", which, when switched on, basically closes the exhaust valves in the engine and then uses the engine's compression to slow a vehicle down.

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[Lazyboy]

Were not Jake brakes only on Cummins engines?

 

[Two on Tour]

Were not Jake brakes only on Cummins engines?

From Wikipedia
"The D1000s were powered by Cummins produced V8 diesel engines of 7.7 litres displacement."

 

[pappajohn]

Jake braking ...



Interestingly, it's called Jake as it was developed by the Jacobs engineering company.