extra brake power

[emk]

I have a 42 foot heartland Big Horn 5th wheel. towing w/ram 3500 dually. Seems like I may not have enough braking power. planning trip to oregon coast from texas. am worried about mountain passes. very new at this moving around part. been gate guarding in texas for 4 years and had 5th wheel towed from AZ. to TX. bought truck at later date. Please help. very worried about this trip.

 

[danemayer]

Hi emk,

I tow through Colorado mountain passes quite a bit. You do want good brakes, and if yours aren't good you should have them checked/repaired/replaced with disc brakes.

BUT, going down those long, steep descents, your brakes won't do the job no matter how good they are. If you try to control your speed with the brakes, you'll just burn things up. If you build up too much speed, you'll be in trouble.

You need to gear down as required and use the engine/exhaust brake and transmission to manage speed. I usually keep the speed between 30 and 35 going down from the passes. If I get up to 40 I'll use the brakes briefly to get below 35.

 

[Lynn1130]

You do not say whether your truck has exhaust braking. If your truck is a newer model, year, it probably has that function. If not you need to add it before trying mountain grades. I don't slow down as much as Dan does but my exhaust brake will keep me at a steady 60-65 mph down straight grades. Depending on the % of grade the exhaust brake may keep slowing me to the point that I take it off for a short time but put it back on as speed builds. In any case you need one if you do not have one.

New trucks that do not come with them can be outfitted with "plug and play" systems. Older models take some installing both mechanical and electrical.

 

[JWalker]

What year is your RAM. On ours, you have to go into the computer and pick one of the 4 choices of brake styles.
-Light Electric
-Heavy Electric
-Light Electric over hydraulic
-Heavy Electric over hydraulic

Ours came from the factory set light electric. That is used more for utility trailers. I went in and set it up as heavy electric. Works great now. 6.0 on the gain.

Any Ram from 07.5 and newer will have an exhaust break. It was a feature added when they switched to the 6.7 Cummins.