Engine Breaking

kman05 · June 14, 2007

just wondering how hard engine breaking actually is on your engine, i drive through the mountains alot, and often times pulling my boat...lately ive been engine breaking alot to take it easy on my breaks, but im wondering if i should actually be avoiding engine breaking as much as possible? or is it perfectly acceptable

HyperBuzzin · June 15, 2007

Is your truck auto or manual transmission?

IMO, with an auto trans, I wouldn't. I'd think it'd heat it up a good bit. And heat kills the tranny fluid quick.

With a manual trans on the other hand, I wouldn't worry about it.

But I'm not a professional wrencher, so like I said, just my opinion.

kman05 · June 15, 2007

yeah it's a 2005 with the 5.3L automatic trans.....but it's either that or burn up my breaks, it's pretty steep out here, ill have to look into it more

Draenor · June 15, 2007

Do you have electric breaks? Maybe its time to add them, or upgrade your truck brakes.

mcreyaufmiller · June 15, 2007

I would not have electric brakes on a boat, but I would look into the unit that is a hitch and uses fluid, then when you hit the brakes, you would actuate the boat brakes, easing up on the ammount of braking you need to do on the truck. My $.02.

ZZ327 · June 15, 2007

you should really get trailer brakes. They do make a special set for boat trailers

Check out w w w . Easternmarine . c o m

I think the ones you are talking about mcreyaufmiller are called trickle brakes?

Nice rig · June 17, 2007

Your motor will be alright...as long as you don't redline it everytime.

pwall · June 17, 2007

Most boat trailers have 'surge' breaks....basically, when you slow the truck down the boat trailer will want to keep going...as it does, it pushes a 'piston' in the hitch of the boat trailer activating the trailer brakes. (not sure if I discribed that correctly....hopefully you get the point).

I don't feel that the engine was designed to be used for braking.

superbee · June 17, 2007

The engine will be fine, transmission not so much. This is really hard on trannys for the reason stated above, heat. If the trucks brakes aren't sufficient, you have several options 1) Upgrade to Baer or some other aftermarket brake setup, 2) Upgrade your trailer's brakes as suggested above, or 3) upgrade the truck to a 2500HD, the 2500HDs with the allison transmission are designed to do this automatically and very effectively in Tow/Haul mode.

This is a very dangerous condition that you describe and needs to be addressed soon IMHO.

The cheapest way out is drilled/slotted brake rotors and ceramic pads, this unfortunately is the least effective compared to a big brake kit or a bigger truck.

Hope this helps, good luck and let us know what you decide to do.

Also, if you decide to continue to use the engine braking method, at leat add a HUGE trans cooler and switch to a full PAO synthetic like Amsoil.

Cheers.

kman05 · June 18, 2007

The engine will be fine, transmission not so much. This is really hard on trannys for the reason stated above, heat. If the trucks brakes aren't sufficient, you have several options 1) Upgrade to Baer or some other aftermarket brake setup, 2) Upgrade your trailer's brakes as suggested above, or 3) upgrade the truck to a 2500HD, the 2500HDs with the allison transmission are designed to do this automatically and very effectively in Tow/Haul mode.

This is a very dangerous condition that you describe and needs to be addressed soon IMHO.

The cheapest way out is drilled/slotted brake rotors and ceramic pads, this unfortunately is the least effective compared to a big brake kit or a bigger truck.

Hope this helps, good luck and let us know what you decide to do.

Also, if you decide to continue to use the engine braking method, at leat add a HUGE trans cooler and switch to a full PAO synthetic like Amsoil.

Cheers.

interesting, well i can avoid this route by taking probably an extra 15 minutes each way...maybe ill just avoid it while pulling the boat, im not really interested in putting money into my breaks right at this point in time..but i guess ill make sure not to engine break unless i absolutely have to

HyperBuzzin · June 18, 2007

(on the lighter side of things.....)

Ya could always throw out the boat anchor when ya want to slow down!

Norseman · June 19, 2007

New Brakes are a hell of a lot cheeper then a new trannie.

Webb · June 23, 2007

I think you be fine as long as you dont over do the engine-braking. Like try to keep it under 3,000 rpms, like where you would normally shift at. might burn some extra gas though. I dont know why it would heat up the tranny any more than normal, either the motor is spinning the tranny or the wheels are spinning it, not sure if it makes a difference. would help if you had a transmission temp guage on your dash just to make sure.