This spring I have been working on some upgrades for my horse hauling pickup. I recently added two accessories that I’ve been wanting for a while: An exhaust brake and a combination tool box and auxiliary fuel tank.

As a refresher, my truck is a 2005 Dodge Ram 3500 dual-rear-wheel pickup with the 5.9L Cummins Diesel and the 6 speed manual transmission. It is approaching 300,000 miles, although the engine has about 12,000 miles, after I blew it about a year ago. Every time something needs to be replaced, I upgrade. I currently sport a one-piece 5″ aluminum drive shaft, manual free-spin hubs, an AEM cold-air intake, a Bully Dog Power Pup chip, a Buckstop Baja front bumper with PIAA driving and fog lights, a late-model steering linkage upgrade, a Carli track bar, Dynatrac ball joints, and a few other gadgets. I love my truck and, barring any disaster, I expect it will be the last truck I ever buy. It will pull anything I want to hook up to it and do so safely.

Over the past two years I have spent nearly $2,200 on brake work on my truck. Some of that was due to my own stupidity in driving around with my parking brake on. That Cummins Diesel, backed by the 6 speed manual transmission will drive right through that parking brake like it isn’t even there, and that’s just what I have done on several occasions. The last time was when I went to pick up my new horse, J. I got distracted with the new horse in the trailer and drove nearly 30 miles at freeway speeds before noticing the parking brake was on.

When I picked my truck up from my mechanic, he advised me to check the brakes on my trailer, because the rear rotors on the truck had been overheated and required turning. I informed him that my trailer brakes were new, as I had recently replaced both axles and hubs in the trailer. I told him I figured the overheating was from me having to drag the brakes coming down long grades while hauling a full load in my horse trailer. I said I had just purchased an exhaust brake and hoped that would mitigate my brake issues…at least those that weren’t due to my own stupidity.

After quite a bit of research and reading information from users on certain forums, I settled on the BD Exhaust Brake from Diesel Power Products.  It has the reputation for reliability, durability, and effectiveness. While there are several good competitors to the BD, people who use the exhaust brakes commercially seem to find the BD more reliable and more effective at all RPM ranges.

For those who may not know what an exhaust brake is, it is a mechanism that closes off the exhaust flow aft of the turbo on a diesel engine, causing back-pressure in the engine, which causes the engine to work against its own compression, thus slowing the truck like a brake. It is similar in function to the engine brakes the big rigs have, but those are actually built into the engine, rather than operating on the exhaust system.

I purchased my exhaust brake online through Diesel Power Products, because their prices were comparable to all other vendors of the BD and I have had good dealings with DPP in the past with other products. However, I must admit that this time their service was less than satisfactory.  I ordered the kit as well as an electric rocker switch for the shifter column. I was charged immediately, which was as expected, until, after a week, I still had not received a shipment confirmation. I called the company and asked about it, whereupon I was informed that the exhaust brake had been backordered. I asked whether it was their practice to charge the customer for a backorder before it was shipped, to which they responded that the orders are placed when the payment is made. Most reputable companies will notify the customer if an item is backordered and allow the customer to choose whether to wait or cancel, and most will not charge the customer before shipment. I was disappointed, but the backorder date was only another week, so I let it go.

The second disappointment was when I received the exhaust brake kit. It was in an oversized cardboard box, packed only with paper packing to secure the contents. The heavy cast iron exhaust brake had apparently been dropped and a fitting was broken off the actuation cylinder. Additionally the compressor filter was not in the package. I contacted DPP and advised them of the problem. It took them a couple days to decide what to do, upon which I asked them to just send me the fitting and I would do the repair, rather than require me to return the whole thing. They agreed and sent the necessary parts. I had the proper tools and easily did the repair.

While I was doing the installation, I found another part missing. It was an anti-rattle pad that mounts to the back of the compressor mounting bracket. I called to ask to have one sent out. It has yet to arrive.

Lastly, the installation instructions are written for all years from 2004-2007, although the unit is for only 2004.5-2005 trucks (at least according to the ordering information). The instructions clearly state that there are installation and operation differences among those years of truck, but are quite unclear when it comes to what instructions apply to which years. After a call to DPP Tech line and some head scratching, I figured things out and got everything installed correctly.

Now, I must state here that I’m not sure whether BD packages the kits for shipment or DPP, and I’m sure DPP doesn’t write the installation manual, but either way, for a $1,320 purchase, I expected better.

Now for the good part.

After installing my BD Exhaust Brake and testing it out with a load, I am very pleased. I have to admit that at first I didn’t know quite what to expect and was a little disappointed in the amount of braking force the brake exerts. I guess I was expecting something like the “Jake Brakes” on the big rigs. However, once my expectations were properly recalibrated and I learned how to use it, I was very pleased.

I found that if I went barreling down a long 6% grade in 6th gear at 75 miles per hour, the exhaust brake wasn’t going to do much to hold my speed or slow my rig down. However, if I reduced speed to a much more reasonable 60 mph and shifted down to 5th gear, my exhaust brake would hold speed steady without my touching the brakes. That was with an all-steel four-horse gooseneck trailer with all my tack and two horses coming down Price Canyon on Route 6 in Utah. I will also say that it seems the braking force has increased somewhat with a little use. I can only attribute that to the possibility of carbon build-up causing a better seal with the butterfly valve.

. One fellow on a forum wrote that his brake life span went from 25,000 miles to over 80,000 after installation of his exhaust brake. I expect my exhaust brake will pay for itself within five years.

The second accessory I just bought and installed was an RDS combination tool box and auxiliary fuel tank from Northern Tool and Equipment. I sometimes head out into the back country with my rig, to find the out-of-the-way places to set up my camp for trail rides. On some of those trips I have had to head in for a fuel stop to top-off my stock 35 gallon tank to make sure I had enough fuel to get in and back out without running low on fuel. Also, a couple times per year, I head for Arizona to visit my folks and I like to take my horses along. An auxiliary fuel tank would ensure I always had enough fuel for my trips, without having to stop at fuel stations with exorbitantly high fuel prices out in the back country or while traveling long distances.

I selected a 90 gallon auxiliary fuel tank with the filler enclosed under the lockable tool box lid. The tool box isn’t more than about 6″ deep, but it holds what I need it to. The 90 gallons gives me a total of 125 gallons. At about 12 miles per gallon, that calculates to a range of about 1,500 miles. That should do it.

I installed my tank as a simple gravity feed auxiliary, which is legal in all 50 states (as far as I know) for diesel fuel. I installed a ball valve as a shutoff, but will soon install an electric valve with a rocker switch in the cab, so that I don’t have to stop and open the valve and stop and close it again. Installation was not a big deal and can be accomplished by anyone with reasonable skills and a few tools in a couple hours.

So far, so good on the fuel tank. No leaks and it fills my stock tank from the aux tank in a reasonable amount of time. When my fuel gauge reads about 1/4 tank, I simply reach into the bed and open the ball valve. When the gauge reads nearly full, I just stop, reach into the bed, and close the ball valve (you can see why I want the electric valve). I’m pleased and itching for a long trip.

Yesterday I sent my old, rusty running board guards to a shop to be stripped and coated with Rhino Liner bed lining.

Next up:  A heavy-duty rear bumper and a 16,000 pound winch to fill the space in my front bumper.