What are these "retarders" and how do

You're right. These new trucks don't even sound like trucks anymore.

 

**OFF TOPIC POST**

I don't worry about my truck sounding like a truck. According to some posters since I want a better life that doesn't revolve around a steering while, I'm not a real trucker ( I agree but it doesn't mean I'm unsafe behind the wheel as some would accuse). Also, Why worry if your rig sounds like a truck, when the company is neutering the rigs anyways. It doesn't sound like a truck, it doesn't run like a truck...###### it's an oversized car.

 

Sorry, didn't mean anything by that.

 

Does it while going down the road all by itself. Turbo makes a little more noise but other than that I can't tell.

Other than the bad mileage the truck gets!

 

I know you weren't intending anything at Mustang. I was just a lil irritated by some supertruckers opinions and decied to rant a little bit. Seriously though the trucks we see now are nothing like the rigs of yesterday (good and bad to this).

 

Just wondering. The video said under certain circumstances, like sustained in town use that doesn't work the engine hard enough, you had to stop and do a "manual regeneration".
Hopefully, that won't happen very often.

 

No problem. In another life, I had to keep the stereo cranked up to hear over the exhaust, even with the windows up etc.
But situations change, for better or worse, and I'm not one to ramble on about the so called "good old days".
I just quietly do my job in a slow, uninspiring, smooth riding, cookie cutter looking Volvo.
At one time I wouldn't have believed it, but it really wasn't that hard to get used to.

 

Easy there. I got a Cookie riding shotgun with me, don't want nobody cutting her lol..

Sometimes I miss the old cabovers I grew up in (especially when a shorter wheel base would be handy, but I do like the comforts of home being in my truck with me.

 

"Engine brake" and "engine retarder" are the same thing. It was actually invented by Clessie Cummins after he retired and he sold the patent to Jacobs Manufacturing because the company that he started didn't think the idea would catch on. Since a diesel engine doesn't have a throttle body that produces vacuum when the throttle is closed like a gasoline engine a system to make up for that is needed. When the compression is blown out of the exhaust valve during the compression stroke the piston will create a partial vacuum on its way down during the power stroke causing a braking effect. Smaller diesels use an exhaust brake that is simply a butterfly valve downstream of the turbocharger. Close the valve and backpressure builds providing resistance. Some Allison automatic transmissions have a hydraulic retarder that basically pumps and cools fluid. There also used to be an electic driveline retarder that was simply a dynamo that would generate current and run it through a resistor to dissipate it as heat. Put a load (resistor) on the other end of the circuit and the generator's shaft gets harder to turn.

 

Good correction. Somewhere in the dark recesses of my brain, I knew that, but had forgotten.