Meet the Jacobs E-Brake

Last October when we stopped to have our Cummins diesel engine serviced at Cummins Rocky Mountain Service Center, the service techs told us that part of our exhaust brake was almost rusted out.

What’s an exhaust brake?

Basically, it’s a device that works by essentially sticking a potato up the exhaust pipe. The purpose: to slow down the motorhome without using the air brakes. An exhaust brake is very handy going down steep mountain roads because instead of using the brakes continuously (and getting getting them too hot), you can just flip a switch to enable the exhaust brake.

Anyway, we’ve scheduled a visit to a service center in Lake Havasu this March to replace the rusted pipe. I’ve been dreading this because I have no idea how long it will take — will the service center order the right part? How much will it cost? Where will we stay during the repair?

So I thought I’d take a look at our engine brake and see if I could determine what was needed to fix it.

Voila! Today I pulled off the engine cover (which is in our RV bedroom), took a photo of the engine brake, and called Spartan Chassis, the manufacturer of our Newmar’s chassis. I gave them the VIN number of our RV, sent them a photo I took of our engine brake, and a few minutes later ordered the part ($160 delivered) I needed (hopefully).

The part should arrive next Wednesday. Fingers crossed. Here are some photos I took . . .

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