Trip Report: 2015 GMC 2500HD Diesel/Allison Exhaust Brake and Hill Descent

[hbillsmith]

In case anyone is interested, thought I'd throw out a little feedback on my latest experience with a new GMC 2500HD Diesel/Allison. Bought the truck last summer and picked up the new 5er (Wildcat 295RSX) this spring. Currently on a 2000 mile round trip from Dallas to Moab Utah, Pagosa Springs Colorado and Cloudcroft New Mexico.

Started with a CAT weight and my GVWR, GCWR, RAWR, FAWR, Payload and Tow Cap are all within Spec and safety margins between 10% to 17%.

This is my first tow into the mountains and canyons. My first pleasant surprise is how well the Diesel Exhaust Brake option works. Fantastic! I leave it on and manage speed with my cruise control. The EB kept me in control without hardly ever having to press the brake pedal.

My second pleasant surprise was how well Descent Control works. I had never used before but decided to give it a try as we descended down into Palo Duro Canyon. A 16% grade with sharp switch backs, recommended speed was 15mph. I flipped the Hill Descent Control lever and the console instructed me to slow speed to below 10mph (which I did). As soon as I fell below 10mph, the Hill Descent icon started flashing on the console and the truck took over management of the accelerator and brakes. All I had to do was steer. 10mph may seem like extremely slow but on narrow cliff roads it was plenty fast enough. My 5er followed the truck and all and all it ended up being a very easy descent. Once I reached to bottom of the canyon, I pressed the accelerator and Hill Descent turned itself off. I made it down with no overheating, no gear grinding, no problems.

[TURBS]

Saaaaweeet!

TURBS
08 duramax tuned n modded
2011 32bhok Sabre
2015 camping "11 nights"

[Sydvero]

You gotta love those chevy's!

[aceinspp]

Ya I love mine and it's not even a diesel Later RJD

[elind]

I used my Allison tow mode & exhaust brake in Colorado in May and love it coming across the 11,000 ft passes. DW was freaking out because I wasn't riding the brake. Just took awhile to figure it out.

[Claude002]

hbillsmith
Have aprox. the same weight as you 10,000 lowded up, (Crusader 290) and same truck, can you tell me at what level your brake controler is.
Thanks

[hbillsmith]

I've been using it at 4 1/2

[Claude002]

Your lucky i'm at 7 at 41/2 I can't even fell any brakes and they are not used up, only 7500 miles on the rv brakes, the truck as 800 miles,thanks for the input, I was thinking of raising to 7.5 but wanted to confirm with someone with the same weight before changing, I guess I should be ok.
Regards
Claude

[Claude002]

Hbillsmith
Sorry forgot to mentioned about your experience about the exaust braking system, sounds terrific, living in the East dont think I will ever use it, no Mountains just Hills, but it was interesting to learn what the Truck is capable of doing without sttruggling.

[doc73]

Have my brakes set to 6.5 I think. Just towed through western PA and loved the EB. You might be surprised how much you use it. When getting off the highway and into rest stops and such I never needed to even touch my brakes, truck stopped with just the EB practically. I'm around 9500 or so in my best guess.

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[Platokidd]

Originally Posted by sydvero

you gotta love those chevy's!

and how x2