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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dale Carter" data-source="post: 535283" data-attributes="member: 59785">Nelson is spot on. Consider this, brakes are engineered to stop and slow the vehicle, trannies are not. That said, I drove trucks equipped with exhaust brakes which were designed to use the engine compression to slow the vehicle. I could almost stop the truck that way, but keep in mind that is was designed for that use. Many small trucjk drivers downshift to slow becasue big trucks do it and they either think it is cool or it is an ingrained habit. As Grump says, it sounds cool too HAHAClutches and exhaust brakes in large trucks are extremely heavy duty. Increased fuel consumption is minimal becasue the throttle is closed and metering very little fuel.There are also other issues on higher mileage trucks including driveline lash due to normal wear in the u-joints, ring, pinion etc which could cause damaging loads when reversing the normal load on those items. Minor concern, but still there.</blockquote>