Let's Talk Regen

[jpaeth]

So my new RAM 3500 is my first ever diesel truck. So all I know about the regen process, I have heard from friends or read online. I was under the impression that the trucks had to maintain at least 50 mph during the regen process to be functional.
I love having the gauge in the instrument cluster that show the level of the DPF, as well as when it is actively in regen mode. I watched the first couple regen cycles and it happened to kick off when I expected, the filter was about half capacity, and I had hit the highway and held speed for about 15 minutes when it started regen. 20 or so minutes go by, and the gauge pops back up showing an empty filter. All is good and as expected. Then on the 3rd or 4th cycle, I was driving down the road and it said it was in regen mode... hmm, well I did get up to 50 back there a minute ago, maybe that initiated it and now it has to finish, even though I'm in stop and go traffic.
I made a few stops and stopped and started the engine in the process. I expected the regen to cancel , after all the filter was less than half full.. its not critical at this point, right? Well the message stays on the dash through about 30-40 more minutes of stop and go. Its still up so I figure on my way home I will swing out to the freeway and make a little 20 minute loop to let it do its thing. Once I make it to the freeway, I'm at highway speeds for 3-4 minutes and the regen message goes away and Im showing an empty filter again.
I was thinking that it wouldn't be able to do any regeneration while in stop and go traffic, at idle essentially. But it must have... it took no time at all to finish when at highway speeds.
So that cycle was not what I was expecting, but I thought at least I must have gotten up to speed enough for the truck to think it was good to do it and then just committed to it once it started.
Now, the most recent cycle, I havent been over 40 mph in the past 2 days. I was driving yesterday and while stopped at a light, the message came up saying regen in process. I have been in stop and go all afternoon yesterday, and then this morning and its still going to regen as soon as I back out of the driveway. The filter gauge is coming up when i start it so I can see I'm under 1/4, so it is actually burning out some soot, just slowly. So for this cycle I am going to stay under 50 until it finishes just to see what it does.
I guess what I'm getting at, is, that it would seem these trucks can regen the exhaust system at low speeds around town, contrary to what I believed was the case.

 

[archer75]

I've never noticed the truck go in to regen. It just does it when it does it and I don't worry about it.

 

[jpaeth]

I guess I have been watching the filter since I have heard over and over that if you don't get the truck on the highway and let it regen, you will clog up your DPF and have major issues. I have heard this from Ford and Chevy guys. So I'm just stating my observations and seeing if anyone here knows exactly how a cummins actually regens

 

[archer75]

My truck is a daily driver. 4 years old and only 26,000 miles. My work is about 6 miles away each way. So it can go months at a time without ever seeing the freeway but it does fine.
I tow about 5-7 times a year and I figure it regens then. If I need to drive to the other side of town i'll usually take the truck for that reason. But around town on the weekends we take my wifes car everywhere.

If I haven't hit the freeway in a long time it will try and regen around town driving. Much more noticable on school buses in the area that may never hit the freeway. They'll regen around town and it's normal.

But anyways, no issues.

The inline cummins doesn't produce as much emission as the V8 diesels do. If ford or chevy run out of DEF they go in to limp mode but the rams don't as they're cleaner. They just won't regen until you fill it again which would eventually be problematic.

 

[jpaeth]

My truck is a daily driver. 4 years old and only 26,000 miles. My work is about 6 miles away each way. So it can go months at a time without ever seeing the freeway but it does fine.
I tow about 5-7 times a year and I figure it regens then. If I need to drive to the other side of town i'll usually take the truck for that reason. But around town on the weekends we take my wifes car everywhere.

If I haven't hit the freeway in a long time it will try and regen around town driving. Much more noticable on school buses in the area that may never hit the freeway. They'll regen around town and it's normal.

But anyways, no issues.

The inline cummins doesn't produce as much emission as the V8 diesels do. If ford or chevy run out of DEF they go in to limp mode but the rams don't as they're cleaner. They just won't regen until you fill it again which would eventually be problematic.

Very interesting. I didn't realize there was such a difference between the engines from an emissions standpoint as well. Thanks for the info!

 

[jakebrake]

Well here is some info that I learned today.

1. I have a new ( three day old ) Longhorn 3500, 6.7 when it had 120 miles on it, the DPF gauge in the instrument cluster showed 30% ( full, blockage ) of a 100%. ( my 2018 Laramie didn't have this gauge ).

2. I took off on a road trip and drove 175 miles at highway seeds. and now this what the gauge looks like.

What does it take to get to 0% I wonder.

Anyone going through something like this.

 

[Omarf4]

Mine shows 0% ....? Weird...
2500 Laramie...

 

[jpaeth]

Well here is some info that I learned today.

1. I have a new ( three day old ) Longhorn 3500, 6.7 when it had 120 miles on it, the DPF gauge in the instrument cluster showed 30% ( full, blockage ) of a 100%. ( my 2018 Laramie didn't have this gauge ).

2. I took off on a road trip and drove 175 miles at highway seeds. and now this what the gauge looks like.

What does it take to get to 0% I wonder.

Anyone going through something like this. View attachment 980

That's interesting... did you have that gauge up when you were doing your highway driving? Did it ever say "Active Exhaust Regeneration in Progress"? It's possible that you were never to a point that it was forced to actively regen, it may have just taken the passive regen at highway speeds. I would keep that screen up for a while and watch it around town to see if it goes into active regen cycle.

 

[jakebrake]

That's interesting... did you have that gauge up when you were doing your highway driving? Did it ever say "Active Exhaust Regeneration in Progress"? It's possible that you were never to a point that it was forced to actively regen, it may have just taken the passive regen at highway speeds. I would keep that screen up for a while and watch it around town to see if it goes into active regen cycle.

I will, it did go down form 30% to 20%, ( but that took over 100 miles ) I have no idea if it went into Active Regen. with such low mileage, I can't figure it going all the way to 30%.

Have you pulled anything heavy within your mileage. and I did have the gauge on, and did see it drop.

 

[jpaeth]

I will, it did go down form 30% to 20%, ( but that took over 100 miles ) I have no idea if it went into Active Regen. with such low mileage, I can't figure it going all the way to 30%.

Have you pulled anything heavy within your mileage. and I did have the gauge on, and did see it drop.

I have a camper that is about 10k loaded up that I've pulled for around 850 of the 3400 miles on my truck. I have noticed that my truck usually goes into active regen when my DPF gauge shows just under 1/2. If I am driving around town in stop and go traffic, it can take a couple hours worth of driving to complete the regen cycle, and will continue over multiple days if needed. If I am on the highway it will complete in 20-30 minutes.

 

[NordicNevs]

I figured I’d chime in on this. I have had a number of trucks with emissions and all of them acted differently in some way shape or form.
2012 F350
2014 F250
2014 Chevy 2500
2015.5 Chevy 2500
2017 Ram 3500 HO
2019 Ram 3500 HO

My fords gave me few issues on the DEF and DPF regen process
My Chevys gave me serious headaches and the emissions fell off
My Cummins trucks never gave me an issue

The 2019 has many refinements. The gauge in the dash is a good addition but isn’t 100% accurate.

After 2800 miles of 90% city driving here is what I have noticed.
First no matter where you’re at your truck will go through a regeneration process. I have seen that regardless of freeway driving or stop and go traffic I am seeing the regeneration process take place. I recall the first time that I saw the notification regeneration in progress. I immediately went back to my Chevys and fords and got on the freeway. I originally thought that was the only way that I could clear that message when in fact that message will always display every time that your truck is going into regeneration. This happens at approximately 30% of your total DPF soot rate. I noticed on my way down from buying the truck which is about a 500 mile drive, my DPF soot didn’t go up very much at all. My assumption is this happens because of a passive regeneration the truck is constantly regenerating through the higher temperatures of higher speed driving as well as the characteristics of the load if you have one. Now my Chevys and fords would usually only go through regeneration process every so often. Realistically you would have to get up to higher speeds or be towing a trailer in order to have a really good burn and you would need to be in those scenarios for sometime usually 50 miles in order to have a full burn. The ram is now completely opposite of that. I will say that when the 2800 mile mark I have had to fill my DEF tank once. During this time I would’ve usually made it three times the distance in my Ford or Chevy. I actually think this is a good thing diesel exhaust fluid that sits in the tank for long periods of time it only gets used every so often has a tendency to corrode and corrupt the sensors and system as a whole. The fact that this truck drinks the DEF fluid shows me that the refinements have definitely been made to have a more frequent regeneration process resulting and better end-user benefits.

So the bottom line with these new trucks is that the emission system though similar in architecture has been refined substantially. It is better off for the user that it is this way and I think we’ll see some long-term benefits as a result. Regardless of location you’ll be able to go through the proper regeneration process. Unless under extreme circumstances and conditions of 1 to 2 miles a day heavy and frequent starts stops and not getting up to speed I anticipate very little problems with the omission system as a whole. This truck so far has been better than my other vehicles with the similar in emissions systems.

For those of you with the gauge questions you will see it go up you will see it go down. sometimes it will go down to zero and you’ll start your truck up and you’ll be back at work looks like 15 to 20% so keep in mind it is only an indicator it is not a and I’ll be all or realistic measurement tool.






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[EZTundra77]

This is good info. I am having s trange experience. My DPF guage has never jumped above zero. I had it on for the last 2 weeks just to double check that it didnt move. I have never seen the regen message come up. I use the standard amount of DPF (kind of high but I agree that that's a good thing.)

 

[Marshfly]

This is good info. I am having s trange experience. My DPF guage has never jumped above zero. I had it on for the last 2 weeks just to double check that it didnt move. I have never seen the regen message come up. I use the standard amount of DPF (kind of high but I agree that that's a good thing.)

What kind of driving do you do?

 

[flan]

My gage never showed above zero either and with 1200 miles on it while towing my camper it did a passive regen. Took 19 miles on the highway and it finished up. Didn’t notice any difference in the performance, if it weren’t for having the gage up and the message coming across I never would of known.

 

[EZTundra77]

What kind of driving do you do?

I've only got 7k miles on it so far. 1/2 of that was pulling a 14k dump trailer. it's mixed driving. Mostly highway and 50 MPH country roads. Some city stop and go. Some off road.

 

[EZTundra77]

My gage never showed above zero either and with 1200 miles on it while towing my camper it did a passive regen. Took 19 miles on the highway and it finished up. Didn’t notice any difference in the performance, if it weren’t for having the gage up and the message coming across I never would of known.

I suppose it's possible it regens without me realizing it.

 

[NordicNevs]

I suppose it's possible it regens without me realizing it.

It certainly does and it can come and go without you noticing
This is a good thing. The only thing that tells you it has happened is A) you can see over time your DEF level decrease and B) The DPF Soot level gauge will let you know

 

[EZTundra77]

I was very curious so I put the DPF filter guage on and just left it. I towed a few heavy loads. Nothing. No soot build up registered. Then it happened...BAM Active regen. message came up. But no light or anything. Just the message and only when I was in the DPF gauge screen. If I switched back to any other screen, the message disappeared. The truck didn't drive any different. And it has yet to register anything on the DPF guage. Maybe that's a long term build up indicator?

 

[Burn'n Oil]

On the way home yesterday and for sh_ts and giggles, I brought up the DPF screen and noted it was just above 50 percent. I left the screen up when I shut the truck down. Shortly after driving away this morning, the “Regen in Progress” screen popped up. Hmmm… let’s follow this. I had a couple or three stops to make and I wasn’t sure if that would mess with the process. Let’s find out. At the first stop I noted that the “Regen in Progress” screen switched to the DPF screen when the tranny was shifted to park. For the h_ll of it, I shifted the tranny back into drive (still stopped) and the “Regen in Progress” screen came back up a few seconds later. Fascinating! I stopped the truck, did my thing and was greeted with the DPF screen after flashing her back up although the gauge was now showing less than 50 percent. About a half to one min after driving off, “Regen in Progress” was back at it. This process repeated throughout my successive stops. About a km or so from the ranch and at about 60 km/hr, the “Regen in Progress” screen switched to the DPF screen but was still registering about 10 to 15 percent. The gauge went to zero about 30 seconds later. Distance travelled: no more than 25 kms. Elapsed time: about 45 min. Max speed: 80 km/hr. Conclusion: pretty much transparent and ya don’t need to be barrelling down the highway for this to work. And even after 12K kms, the truck still stinks if you stop midway through the regen process.

 

[jakebrake]

I too did in fact discover that at 3000 miles my regen gauge did show a regen driving around town at slow speeds. I I decided to keep the gauge showing on the dash and kept a eye on it for a few weeks just to confirm my discovery. All is well and I don't worry about it anymore, but do keep a eye on it.

I let my DEF tank almost go empty to check the cut-off- software. It does what the owners man said it would do. You get the message that speed will be reduced to 5 mph if not refilled in 250 miles. Then every time you drive another 25 miles you get a reminder of the same thing minus 25 miles.

When I got to 100 miles I refilled my tank with two boxes of Blue DEF which brought it up to about 90% full. Those two boxes were 5 gals. and I may have had one gal. left.