Let`s face it. For those of us who drive a Cummins powered Ram as a daily driver, active regeneration cycles are just part of the day to day experience of ownership. If you're like me, you use your truck for both daily commutes as well as occasional or intermittent towing / hauling. This type of use results in some trips not generating the conditions necessary for passive regeneration to occur and a resulting increase in soot building within the DPF. It is this type of use that makes active regeneration cycles necessary. In order to maintain the cleanliness of our DPF`s, active regeneration cycles are the "necessary evil" of diesel ownership today. And before you say it, no I`m not interested in the almighty "delete". Yes, that's correct, I`m actually satisfied leaving the truck as it was designed. Do I like emissions systems for diesels? No, of course I don't. I'd prefer to live today as I lived back in the 90's and early 2000's; Nothing but clean cold air on the intake side, and nothing but a straight pipe full of black, carbon-laden exhaust on the other side. But let's be real for a minute, those days are gone and they aren't coming back. Sorry folks but the emissions systems are here to stay. Moving on. The downside to these active regeneration cycles is that we have very little control over when they occur. For pickups, these cycles will begin in one of two circumstances. The first is on a time-based schedule. Roughly every 24 hours of engine operation, the engine will enter the active regeneration cycle. The second is based on the amount of soot detected within the DPF. Differential pressure sensors are used to calculate how much soot is clogging the filter and when a threshold amount is reached, the system will trigger the active regeneration cycle to begin the cleanout. These cycles, whether triggered by time, or by soot load, never seem to happen when it is convenient. They either start a few minutes before you reach your destination, or they begin during slow speed driving. In either case, the system is designed to "pause" and "resume" if you should put the truck in park or shut it off, however this back and forth process can sometimes lead to excessive regeneration attempts, multiple failed attempts, or inevitably a DPF that fills up, requiring trips to the dealer for "stationary de-soot" or "parked regenerations" If you are like me, you often find yourself driving aimlessly down the interstate for an additional 20 - 30 minutes in order to allow these scheduled cycles to complete. This results in excessive wear and tear on the truck, a fruitless consumption of very expensive fuel, and an absolute waste of time...a commodity we all have in short supply. Wouldn't it be nice if we pickup owners could have some control over when these cycles start? Luckily, Ram has introduced the option to manually engage an active regeneration cycle. The downside to this? It is only available on cab and chassis trucks. That's right...you can order a 3500, 4500, or 5500 cab & chassis with the option to manually trigger an active regeneration cycle. This is a great feature because it allows the user to have some control in when these cycles start. Think about it; you could actually have the truck perform the regeneration at the point in your trip where it will actually have time to complete. No need to pause it, no need to keep driving aimlessly to wait for the cycle to finish. The only problem right now is that this feature is only available to cab and chassis trucks. The pickup trucks do not have this feature, and it is not available to order either. Lets let @RamCares know it is time for Ram to offer this as an option for all new pickups, as well as an "update" that can be added to any current truck. I feel this would be an option countless thousands of users would willingly purchase if it were made available and reasonably priced.
EDIT: Prior to writing this, I was unaware that the "manual regeneration" option on the cab and chassis trucks required the vehicle to be stationary. This means you would effectively be completing a parked regeneration. While that may be a useful option or tool for some users, that is different than what I would be advocating for in this post. My intent, and what I would like to see developed, is an option for our trucks that would allow users to preemptively initiate an active (automatic) regeneration cycle while driving, rather than being forced to wait for either the 24 hour timer, or the DPF differential pressure threshold. Just wanted to be clear and correct my previous error. Thanks for reading and I appreciate your constructive input as always!
EDIT: Prior to writing this, I was unaware that the "manual regeneration" option on the cab and chassis trucks required the vehicle to be stationary. This means you would effectively be completing a parked regeneration. While that may be a useful option or tool for some users, that is different than what I would be advocating for in this post. My intent, and what I would like to see developed, is an option for our trucks that would allow users to preemptively initiate an active (automatic) regeneration cycle while driving, rather than being forced to wait for either the 24 hour timer, or the DPF differential pressure threshold. Just wanted to be clear and correct my previous error. Thanks for reading and I appreciate your constructive input as always!
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