i have buddies that straight piped their third gens they are too loud

you can't let thing warm up the Am, you can't have a conversation outside the truck in driveway


i decided long before i did it that was going to run a muff of some kind

the maganflow gave it a nice rumble when its appropriate

i will not admit to getting old, although i am, i have always appreciated a good sounding exhaust note, louder is not always better

 

I've got the 34" (or is it 36"?) Donaldson on my truck. Pretty quiet in the cab and not too loud outside, just a mellow big rig sound. With a load on, it's a bit more noticable, but not bad. I think I paid $60 or so at a Freightliner dealer for it.

 

My 05 sounds great straight piped, still have the kitty on it so it helps with way less resonance compared to a buddies 04 without the cat.
Almost no drone, only time is really when the convertor locks up, cruising at 70-75mph, no drone at all....

 

Yeah, I keep forgetting that the 04 and prior trucks don't have a kitty, so that changes the sound a lot.

 

ZILLA The reason you could not handle it was the way you went about making the pipe straight. The flex pipe with clamps is a whole different sound than a true piece of muffler pipe that is bent and welded in. I have dealt with this issue of flex pipe on several trucks and also equipment. I think you would like it if you got it done with true muffler pipe and true welds. Had this done on 5 cummins over the years... try it before you put the muffler on...

 

You may be right but the piece of pipe I had pretty much filled the gap between the intermediate pipe and the tailpipe. The flex pipe only connected the two together.
On a funnier note, I had a 70 R/T Challenger 440 a few years ago with a nicely built engine in it. I got the big 2.5" headers for it and wanted a 3" exhaust. I was too cheap to get a real exhaust made so I got me some 3" Flowmaster 2-chamber mufflers and went to the big truck store and got lots of 3" pipe and flex pipe and made my own!! Talk about loud!! And talk about cheesy!!! It held up though......

 

I can't remember if mine was a 3.5" with the ends sized out or not, but it was more than loud enough. It will be louder next week.

 

Well now I couldn't take the quiet of the Magnaflow muffler so I'm back to being straight piped!! I think this may grow on me...

The strange thing is that no matter how loud it sounds to me, it doesn't seem to bother others around me. People don't close their windows or give me dirty looks or anything... Maybe it's not as loud as I think it is......