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So, the previous owner has converted the exhaust to a dual side exit on my truck. He only towed boats. I have since added a goose, and I regularly tow a loaded horse trailer. Twice I have ended up with a crushed drivers side rear brake line.
The exhaust is hitting the axle by the looks of it, causing the line to crush. The second time this was noticed, the shop finally asked me if I towed heavy in the bed, and said they would have to redirect the lines to avoid this happening again. So I hauled again yesterday, without crushing the line, but their "redirecting" still has the line directly in the line of the exhaust of it does hit the axle again. Loaded, I can just get my finger between the exhaust and the brake line. The location that the exhaust runs over the axle is just beside the brake line tee that mounts on top of the axle.
My question is, what would someone recommend to get these lines away from the top of the axle to avoid this issue from constantly reoccurring.
Besides there half *** reverting attempt, they also pulled the exhaust up higher and added a new hanger. My concern is the limited clearance between line and exhaust if I hit a decent bump in the road, or have active horses on the trailer causing the suspension to squat enough to crush again.
These photos are with trailer hooked, but no load in trailer. Not the best photos, but this is the work of a dodge dealership attempting to re route the lines, which is far from impressive
Just looking I believe you have greater problem, waiting around the corner, shock, brake line, fuel tank, as far as I can see there are no heat shields, as I believe that towing heavy will create a hot exhaust pipe, I would look into removing the exhaust and go back to stock, just my thought's, hot exhaust with plastic fuel tank and u have a "KABOOM"
I agree with the above post. Can't really fault the dealer, they are trying to work around a tailpipe that wasn't meant to go there. They could re-route the line so it comes out of the tee and runs across the rear of the axle tube to the brake hose, but I think it would still be vulnerable to damage. If it was mine, I think I would also change it back to a more original style of exhaust.
Definitely don't have a better idea than the dealer, just don't feel paying them to reroute a line would come back with the same hazard as before.
My thoughts were,
1. if the tee was turned front to back, run the Lin off the face of the axle like it is in the passenger side.
If the exhaust doesn't crush the line then vibration will eventually cause line to crack. Never seen brake line repair done so badly and I've been working on trucks 47 years.
04-15-2017, 10:24 AM
