Lowering the exhaust stack yourself

[Sculptor]

Has anyone changed their exhaust stack to a horizontal weedburner, as in do it yourself?   Mechanically, I think I can do it.  I worry about having an error meltdown or worse, it won't start.  I would be interested to hear, even if the truck was not the same make.

I have seen the informational videos by Gregg, they are pretty clear.  But I think there might be more to it since Jack's previous truck was older than mine so the requirements changed I'm sure.  Building your own hauler #6 and #21.  

I'm told the length and number of bends needs to stay the same.  I get that but my exhaust stack is too long to use ALL of it horizontally.  

Mine is a 2013 with all the errors and potential errors you might expect.  I would like to know more before I commit by cutting steel.  

Thanks in advance for advice and links.  

Kevin

[NTPA Announcer]

I converted mine on our 2006 with no problem. Just secure it good and watch where you're tip come out . I used a resonator from a big truck shop instead of a muffler. . Not quite as restricting  and no drone in the cab at all.  Get under there, take your pad with you and draw it out.  Measure your bends and cut away ! 

 

 You'll be just fine

Pictures are our best tutorial on here. Make sure to post quite a few !!

[Scrap]

On other brands if you have a RH Under you should probably do it right and buy a low route inlet pipe & elbow, new decomp tube (used truck probably needs one anyway) and a new horizontal outlet elbow.  Then pull the whole thing off the frame with a floor jack and scatter it all over the shop floor, unband, and reconfigure it to low route horizontal.  If it is a crossover system then all you gotta do is take down all the vertical tailpipe stuff and just stuff a pipe in the end of the SCR can.

In my world if it is going to be horizontal it has got to have a diffuser on the end of it.    You are pretty safe to do what you want with your tailpipe after the NOx & PM sensors so if it works out you can probably take a vertical setup and just change the tailpipe.  Only thing is you CANNOT set it up so any bit of water goes down the tailpipe and gets into the NOx and PM sensors.  Not the connector but the sensor tip itself.  It kills them fast.  The worry isn't so much all the codes when you key on the first time, it is all the problems 10K miles later....

[Star Dreamer]

We converted ours on our 2005 Freightliner. but being that it may not have the same emissions items as yours you may need to do it differently.

We used our stock exhaust muffler from the vertical stack added some elbows and short piece of pipe and used our Chrome stack as the exhaust tip out the side of the truck

[Dollytrolley]

Sculp,

Turn off your gas-ax for a moment..........ponder why do you want (or) need a weedburner exhaust??

When I became a slave to the Dollytrolley it already had a fairly nice weedburner exhaust on it so I was glad to not to do that chore.......however........weedburner might be the Rage in many RV groups but weedburners do have some draw backs and I suspect the advantages are likely over stated by many RV-Geeks.......

Out here in the Western U S once you leave the freeways you often encounter truck stops where overflow parking is NOT paved and pulling out into a fine-dust parking spot with a weedburner blowing dust around is a good way to get shot by a guy  driving of a new shiney BLACK truck........

In congested city streets folks walking in the sidewalks hate weedburners and bike riders give you both fingers while they steer with their knees.........

Once at a Kalifornia AG inspection station my weedburner gassed the entire office staff out of the station when my idle fumes were sucked into the station Air Conditioner intake.......bad juju......some of those folks pack heat.....Gulp.....

Ponder where your waste products are headed.........

 

Drive on...........(bikers hate the .........Dollytrolley)

[Sculptor]

8 hours ago, Scrap said:

Only thing is you CANNOT set it up so any bit of water goes down the tailpipe and gets into the NOx and PM sensors.  Not the connector but the sensor tip itself.  It kills them fast. 

Thanks Scrap.  I have already "coded" one NOX sensor somehow.  Might be a coincidence but it was the day I washed it at the quarter car wash while it was running. I located and pulled the plugs to inspect for water or corrosion but they both are clean.

We have a RH single exhaust. It leaves the DPF, rises to run along the top of the frame rail, S curves over to the stack location, then straight up.  I'm pretty sure it's a straight pipe with no muffler.  ( while looking at prices, I noticed mufflers are tagged with a warning, not for DPF systems, I assume this is true across the board.)

[Sculptor]

7 hours ago, Dollytrolley said:

Out here in the Western U S once you leave the freeways you often encounter truck stops where overflow parking is NOT paved and pulling out into a fine-dust parking spot with a weedburner blowing dust around is a good way to get shot by a guy  driving of a new shiney BLACK truck........

In congested city streets folks walking in the sidewalks hate weedburners and bike riders give you both fingers while they steer with their knees.........

Once at a Kalifornia AG inspection station my weedburner gassed the entire office staff out of the station when my idle fumes were sucked into the station Air Conditioner intake.......bad juju......some of those folks pack heat.....Gulp.....

Thanks DollyTrolly ,  added these to the list of "things I haven't considered".  The dust problem had crossed my mind.  Now I can envision many campground dramas to parallel your truck stop scenario.

To answer the question, mainly to enlarge the future drom box space, not really for aesthetic reasons but that's an afterthought.

 

[GlennWest]

I agree with Dolly. Sometimes that weed burner is a pain. I did mine to make room for a drom, which has not made it on truck yet. I was also concerned smut might get on camper.  Also if truck parked in front of our Teton and I run engine,some  fumes will get in home. If I had it to do over I would have modified bracket and left it vertical.

[ARGO]

My VNL came with a weedburner factory. It is a drum right behind the right fuel tank, and shot under the frame. Wanting to avoid the dust storm, I flipped it over & cut a hole thru the fairing to exhaust out the side. Still a little dust, but so does your fan if it kicks in. (If you want my VIN to price it out PM me, but it says "Volvo" right on it............)

Bikes, Fiats, Mazda Miata's can give me the "international sign of contempt" all they like, I'm LEGAL and there's always somebody not happy about SOMETHING. 

[Shifted]

I converted mine to a weed burner.  The tip is pointed at an angle toward the center of the truck.  I've been on plenty if dirt and gravel roads, lots and campgrounds.  As long as I just idle, there is no noticeable dust beyond the tire pickup.  Since I can start in 3rd if I want, that has been plenty fast enough for those situations.  On gravel roads at speed, the tires kick up more dust than the exhaust.

I would absolutely do it all over again.  Love the setup.  Quiet, and no lost bed space.

 

[GlennWest]

Well to be honest, never had anything else. It was done with bed build. Agree with tires being as bad with dust. It coming in camper my only grip. If exhausting overhead this wouldn't happen. 

[Sculptor]

11 hours ago, Shifted said:

I converted mine to a weed burner.  The tip is pointed at an angle toward the center of the truck.  I've been on plenty if dirt and gravel roads, lots and campgrounds.  As long as I just idle, there is no noticeable dust beyond the tire pickup.  Since I can start in 3rd if I want, that has been plenty fast enough for those situations.  On gravel roads at speed, the tires kick up more dust than the exhaust.

Thanks Shifted,  I am close to being right on the fence on this now.  Your comment in favor helps.  I started to imagine many situations where I would not want uncontrolled dust.    Do you idle while parked for long stretches?  With the exhaust sort of diffused, that nearly eliminates one problem.   Any accumulation trouble with the fumes?

We aren't likely to camp and idle the truck to keep warm/cool.  We are more likely to stop at an unpaved truck stop for a few hours and idle.   Might be better to wait awhile and travel a bit?  

[Hot Rod]

You can eliminate all those problems (except for the pissed off bicyclists) by going horizontal out the side of the bed like a diesel pusher.  Plus no soot under the truck to ruin your day when you have to work on it.

[13speed]

Why would the exhaust pipe create a dust problem? I have the factory "weedburner" option and don't have dust issues??? The air purge valve is the big dust maker not the exhaust. As for pissing people off, maybe the pre emission peeps could have a smoke issue but not someone with a 2013....they are smoke free!

[RandyA]

Why do you want/need to change?  I tought about doing the weed burner thing on my truck for a long, long time.  Yes, it would give me more room on the bed for a drom box but that was the only advantage I could think of.  I have never built the drom box anyway.  I asked myself why the exhaust came off the top of the truck in the first place.  It must be important or all makes of semi-tractors would not have stacks - they would have exhaust like box trucks.  Then, I noticed some city bus' with stacks.  Black smoke that came out of the exhaust when a bus pulled out from a stop was not choking folks at head level or nearby motorists.  A local safety inspection guy told me that without the stack the exhaust would have to exit at least 4' behind any compartment that could carry passengers.  Makes sense but I could never find the equipment rule he was quoting from that specifically applied to HDT tractors - just for PUs and cars.  I concluded that exhaust particulate gunk was more likely to accumulate on the doghouse part of the fiver with a lower exhaust exit that a tall one.  Heat rises and air pressure of a moving tractor keeps gunk off the front cap of the fiver with a stack.  I finally decided that there was no reason for me to change.  Besides, Volvo says not to alter the exhaust so that it would change back pressure.  Volvo also advises not to use a different muffler on the truck.  The reason was the OEM designed back pressure was keeping the EGR functioning properly.  New muffler/resonator, bends, clamps, supports, SS 5" diameter pipe and new SS 2' flex all added up to a BIG hunk of $$$.  IMHO, $$$ better spent on something I really needed.  Then I saw a PU with stacks added behind the cab.  That made me laugh.  They took an OEM weed burner type of exhaust and converted to a stack like a big truck.  So, do I really want to change mine to look like a PU?   Just my humble opinion.  I finally decided that If you don't have to create additional space behind the cab (which I don't) leave the stack alone.  Mother Volvo knows best . 

[Shifted]

11 hours ago, Sculptor said:

Thanks Shifted,  I am close to being right on the fence on this now.  Your comment in favor helps.  I started to imagine many situations where I would not want uncontrolled dust.    Do you idle while parked for long stretches?  With the exhaust sort of diffused, that nearly eliminates one problem.   Any accumulation trouble with the fumes?

We aren't likely to camp and idle the truck to keep warm/cool.  We are more likely to stop at an unpaved truck stop for a few hours and idle.   Might be better to wait awhile and travel a bit?  

I usually don't idle for more than an hour or so at a time.  Never had an issues whatsoever with fumes.  Not even a little.

A few years ago I had a flat and parked in a dirt lot and idled for a couple of hours waiting on the service truck.  No issues with dust at all.

The only issue that I've ever had was when a dinky little flow through muffler was on there.  It didn't attenuate much sound and was very loud, even in the cab.  I put the largest Walker Noisebreaker on that I could fit, and it has been truly awesome.  It is so quiet that the first time I took it out with the new muffler I was worried the truck had shut off.  It's not silent, but compared to before, it's pretty nice.  I highly recommend that muffler if your truck can accept it.

With respect to the why of it...I have a flat bed mounted behind the sleeper.  The weed burner exhaust enables me to have the bed as tight to the sleeper as possible, reducing my overall length.  For me, that's a big deal.

[GlennWest]

Concerning my statement about fumes. I never smell them. My DW does. She has a very sinceitive nose.

[Pat & Pete]

7 minutes ago, GlennWest said:

Concerning my statement about fumes. I never smell them. My DW does. She has a very sinceitive nose.

I can see that . Diesel fumes are perfume compared to welding fumes .

[GlennWest]

Yes, my smelller not too good. Plants, welding, chemicals, wonder I smell anything less than pugnemt. . 

[Sculptor]

9 hours ago, GlennWest said:

Concerning my statement about fumes. I never smell them. My DW does. She has a very sinceitive nose.

I smell pretty good most of the time.  😏  But if the clean clothes in the camper smell like anything but fresh laundry...  I got big trouble.     

[I'mdonewiththis forum]

2 hours ago, Sculptor said:

I smell pretty good most of the time.  😏 

So you say........

[Sculptor]

23 hours ago, Mntom said:

So you say........

I'm middle-aged and short for my weight too.   😉😉

[Scrap]

Modeling clay stinks too........  You are doomed!