A vertical exhaust is usually on large 18 wheeled trucks or normal heavy-duty pickups. A normal exhaust travels under a vehicle from the engine to the back. Then there are side-mounted exhausts that go out the sides of the car rather than the back. You also have heavy-duty pickups and 18 wheelers and tractors. Exhausts, if you didn’t know before, are an important part of any vehicle because it transports combusted gases out of the car efficiently so the engine components don’t get clogged with carbon particles. To efficiently transport gases you can use performance exhaust systems for cars which not only would transport them efficiently but make your car sound manly as well.

As mentioned before there are only a handful of vehicles that have the vertical exhaust system because it is sometimes mandatory for them to have. Let’s take an example of a bus and an 18 wheeler. The main reason why they have vertical exhausts is because of the weight they carry. It could carry tons of weight at a time which can dramatically affect their ground clearance. If a speed breaker comes upfront the vehicle would hit its aide if its ground clearance is too low due to weight. So these vertical exhausts prevent that from happening. (The same applies for haulers)

Could Be Dangerous

The reason why a tractor has this is completely different than the ones mentioned before. Tractors are used for agriculture and the exhaust system pipes of any vehicle can get extremely hot. Though it might not be dangerous for vehicles that aren’t used in agriculture. Extremely hot exhaust pipes can be dangerous because of dry leaves.

Since dry leaves can catch fire in the blink of an eye and can cause mass damage to the agriculture site or a big mass of land which would then contribute to global warming which isn’t good either way. This genius idea of verticals is underrated in all ways because it helps in ways people haven’t comprehended yet. Another issue if the exhaust of the tractor faced down was that the gases would blow out below the driver (on the legs or bottom) which would make the driver extremely uncomfortable and it could be dangerous for him as well since it can reach serious injuries which could be fatal like a burnt body.

Benefit

There is however another benefit of having this as well. Especially in heavy offroad duty vehicles. There may be high levels of water in the site they are working on (also tractors) and that could get in the exhausts of the vehicle if it is down low which would cause the engine to clog up with mud and rocks. This would cost you an arm and a leg to fix which is a pain for anybody.

Cost-efficient

Last but not the least, it also saves some money for the manufacturer of the vehicle as they don’t have to make or buy long exhausts rather just smaller more compact ones which are coat efficient. 

This is what a vertical exhaust system can do for you.

Read: Muffler vs Resonator