the unnecessary usage of j-brakes, why????

I love engine retarders, I live 1/4 mile away from the 210 freeway here in Pasadena, Ca. The sound of a engine brake makes me sleep easy at night.

 

I agree with you,ivanhoe. The only time I use my jake is when I'm on a steep grade and feel I might be in danger of losing my stopping ability with my brakes. What really gets on my last nerve is when you're going through an area of sensitive people like the Georgetown or Vail areas of East California and you're not allowed to use your jake even though there's a good chance you could kill someone if your brakes fail. The scalemasters main duty at Lawson seems to be to check for smoking brakes. Now, if there's danger of causing an avalanche, that's a different story. I think most of the time it's the sensitivities of the socio-environmental elites that are the cause of stupid public policy.

 

Well, Colorado does have an 'unmuffled compression brake' law..

I can sympathize.. to a point.. with those who don't like listening to the roar of an unmuffled jake... it can be annoying.

MY take on it is - tough. Move. Or at least give some thought to where you are moving when you do.

Lurch's rules of thumb for a new home:

1) never closer than 2 miles to an interstate
2) never closer than a mile to a US Highway
3) Hills - more = better - between home and highway

There are other rules, but not germane to this conversation.

 

I run my engine brake all the time regardless of what the law says. Mainly because I drive a truck with a muffler and my jake is no louder slowing down than it is when accelerating.

 

But they sound so KOOL when you're asleep in the truck stop when MORON comes through !

 

Yeah they sound so COOL when you asleep at 2am and the super trucker in a decked out pete next to ya fires the rig up. Now hes so cool hes got like 24 inch round pipes and its so loud he flys out of his parking spot at 100mph then lets the jakes scream and rattle every truck in the stop. I could hear this guy rapping on it for a mile after he got on the interstate. Just makes no sense at all, I mean you could tell this guy had been out for a while, and was old school but you would expect a little bit of respect from him. Sure you got a nice truck and it sounds cool, but noone wants to hear that thing screaming at 2am when you're trying to sleep. Have some respect and courtesy for eachother out there guys.

 

All right, enough of this ####, this has to be said. Before I proceed any further, let it be known, I do not believe in jake braking in residential areas, truck stops, rest area's, yards of any kind anywhere, and city centers.

Ivanhoe, I honestly really am not surprised to see people like you, unfortunately, you are not a rarity in today's society, though I wish you were.

Do you call the airport, and complain, when a plane fly's over your house, or over the store you buy grocery's at, because it offends your "delicate ears"?

Do you call the cop shop, when a police car goes speeding by your house with the sirens on to try and catch a criminal, because it offends your "delicate ears"?

Do you call the railroad when your sitting at a crossing, and that mile long train comes rolling through with that whistle on full bore, because it offends your "delicate ears"?

Obviously, I am sure the answer to those questions is no, and why is that? Because those people, need those loud noise making machines, to do there job properly, and the simple fact of the matter is, we NEED our jake brakes, whether you like it or not. You can look out your window, and watch a driver use his jakes, and he can have no car in front of him, no grade to negotiate, and you STILL can't say he has no reason to be using them. Do you want to know why?

Reason #1. You are not a truck driver. You do not hold a license to even operate these mammaths, so how do you honestly think you have the right to judge what that driver decides to do with HIS machine? Even if you did hold a license, you are not that driver, in that truck, at that very second.

Reason #2. Using your jakes, at every available chance, is called an efficient business. Do you pay for the brake jobs? No, you don't. That driver is saving on brakes, which in turn means, less brake shoes and drums needs to be created. That in turn, means less factories, using more energy, to make said brake components.

Using your jake brakes at every possible time (other than I mentioned above) IS the SMARTEST THING, YOU CAN DO, FOR YOUR EQUIPMENT, AND YOUR BUSINESS. NOT using them, is STUPID!

A jake brake is virtually free stopping power. The wear and tear from using a jake brake, is almost non-existant. When it is me who has to pay for the next brake job, sorry, but I don't give a #### if you want to hear my jake brake or not, that switch is coming on, live with it like you do the airplanes and the cop cars, and the trains, why? Because we need them, the noise they make, that's called life and industrialized society.

I have been in the same truck now, for 3 years, and I am STILL on the same set of brakes that were on when I got into this truck. Why? Because I use my jake every chance I get. I suppose you are also annoyed at drivers who take a long time to get up to speed? When I am getting up to speed, I take my sweet old time, I progressive shift, and I take 4 or 5 miles to reach 60 MPH. Guess what? My truck and it's fuel mileage, is in the top 5, of a fleet of over 200 trucks. The other 4 members, are long time truckers who understand how to drive a truck professionally, safely, and efficiently, I am only 22, but I learned from people like those 4, and now I have respect of 30 year veterans for how I drive, and my equipment.

You bug trucks because you see them close to you each day. You don't think about bugging airplanes because you just see it way up in the sky. You don't bug the cops because they are the cops. You don't bug the railroads, because you only get stopped by a train once a week, even though you might hear it 50 times in a week. Or maybe, you don't bug them because you think they are doing something useful, something we need? Yea, they are, but so are we.

The last thing is, you live by a highway? What on gods green earth do you expect your going to hear, NEAR A HIGHWAY?! If I moved next to a rail yard, I would expect to hear cars being kicked and engines roaring at run 8 all night long, that's what comes with the territory. That highway by your house, with those truckers that annoy you, oh so badly, is what keeps you alive. Those same truckers you complain about are delivering food, for ungrateful people like YOU to eat. They are delivering clothes, for people like YOU to wear. They are delivering gasoline to your local station, for people like YOU to pollute the earth with, but then claim us truckers are killing everything off for fun with our big diesel engines and 8 inch pipes.

All I have to say about people like you, is wow. I know right now, you, and maybe some others, are thinking, I am an ignorant truck driver, just like the type you dislike. No, don't get it wrong. I am a nice guy, I will do whatever I have to, to not wake up people, or hold them up, because that is trucker edicate that I was taught by professionals with pride. I will help anyone in genuine need.

You want jake brakes banished, then a tax for non-AZ/1A holders should be put in place, so you, joe public, can pay for my brakes next time, because you don't like my jakes.

Funny...I bet you'd love the sound of jakes after that.

 

i'll bet there is a sign close to where you live that says "no engine brakes" thats generaly where i turn mine on .. only because you liveing close to that road will not dictate how i drive !! take it any way you like.. i'll bet the sign wont say no motorcycles with loud pipes? i never could understand why someone would buy poperty next to a hiway build a house and then complain about the noise?

 

I completley agree with this post. I always wondered how its ok for motorcycles to be immune from the noise ordinances but trucks have to keep their paws off the jake.......makes alot of sense. Quite frankly, I cant stand the sound of most mortor bikes. I dunno, maybe its cause Im not a motorhead......

 

Most people just have to COMPLAIN!
Get over yourselves............................