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

Jakes work like this, for each cylinder in the engine you have an intake and an exhaust, the jake flips these, causing braking power by changing the intake and exhaust timing..

Jakes were designed and created for one reason, in the days before jakes, drivers were burning up their service brakes on mountain grades trying to keep their trucks at a slow enough speed to negotiate the grade..(Like on vale pass in colorado on I-70) Drivers would get their brakes so hot trying to stay slow when they needed to for their safety that when it came a time that they absolutely had to stop to avoid a collision their brakes were so hot they were worthless..it takes 2 minutes to cool a brake pad for every 2 seconds of hard braking on a truck the size of what we drive.

How big is that? 80,000 lbs..40 tons..that is 2/3rds the weight of the M-1 main battle tank the us army uses..and guess what..that jet turbine has a kind of jake brake on it too..because the US army even recognizes that sometimes, just brake pads ain't enough to slow that thing down..

If you four wheeler drivers paid attention to turn signals, brake lights, and road signs..some of us who run our jakes in heavy traffic areas in residential neighborhoods could shut them off..but they keep us from running you over when yall do something stupid by saving our brakes when you need them to save yours or your loved ones lives by not parking that 40 ton truck on top of your car when you pull out in front of us. Few people realize how many trucks went off vale pass before jakes were put in wide spread use, or how many trucks went off the side of cabbage or the grapevine "these are all mountain passes for you four wheeler drivers" Jakes were designed by request by the federal department of transportation as a safety option..much like air bags are still a safety option on all heavy trucks.

Four wheeler drivers need to realize..these trucks need SPACE..it takes us 3 football fields to stop from 60 mph without jakes..jakes CAN cut that in half if a driver has time to downshift..and can cut it by a third if he doesn't..300 feet could mean your life or your death..as well as the truck driver's and anybody else who might be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

If mosf of you four wheeler drivers sat and watched an 11 hour long tape of what a typical truck driver manages to avoid during a day just dodging all the four wheelers who blow yield signs, cut us off, etc..not only would you realize why we truck drivers are always stressed out, but why 99 percent of us leave chat jake on all the time if the roads are dry.

Bottom line, before you complain about another's driving habits..take a look at your own..you ain't perfect either..

If you got it..a truck brought it.
BKE

 

BKE Your post was great, i'm just adding my 2 cents here:

ivanhoe, Not to be rude, but what makes you think that you know what is our necessary or unnecessary need or use of Jake Brakes?
Well I can see both sides. I have baffles on mine and you probably would be hard-pressed to tell when I am using them (average 4 wheelers) However the unmuffled ones are a bit noisy and I don't believe they work anybetter than mine do, most drivers like the noise These are the same supertruckers that drive with inside night lights because they think they look cool doing it, and not for vision fatigue. However, the people that bad mouth us out there don't realize that everything they have, and including what they live in,heat with and eat, along the roads we have to drive, were in one way or another, delivered by a Truck, and if you want us to be safe (FMCSA Regulations) We need brakes that work and this means sometimes we need our Jakes, we just do. If that bothers you just imagine how much more upset you would be if we could not stop because our brakes were too hot, and we drove over your car when it cut us off or stopped short in front of us...Then you would be singing a different tune if you could sing at all after that.

We all have inconveniences we have to put up with and it sounds like you are complaining about progress, since you said you were on the highway before Jakes were invented, wow the equity in your home must be tremendous, i'd sell and move to the mountains, but beware of the chainsaws from the forresters, they are quite loud, and we don't want them to be able to cut any wood out there to build you another house, but your new home will be made of styrofoam and metal right? oops need trucks for that too.

 

motorcylces are alowed to run straight pipe for a safety reason so traffic will see them, but yes there are some hot rod obnoxious bikers.

 

I always ran straight pipes on my Harley to be a attention seeking ####### when I was in my 20s. I'm still a 40 something ####### but now I have learned to keep a low profile. lol

 

Hard lessons learned...

 

There is a new saying going around by several wives of drivers that I know and it goes like this "jake me baby....make me quiver". These women feel that that sound of the jake reminds them of their hubbys and they love to hear it....so all the mechanical/function stuff aside I do have to agree that the sound of a jake brings hubby to mind, even when I know he is several states away, so I guess I too like the statement.....

 

I must be different....I don't much care for the loud Harley's. I see them as an annoyance as much as the boom boxes are.
And Iam what you call young......

 

I love the rumble of a harley,....dont wanna ride one ever again thank you very much but the sound is nice....guess I am just odd....LOL.

 

Ya right! YOU probably have those invisible ear plugs too! :smt033