Coming into a hill too fast, no warning signs

you can never drive fast enough down or up hill to make a car driver happy so don't try they will never appreciate that you picked up one gear.
While the new cummins smog motors have their issues the Jake breaks work great so for me coming down hill I run what ever speed the jakes will hold me without touching the breaks

 

It’s not the brake fluid heating up that causes the failure

it’s the drums hearing and expanding , that when they get hot enough will expand so much than the shoes won’t touch them , thus no brakes .

it’s always been a discussion with differing opinions , but I was taught and have always used , in trucks and in cars , the method of getting on the brakes pretty hard and slowing down , and then off the brakes to let them cool .

if you never let off ,and give them a chance to cool
The brake drums just get hotter and hotter

 

Then go for it your way.
I’ll ease by like I’ve done other trucks parked on shoulder or in sand, brakes either smoking or blazing, shaking my head, like I usually do.

 

I was behind a guy smoking his brakes like that. He didn’t have a CB either, or at least didn’t respond when I was telling him about the problem. I wonder if he even knew about the hazard or not. Ignorance is bliss I guess.

 

I suppose you can do that but that wears your brakes out much faster.

Myself, and trying to pick a deer that the jake brake to slow me down to such a point that I can just very gently slow the truck down and then let the truck pick up speed a little bit and let the brakes cool.

I do not constantly ride them but at the same time I don't hit them hard at all.

To the op, if you are unfamiliar with the roads you should slow down some. As soon as you see the hill in front of you immediately try to slow down and downshift.

Your brakes are cool when you first see the hill and that is your best shot for slowing down before you descend. Once you build up speed going down the hill that's a bad situation.

 

Light steady pressure has always worked for me. And I was taught years ago in a White 4000 with NO jakes!

 

where in washington you running at ? they arent very good at marking curves and grades when you get off the interstate so i can see the trouble you are running into especially at night ! the best thing to do is if you find yourself going to fast, then hit the brakes hard enough to slow down to downshift , repeat the process until you are in the right gear. the cdl manual will tell you to never downshift on a grade, but that advice will get you killed ! also another thing to think about is most downgrades will have a hill before it. but not always. if you find yourself having to drop a gear or 2 to get over a hill, then as soon as you crest the hill, dont start grabbing gears, wait it out until you can see what the hill is going to do, whether thats flatten out or start going back down. also, dont worry about those effing 4 wheelers behind you ! they dont have the skill to drive a truck in the mountains so let them get pissed off and do what they do. just focus on maintaing control over your truck, and getting up and down hills safely.

 

How about getting the Jake fixed????

 

brake drums are made to dissipate heat over their surface area. the 10 psi rule works. they wont continue to heat up. yes they will be hot. but they wont even be close to burning up. there was a time when trucks didnt have jakes and that is the technique they used. i have experimented with it running down a 9 mile quarry haul road, without a jake. some spots of the road are around 12% some are flat some are 6%... 10 psi or less on the brakes, made it down safely everytime, no matter if i was 80k or pushing it at 90k-95k, just drop another gear if were gaining to much speed. drums are hot when we reach the bottom, but not smoking. its good to try different techinques so you learn whats good and whats bad as well as if the jakes go out in the truck you need to know how to safely get down the mountain without one

 

That's me. If I can't hold a gear, I'm on the brakes hard enough to downshift like yesterday.