Down hill jake braking, what speed and gear do you use?

Could u imagine some of these new drivers running a truck without Jake's? There would be crashes everyday

 

Around here anything that steep usually has a 25mph corner at the bottom with a rock cut or lake for a background. Out west is pretty much the same. It’s all where you’re at. You’re not running off the 6% in the Fraser Canyon at 55mph. But at the same time having a speed restriction for 80,000lb trucks on something like Siskiyous is ridiculous.

 

Y'all offering gear choices without specifying what engine you're running are going to get someone killed! What any ISX and newer Cummins can do is going to leave you in a cloud of smoke with another brand of engine.

77k, 6% and a Detroit? Most likely 35 - 40 mph with the rpm around 2000. You might get away with low 40's on speed if your Jake is a strong one. Depending on your gearing that's probably going to be 5H or 6L.

 

The question is:
Is the chance of missing a gear on a downhill and ending up running away worth the 3 or 4 minutes you will gain going down the hill 1 gear faster? Are you confident enough in your shifting that you can swiftly and smoothly upshift on a downhill flawlessly or recover from a flawed shift?

 

If something is going to go bad on you descending, or climbing for that matter, it’ll probably be one of those unplanned shifts sets it all off. I plan around being in the right one first off, or plan my shifts around places I know I can make them with little risk. Like from the brake check at the top of Anarchist down into Osoyoos. I do that whole grade at 25mph with big weight, but in 3 different gears different places on the hill. It’s benched off enough on the switches to get in a shift pretty comfortable.

 

I agree but I was responding to a "question from a light class operator" not a experienced operator. Once a driver gets a bit of experience then my answer would be different.

 

I learned creeping off grades with the wheel brakes too. One of my biggest shocks was discovering how fast a diesel could take off on you. I drove a couple of gassers a while before I was allowed in the big trucks. For a long time moving my dads 8’s or 35ton P+H crawler I used a 534 Super Duty tractor instead of a 2000D he had with a 220 in it. That farm implement scared the living #### out of me the first time I moved anything heavy with it.

 

Trucks are different one from another. One fells like you're dragging an anchor while the other feels like the jakes don't do anything but make noise.

I personally set the engine brakes on high and let it hold me back. I'll go 50-55 and let the speed creep up about 5mph higher and with a short (3-5 seconds) and light press of the break bring the speed back down. Anymore breaking than that and I'm going to fast and need to slow it down.

I'm currently in a automatic.
Use manual mode to select what gear to be in. You want a lower gear to up the RPM so the engine break will hold you back. Need a little more speed or RPM is to high just shift up. Starting to go to fast again then just shift down. Save your breaks.