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

Driving in areas that restrict engine brakes, or when trying to avoid lite brake pressure and heat soak, the fan is very useful.

While I will still use my jakes, despite signage if needed, that 20 some HP that a fan takes to run up around 1900 works pretty well.

These days I turn it on for any downgrade. I am running dump in a ski town so that is all the time.

 

why cant, as a last resort, just kill the engine, at least with a standard.im probably missing something. I remember a family in a toyota had a runaway throttle and couldnt stop. they all died. I thought why not turn it off?

 

Some people wouldn't fare well with a loss of power steering and power brakes.

 

What gear and rpm do you use if your Kenworth smartwheel is intermittently losing power and leaving you with no jakes?

 

Whatever gear keeps that thing from running away. If I had that problem, I would drive as though the jakes didn't even exist. It might cost 5-10 minutes over the course of the day... not enough to kill your productivity.

 

It depends on what motor you are running. Newer motors can sustain 2300-2400 rpm while the engine/turbo brake is engaged. They really don't start working until 1900 rpm or so.

Personally, if it's 55, I would shoot for 50mph at 1900 rpm and then use the different stages of the engine brake to adjust the speed. You might need to tap the brake once or twice for a corner.

I remember running down cabbage/immigrant in 8th at 55 only needing the brake for one corner. But that's on a 10spd, there is always one more gear to shift on a 10... 9,13,15,18 speeds got it right...

 

I just saying in a dire emergency going down hill the gears and dead engine may slow you down to a non fatal speed. Brakes? They failed. Steering? Just trying to stop. Stupid sounding? Yes

 

There is ZERO benefit to turning off the motor unless the throttle is stuck. Older trucks with mechanical motors might see a tiny change as they still inject some fuel at idle, but in NO CASE is it going to make enough difference to make a runaway more survivable.

 

How bout an anchor

 

More effective than flip flops!