braking on big mountains...
Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by elharrison, Feb 8, 2008.
Page 18 of 29
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I wanted to revived this thread cause this subject came up on a differ one. Here we go..........
Do you Fan your brakes on mountain passes or ride them ? I ride my all the way down with right gearing and watching the pressure gauge but usually could tell by feel of the pedal. I've tried fanning(applied pressure till slow enough and release, etc) and I smoke them. My theory is fanning them is like for example trying to light up a bar b que grill with charcoal, what we usually do is after we light it we get a cardboard and start fanning the charcoal to get it going, RIGHT ? Well when your doing the samething to your brakes, applying pressure, there is no air between the brake lining and drum, then when you release your brakes now air gets in between the lining and drum then you apply pressure again you create more heat the samething you do your bar b que grill. Does this make sense, cause I lost myself somewhere..... Anyway's...... and not to mention, I refering to grossing your max weight WITHOUT jakes. I did it back in my rookie year's down the grapevine in Cali northbound on a 318 jimmy with no jakes. Jakes was a luxury option back in the day's. Today all the newbie's won't touch a truck with out one.BigJohn54 Thanks this. -
You are right DD. Apply constant pressure to your brakes. I prefer about 3-5psi application. Anymore and I'd be thinking about dropping a gear. Let the engine and jakes do the work. It's a hell of a lot easier to speed up than it is to slow down.
Diesel Dave and Mud Dog Thank this. -
With my truck, I select a gear lower than the gear I used to climb it with. Most of the time this is 5th gear. Eastbound I-70 going into Denver I'll need to bring it to 4th. Granted I may be the slowest truck on the road, but I'll have brakes at the bottom, as I don't need to do anything with my service brakes all the way down the hill.okiedokie, mtnMoma and Diesel Dave Thank this. -
My first run solo was canada to california through montana, idaho, nevada, over donner into cali. It was middle of winter, snowing all the way and chains over donner. gotta say i was nervous at the least!! Ive done that run alot over the last 12 months and in the same and worse weather. I played around with different techniques for going through montana and down golconda pass in nevada and over donner. I have come to the conclusion that I prefer to go down in a low enough gear and only flick the jakes on to slow down when i need to and i dont even use the service brakes. Probably a bit over cautious but one time i wanted to see how it would go if i let her run down golconda one day in a higher gear and she just bout got away from me so i just go easy now.
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I still practice stab braking like I was taught and never had a problem. I'll go the yellow sign speed limit, drop 5 mph, yellow sign, drop 5........
The reason being is to allow a cool down period. Any cool down period is better than none.
Truck weight and the right gear plays a big role. I can go down Monteagle and brake three short times, everytime.
The ones that smoke em are in the wrong gear and put too much work on the brakes.mtnMoma, THBatMan8 and 07-379Pete Thank this.
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