How often did u use ur Jake Brake ?

ok ... so I'm lost....

some people love to use it, while other's don't ....

a family member of mine says he leaves it on all the time, but if my memory serves me right, I think they told us in school NOT to use it, only to use it for moving ure tandems and stuff ... so who's right?!?!

 

I think your talking about the johnny bar.

The brake people in this thread are talking about is the engine retarder.

Compression release brakes do not cause any more stress on the cylinder than when accellerating. The engine brake gets its stopping power due to no combustion, the engine does all of the work of compressing the air just for it to be released near tdc. Whereas when accelerating fuel is injected to send the piston down faster and when coasting the pressure in the cylinder itself helps push the piston back down however with the engine brake on, the pressure is released and there is nothing left to send the piston back down.

 

yeah; you're right I get them mixed up- they both have guy names, but then OK in you're opinion, is it a good thing to use or a bad thing? Cause the family member I spoke of is an O/O for many years now, and he tells me it doesn't harm the motor at all ...???

 

Yeah, I think durallymax is right. It sounds like you are thinking of the spike rather than the engine brake. However, as far as "who's right" goes regarding the jake brake issue, IMO, everyone is free to use or not use the jake as much as they want when driving THIER OWN truck. If you are a company driver, you are obliged to use the jake in accordance with company policy whether that means always or never or somewhere in between. Bottom line, however the OWNER of the truck wants it used is the RIGHT way.

 

A lot of the guys I work with on a regular basis give me crap about using mine....it's pretty obnoxious.......................but I like it.

 

Let's just say mine doesn't get rusty from non-use...........

 

Since I started driving when jakes were a luxury usually only found on western trucks I use mine when decelerating for an off ramp or when driving on a twisty road that would otherwise require a lot of braking.

They were designed for mountain driving not showing off in the truck stop or running down the freeway. You can even gain a little fuel economy if you don't run the jakes in traffic because you have to gain back all the speed you lose after the jake comes on. Better to use some distance and patience in 65 traffic than to rely on the jake to keep you from running up on a slower vehicle.

We used to have one or two trucks with a jake and the boss would remove the jake and install it on a newer truck when needed. They cost $2500.00 in the early 70's and that was a major expense... heck sometimes I was driving $500.00 truck!

When running team you had better be going down a 6 or 7% grade when waking up your co-driver with the jake or you would have to deal with it at the next stop.

So I guess my short answer is about 20% of the time....

 

Why would anyone want to put extra stress on there drivetrain? All that energy has to be absorbed somewhere. And brakes are much cheaper than anything in the driveline! JUst my opinion.
Other than going down a mountain lol, I have never used it

 

I use mine every time I'm slowing down unless I'm slowing down in an area where it would annoy people or road conditions are poor.

To me the engine retarder is a more safe alternative in most scenarios.

As well the idea that using the engine retarder is abusing other parts of the truck is new to me. I'm assuming it might have caused some premature failures, but in the 30 years I've been around trucking I have never witnessed it.

 

My Jake stays on why would they put it on the truck if it could damage the engine. I only turn my jake if im driving a tractor with a loud jake. But since i usually drive a cascadia (wdd15) it stays on the the dd13 is a bit loud