flagstaff to phoenix

If you gear down enough you hardly need to get on the brakes at all going down steep grades. If you go uphill in a gear or two lower than what the truck could actually pull up the grade it will run a little cooler. Of course you turn the fan on before you start up the hill. Also it helps if you periodically maintain your cooling system, make sure it's full, wash the radiator out with low pressure water hose. That's how you keep from blowing steam and vital fluids all over the shoulder like the dummies who don't know how to take care of their equipment. Slow and steady wins the race. There is no way in the world I'd drive a hundred miles out of my way to avoid some interstate with some curves and grades... ....wow.

 

You have been driving for 18 years and this is your advice? Wow ... I bet you don't have to pay the bill for your trucks drums and shoes ...

Here is a tip from a rookie, if you go down one more gear, you don't need to use the service brake at all, yes you will sacrifice a few mph down the hill, but what is the big hurry? The flat road is the place to make up time with speed, if that's what the goal is ...

 

If Flagstaff is snowed shut I bet you would drive that far to avoid it. the other stuff about going downhill, That is actually good advice for if your jakes dont work for some reason, though the RPMs need to be higher for any kind of decent engine braking with no jake, or you will take off like a rocket.

. First company I drove for didnt have jakes. I also took one of the early 2009 or 2010 Prostars with Maxxforce 13 down I17, dragging my shoes along side the truck would have done a better job than the useless engine brake that hing had.

 

I don't think he has to worry about snow right now but I've spent the night parked in the middle of the interstate before. It sucks when it happens and of course I would avoid it if I could but sometimes that stuff happens in front of you. I'm known at my company as a guy who will venture where few go on some winding ### backwoods 2 lanes, switchbacks, grades, etc - nothing but a day's work. I completely understand anyone willing to drive 100 miles out of their way to avoid that though. I do not comprehend wussing out on driving INTERSTATE and going 100+ miles out of the way to do it. It's silly. Man up. Sounds like some veteran driver got this rookie all worked up over nothing for fun and games.

 

I used to run I 17 and 60 in AZ delivering meat, a lot of it swinging and hauling cattle to as I worked for a packer. How many hours longer is 54. I've run it too and it takes forever. Makes me mad with a load of bulls climbing out of Santa Rosa and a UP train passes you. Even had BNSF trains beat me all the way to Belen NM. I'd recommend you stay off 60 in AZ until you've driven a year. Take your time on I 17, about 100,000 other trucks made it this year.

 

The correct one.

Joking aside, that is really determined by load and grade, Hwy 17 has grades of different severity .

What gear are you using going down the highway at 55-60 say at 1400 rpms. You should be 1 gear lower going down that hill generally speaking.

You really are going to have to trust our judgement. Dont sweat it, take your time rnjoy the drive. I really like that road.

 

How do you ride your brakes without the risk of overheating them? How would you know if they're starting to get too hot and what would you do at that point?
You should never ever down shift on your way down. You should have already selected the correct gear to avoid a down shifting situation.
Engine braking is most effective at the top of the operating range. The engine is designed for this!

 

you will notice hot brakes first by it taking a little more pressure to apply them and slow the vehicle down effectively than normal. And if you get to that point you are already in trouble. Seeing light hazy smoke is another telltale sign, but then are already in trouble too. That is why it is critical to be going slow enough down a hill to begin with in case of emergency.

A lot of people seem to forget that jakes did not become common on trucks until about 40 or 50 years ago. How do you think the drivers back then made it happen without crashing and burning? You actually had to know how to drive. Even the materials in brakes have improved leaps and bounds in that amount of time.

Brakes need 3 things to start on fire: heat, friction, and oxygen. Light steady pressure on them removes the oxygen factor. This is good to know if your jakes ever quit working. Now you must apply common sense too, in other words do not go down a 5 mile long, 7% grade at 65 MPH with a heavy load in high gear, standing on top of the brake pedal.

Some trucking schools will teach "stab braking", and I think it is one of the dumbest ways to go down a long hill. This is 10 times worse than keeping pressure on them. By constantly applying and releasing, you allow the drums to expand and get even hotter by giving them a fesh supply of oxygen every time you let off. The best thing to do if you have a jake is go slow enough to begin with, be in a low enough gear, to let the jake/engine do all the work, and use your brakes as little as possible

Ideally yes jakes combined with engine braking is the way to go, you should hardly have to touch the brakes more than once every 20 seconds. Any more than that and you are getting them hot and setting yourself up for disaster.

 

Every time I hear advise like, "Never downshift on a downgrade" I have to laugh. This is a surefire way to get a rookie into trouble. "Oh Gawd! I'm going too fast and I was told NEVER to downshift!"

After that they never learn how and then you get runaway situations.

LEARN HOW TO SHIFT THE TRUCK IN EVERY SITUATION. You DON'T have to attempt to shift when the rpm's are wailing away as the jake is struggling to hold her back. That's stupidity. USE THE SERVICE BRAKES to bring the rpm's smoothly and easily to around 700-800 rpm's, make your shift to about 1200-1300 rpm's and see if the jake holds in the lower gear. If not, then repeat.

It isn't hard. If you aren't overcooking your service brakes in the first place then when you start a descent and realize you need to drop a gear then for God's sake use the service brakes while they are fresh and downshift.

There's companies that won't hire you if you don't know how to shift going uphill AND going downhill.

Every time down a grade is a different story, mostly depending on how much weight is in the box and how it's distributed. One time down Vail and I can drop to 6th and put on max jake and everything's peachy. The next time that combination doesn't work and I downshift to 5th and maybe change between max or middle jake as the hill requires.

Easy peasy. Learn to shift.

 

Loose leafs, the reason why they teach the stab and release method is that way you get even braking force to all brakes, if you ride them at a low psi, some will be working harder than others and some hardly at all .. its better to have them heating up evenly rather than cook one .. then cook another one .. and so forth ..