Mountain grades

The only thing i like about autos is if im about to hit an off ramp i can put jake on high and it downshifts 2 gears to 2200 , slows u down really well. The first time i drove this truck i wasnt used to it and halfway down the off ramp was #### near come to a dead stop without touching breaks , but if im going downhill i like to put it in manual mode but i think its just a trust issue between me and computers, i need to have control

 

Cool. Mine just keeps speeding up and shifting as it rolls downhill and gets faster. It’s not very smart. And the auto engine brake/cruise combo is worthless except on very small hills.

 

No. This Detroit setup won’t do that as long as you at least have stage 1 braking engaged. It’s pretty intelligent and intuitive.

 

A quick tip for descending without a Jake, is to make sure you have slowed the truck down long before you hit the down side. Lots of guys brake really hard right before the downside and burn up 50% of their braking power. Then you are smoked by the time you get 1/4 of the way down. Start at 25 mph and adjust accordingly. It’s not a race. I descend Mt Hood in Oregon every night, some times with a very heavy set of triples. Ihave a single axle truck without a Jake and that’s how I do it.

 

You should be in the proper gear for the hill before you start down it, It is a very wise practice not to down shift on a steep grade, you very well may get caught in between gears and not be able to get it back into gear, this is not true for autos & supertruckers. There have been many accidents and deaths caused by drivers being stick in neutral over heating their brakes then crash and burn..
SO if your a super trucker that has been driving for less 3 or 4 years and this don't apply to you, We dont want to hear how this is not for you.

 

But telling a new driver downshifting once the descent has begun is forbidden is not exactly good advice, either. You're assuming a new driver, on an unfamiliar grade, is somehow going to know the precise gear to be in that will work from top to bottom. This is hardly reality.

If you find you may have began too fast and/or in too high a gear (you're having difficulty keeping speed in check without lots of brake application pressure), YOU MUST recognize you're in trouble early and you must find a way to get slowed and into a lower gear ASAP. I don't care how you do it, just do it. If you get hung up and just CAN NOT find a gear, then try and get stopped if you can. The earlier you can discover you may be in trouble, the better your chances of survival. If in doubt early on, assume the worst, find another lower gear or stop if you must, wait a while then resume very slowly. Check brake adjustment (that slack adjusters are working and you have sufficient lining) ASAP if you were really hard on brakes going down

 

All trucks I have driven will stop for you one time on a downgrade, just keep that as a option over anything else at all.

The driver is the captain of his or her ship. Cultural issues among other truckers on the same hill should not even be a issue. Not all of drivers are going to be mountain gods so to speak. Every downgrade is a case by case basis even if you have run the same hill a thousand times. Even more reason not to get slack and lazy.

 

What I tell new drivers has served me well for more than 3 million miles. And all the trucks I have driven with the loads I have carried on them, most when loaded would not stop on a dime down hill.

I was taught to slow down before you start down the hill, slow down before you try to down shift. Pay attention as to where you are and whats coming up in front of you. If your maxxed out down The grapevine, Cajon, Tehachapi here in SoCal (These are not the worst hill you'll go down) and you go over the top at 60+ in top gear your going to be in trouble.

You can go too slow down a hill lots of times, But to fast only once probably. Slow down, gear down, and argue about it at the bottom.

 

Not sure if it was hit on yet but it needs to be stressed imo, jake brakes can and do fail, its happened to me and it can happen to you. Learning to descend grades without one is a most important skill to have.

 

Good point. It's happened to me as well, a blown fuse was the culprit.

This is another really good reason to have practiced downshifting on a downgrade. You need to drop more than just one gear in order to find a gear without Jakes that can control the descent.

Another typical example is coming down a steep grade, approaching a town, and see the "No Engine Brakes" sign with a cop waiting just after the sign. Cancel the Jake and get busy downshifting.

In either scenario a driver is screwed if they haven't practiced to the point that downshifting is no big deal.