I remember after months of memorizing essential truck driving information prior to trucking school, I came across quite the conundrum and I was wondering if someone could help me answer this. My question has to do with the air brake system and more specifically the stop light switch. Okay so the air compressor sucks in air, stores it in the air storage tanks and when you depress the brake pedal it sends air to each brake chamber to activate the S-cam drum brake (air forces the push rod out, push rod forces the slack adjuster to cause the "S" cam to rotate, S-cam forces brake shoes to push together with the brake pads and finally the brake pads create friction with the brake drum causing the truck to slow down) and at the same time air also triggers your brake lights to come on. But what if you unknowingly drained your air to idk, 0 PSI or whatever isn't enough to trigger the stop light switch? Such as your storage gauge(s) are faulty, meaning it doesn't trigger your low air pressure warning when your psi drops too low. Kinda sounds like you'll brake check the poor b*stard behind you without any warning after your emergency brakes activate due to not having an adequate amount of air pressure to hold back the springs.
Best regards, John
Brake Light Question
Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by farmerjohn64, Sep 26, 2019.
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The brake light switch isnt operated by air at all. It's electronic.tscottme, FlaSwampRat and farmerjohn64 Thank this.
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Oh I forgot to mention the air compressor, or other essential part experiences a catastrophic failure (falls off the rig and takes out a guy on a scooter for all I care), thus stopping the flow of air to the storage tanks.FlaSwampRat Thanks this.
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Whatever you're drinking. Have a few more. Then post again.
speedyk, Lepton1, FlaSwampRat and 4 others Thank this. -
Read a little further into your air brake systems and you will learn they are designed to pop out the red and yellow buttons long before the truck drains to 0 regardless of the existence or lack of low air warnings. At this point stop lights will indubitably be the least of your concerns.
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Your brakes apply with absence of pressure. You need pressure to release the brakes. The system is designed on the railroad trains. If a train car were to hop the tracks and the air pressure diminished, all the cars of the whole train (including the locomotive) go into emergency braking. It is why your instructors should have warned you about in your pretrip to inspect the air hoses for chaffing. You blow a hose? Get ready for the brakes to lock up.
WesternPlains, Lepton1, x1Heavy and 3 others Thank this. -
If that's true then the practice tests I took lied to me lol
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Hey that was last night and wouldn't that be the problem?Lepton1 and WesternPlains Thank this.
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Maybe you should post what that practice test actually says.FlaSwampRat and farmerjohn64 Thank this.
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I'm curious about it as well.FlaSwampRat Thanks this.
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