Snow/Single Screw/Jake brake

Just try it and see how it goes. It’s not like you’re gonna jettison off the road if your drives lock up.

I usually flip my Jakes on at like 55 regardless of weather, never had an issue from tankers to dump trucks.

At the end of the day there is a million ways to drive. Do what you’re comfortable with. Don’t use them at all, plenty of guys don’t use them.

 

I use jakes in winter depending against everything they teach anyone not to do it.

I also spend a hell of alot of time evaluating my drives when I am doing it. They have to be rotating. If they start stuttering and sliding without rotating because jake is too strong, I'll add power which automatically flips it off for the moment. But not too much power.

I also underdrive the RPM gauge like crazy. Sometimes on downgrades I would be between 800 and 1100 making gentle shifts. Especially downhill. You have to keep forward. If you TRIED to stop, its going to be a beaver slide for you out of control.

Dont do what I say. Just keep the jakes off until you know what kind of traction you have. And there is one rule I generally do use to find out.

Before driving for the day or night in a ice situation, I would hop out and try to walk across to the truckstop building to get coffee. I should be able to walk there and back without falling on my butt. I know then thats what the truck will feel in it's own tires and that tells me what I will need to know. (Scientific term: Ground Pressure of a vehicle)

I'll flip the jakes off crossing bridges, particularly if they have any angle at all to one side. A slope sideways will allow the trailer to jackknife quietly into the rail concrete and then slide along until you are off it. Just make sure no stupid car is between your trailer and the lowest rail.

 

Never mind the axle configuration. If you slid when the Jake was off, you would have slid worse if it was on.

When you hit the jake, at least one (depending on power divider, lockers etc) of your driven wheel positions are going to want to slow down and turn at a different speed than the free wheeling ones. This is kinda the same as hitting the brakes on one wheel position only. If its really slick, it's going to mess you up. Better to have even breaking on ALL wheel positions, to require LESS traction per wheel to slow er down.

Using the jake is fine though, just dont rely on max engine braking as it may be too slippery for it. Experiment in a good straight stretch with no traffic or obstacles. If your trucks ABS and stuff is working, it should cut the jake out on it's own if it's too slick. Worst case scenario, you just have to hit the throttle a bit to fix it if you start getting bent out of shape.

For hills.... Start slower with less Jake, you can always pick up speed if it's too much braking force than the traction allows. Just dont go too slow that your trailer wants to steer you (in addition to your drives not hooking up)

 

You don't use the Jake brake in snow or ice. The differential applies all the power to tires with the lease traction. That means your setting yourself up for a jackknife. That's not a good idea people forget how the differentials work. They are working in reverse when turn on the Jake brake or in reverse to what someone might think they are doing. The are to let tires turn a different speeds going around corners. So when you turn on the Jake brake and on snow or ice. It applies all the power to tires with the least traction

 

So if the jake only makes one tire break loose the rest should keep rolling, right? Versus where using the air brakes all tires are going to break loose if you happen to loose traction which in turn would cause you to jackknife a lot quicker versus just one tire sliding. ???
I use my Jake's in snow before my brakes, it seems I break loose a lot quicker with the brake pads versus Jake's. Just my opinion

 

No because your putting all the Jake braking power to the tires with less traction. The best the Jake brake could ever would be all drive tires getting braking power. Since you not on dry road you won't know till it loses traction. If you use your regular brakes you get the best possible traction from all the brakes and all the tires. That why you use light steady brake pressure of 10psi or less. You won't overheat the brakes and you don't need the Jake brake in snow or ice. With 10psi or less you also are not applying a lot of pressure so you going slower.

 

Here some I was told. It's important to know in the snow or ice. The skidding or spinning tires will ALWAYS want to lead. Meaning they will want to come around and be in front. So that means those tire will be the cause or start of a jackknife or losing control. That's why you have to keep them all rolling. So if you turn on Jake brake and lose traction your starting the jackknife going down hill. You have to get tires spinning and get traction again to get control.

 

If the one tire does not want to play nice, the rest of them aint no good.

Thats why one tire spins trying to pull ahead on slippery flat spot while the other three just sit....

You have to keep all of them rotating. In short take the jake off.

I forget to mention in certain downgrades I stretch the unit with a few pounds on the trolley to apply the trailer just a smidge. Those wheels have a line spray painted on the outside so I can see if they are rotating or not. Company hates it but oh well...

Applying the service braking on top of that, you best commit because shes going to be looking for weaknesses anywhere in the 10 wheels being applied to.

 

the faster the wheel spins. the more it melts