Runaway ramps

Some people that don't know trucks and how the brakes work. They think the brakes just get hot and drivers lose control over of the truck. That not true, a little thing that gets people attention is when you tell them. You Can Ride The Brakes All Day and They Won't Overheat. Because most people don't know the brakes/ drum release heat also. So if you don't apply more braking power/heat then the drum can dissipate. You really can ride the brakes all day and they won't overheat.

 

If I should ever feel the need to use one, I'll use it without hesitation. Should I get fired after, I'll celebrate.
I'll celebrate being alive, I'll celebrate not killing an innocent person.

Never ever chose a job over a life..hit the ramp.

 

I do it all the time on 68. Just the trailer brakes, though... LoL

 

That would be called company retarders around here. lol I use them some in the summer to get on down the hill a little faster, not so much in the winter.

 

The 2013 "Reduced Stopping Distance" mandate made it harder to smoke brakes but riding the brakes will have negative effects even if they don't smoke as easily as in the past.

1) The brakes still have fade and put more load on other brakes which will increase wear, thus lead to higher maintenance needs and downtime.

2) Post 2013 it may be harder to smoke will maintained brakes by going 1000F+ but if you drag your brakes a lot you can heat soak the wheel and that excessive braking will start to cook the tire at less than a third of that temprature. https://www.irsst.qc.ca/media/documents/pubirsst/r-590.pdf​

Lots of trial lawyer's websites tout how excessive use of brakes is a cause of blowouts.

Even if you are in a truck with an automated transmission without a retarder/jake and no manual mode; get into the habit of using tap downshifting, low/1-mode for slowing down at lights and off-ramps.

The overheating damage to tires is cumulative not really visible. Pre-Internet when I was young and stupid I had a job driving a gas 1968 Chevy C60 with a 4+2 transmission down Lewiston hill several times a week. We were delivering timber to a mill and picking up the finished goods. That old truck had split ring Dayton wheels and I would blow tires fairly often.

Finally a tire guy was nice enough to be honest with me, or he got sick of risking his life inflating split rings without a cage on the side of a road. A chevy 366 just didn't have enough compression braking to maintain speed down a 7% grade I had to use brakes and was overheating the tires. As some forms of heat damage like thermo-oxidation and pyrolysis are cumulative it can be hard to associate with something like dragging the brakes (or more often low pressure)

I have found this PDF is very helpful for diagnosing tire problems and worth while to keep on your phone or tablet.

TMC's RP 219B, Radial Tire Wear Conditions and Causes: A Guide to Pattern Analysis

Due to my experience I admit I may be overly cautious but don't assume a lack of brake smoke or catastrophic brake fade means you are OK.

 

I'd rather continue to drive in a manor as to not need to use them to start with, thank you

 

In DM Bowman I recieved training like it as not, it was a QUALITY situation of learning which actually helped evolve me towards a professional understanding of braking. They had a three month exercise in which ALL flatbed Freuhaufs (Spelling) were bought past the shop when you arrived at the yard end of day after 16 hours or whatever running flatbed loads around the midatlantic area which involved a whole lot of mountains.

The shop would be looking at drums that were cracked AND GLAZED. Now if you can understand how much material must come off a truly overhot brake pad and coat a cracked drum which is failing itself under too much thermal temperature actually melting as it were... the steel itself)

When drums are detected to be glazed and cracked, they are instantly replaced on the spot in front of the shop with the driver participating. Better to learn and do better in a different way of braking down hill.

The root cause is way too many drivers using the trolley brakes to abuse the trailer to keep everything stretched out and too lazy to lift up their feet and carefully use the service braking in long periods of time to application hold back a load downgrade without a jacobs brake.

Any company that fails to buy jacobs braking (Jake brake etc) on their engines are fools. Seriously I will call them fools to their faces, and have.) I use engine brakes quite a lot for one purpose only. Keeping all 10 brakes on a big rig cold and not used anywhere on that grade. It increases quite a bit of miles between replacement pads. My Last OTR tractor did 210,000 on original pads, they were still much more than 50% when I turned that tractor in after wife and I left FFE. We could PROBABLY run those pads about another 340,000 miles in total believe it or not. And those steel drums were essentially still brand new. So the tractor is very strong ability when it comes to stopping right the eff now. And how.

Never mind the excessive monitoring sensors hidden all over the truck to tattle on my percieved abuse stopping a big rig before killing a batch of insurance scammers.

Thats what my video camera is for now. If the Law wants to see it or better yet some safety pooh bear wants and demands to see the tape, it's all there ready to go. (And also with some models of body cams or vehicle cams re uploaded to home computer or third party hot box storage hosting web site which would come in very handly in places that confiscate and erase footage. Its already preserved and archived on to the backup disk array and online.

 

i think we all do.

 

Some goofball in a Penske one ton box van towing a 3 series BMW hit the kitty litter at the first one on Mounteagle.

 

well it beckons the obvious responses,

"typical 4 wheeler pretending to be a trucker, with a rental"

"must have been near or fully loaded, plus the car pushing him"

anyone with a license and credit card can "play trucker" with a rental.
what gets me is that they cannot drive any high or low priced car, so they think they can drive a truck