6nz on short steep grades

They do have their issues.. and your right

 

I run the PAC brake 36 on my black truck. They do way better than the 346 Jakes. Never tried a 349 so I can’t say. I would like to have a brake saver to go with it though. CAT Jakes suck.


With me it depends on how twisty the grade is. I run pretty top heavy so I try to err on the side of caution on my speed.

 

I've never messed with the brake savers, are the oil coolers bigger to help with heat?

 

Yes... if it came from the factor as a brake saver motor..

 

This is why I brought up gross weight.

My combo empty weight with tarps, chains, v-boards etc. basically all my flatbed junk is about 34K. The Jake’s work great there lolol

Load it up to 78-80k and a 6-7% grade and I’ll hit that thing as slow as I need to depending on how long it is to the bottom. I’m not worried who is behind me or going around me because I know empty I could go faster if I want to but heavy with the 3406e I need to start down as slow as I need to.

I tend to scrub/snub off Speed as needed as I am going down or the RPM/speed will just keep climbing.
I have tried the steady low brake pressure applied on a descent but my brain has a hard time believing constant brake pressure doesn’t cause overheating even though it is light and many folks do that. Perhaps as times goes on I’ll be better at that. My last trip out I took a 7% fairly long grade and was able to pull over and just see how the heat was and everything was great using the stab method. Last thing I am thinking about is worrying about replacing brake components when I am descending. I am worried about roasting my brake and not stopping when or if needed. I’ve been the slowest guy many times and my truck ain’t slow.

 

What's a Klaam, electromagnetic driveline brake, or trailer axle electromagnetic brakes?
My former employer put an electrodynamic driveline brake on his transport truck. It worked awesome, but you didn't dare use it before coming to a stop because it needed rotation to cool itself, it kept taking out the power divider - could have been poor installation regarding driveline angles(?)-, and you wanted to keep really good connections to the batteries. It was real similar in use to a brakesaver.

 

My jakes obviously aren't great on my B model, but l lost the jakes going down cabbage years ago, and that will definitely show a guy just how much they are doing.

 

i lost mine on a nice grade in Oregon not nearly as long as cabbage and I was going slow to begin with (I later figured out it was completely operator error lolol) I was on one of those don’t get fuel until after the weight station loads and it got my attention real fast.

 

Yeah, the Klaam is an inline magnetic brake. Has 4 settings. You can use 1 and 2 indefinitely. 3 you can use about 70% or so. 4th is a 25% usage. It gets hot quick on 4 and it will melt ####. However, if you bobtail, 4th will lock your rear end up. So if you are doing a respectable speed downhill with Jake's on 3 and Klaam on 2, you can toggle 2/3 on the klaam to maintain speed and it works extremely well. The downside is they are really heavy, but dang does it work good. If I had a plastic freight truck, I would have another. When I was running all heavy od, I had them installed.

 

That is what my former employer had, though I can't remember the brand name - maybe it was the same. It really did work well, we just had other drivetrain issues after it was installed as I mentioned before, but that could have been a poor installation.