Brakes

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Another article written about trucks, by someone who doesn't know what they are talking about.

This one by an ambulance-chasing, "big-trucks-are-bad" law firm.

I dunno, maybe consider spending less time finding articles like this one, and more time studying for your permit test.

There's a fine line between "due diligence" and "analysis paralysis", and I could picture you veering into "ap" territory soon.

I don't mean that as a put-down towards you.

It's just that over the last few years, we've had some people come on here, hem and haw for MONTHS with "what if, how come", etc.

Questions are fine, we're here to help.

But for the love of Mike, go get yer daggum permit, already. Please. Thank you.

You don't need a school to "help you get it", and if you're down to "6 hours of work", (a day? a week?) then you got this in the bag.

Good luck.

 

You can ride the brakes all day and they won’t overheat. Lots of people don’t believe it, just like I did not until you know how the brakes work and how you can control the brakes overheating

you learn how use them and how to check them. I’m a little surprised when people today don’t know how to ride the brakes all day, or don’t think is possible. I was trained to drive truck in Salt Lake City Utah. So we did mountain driving. Someone trained in Florida will never get driving in mountain training. Most trucks don’t even have the gauge to help you drive in the mountains from what see. It’s not a standard gauge from factory

 

the stab/release method in the manual gets brakes hot, when you release and it gets air to them.

On another note, that idiot writing that article knows nothing about hydraulic brakes vs air brakes.
I’ve driven semi’s with hydraulic brakes and the parking lever beside the driver seat that would not hold.
We had a big brick tied to a long rope, shut truck off in gear put brick infront or behind steer tire.
Could pull brick back with rope.

 

Most times, the "failure" comes from the yahoo pushing on the pedal. Brakes can only do so much, and have become a false sense of safety, "oh, I can drive like an idiot, and the brakes will save me",,,not so. I didn't look at the article, but not sure it was mentioned, modern air brakes have a fail-safe feature. It takes air pressure to release the "parking" portion of the brake, and a loss of air pressure, engages the parking brake mode, so there's little to "fail".

 

"Hydraulic brakes work using a compressor that places air pressure on the brakes to stop the vehicle. If a truck driver overuses the brakes, the air can be drained from the compressor faster than it is replenished. This can lead to total brake failure and a runaway truck –"

Quoted from the article, obviously written by idiots.

I have my doubts that 30% of these bad crashes are brake failures. Maybe blamed on brakes, but not the root cause

 

The fact that you spelled brakes correctly is a step in the right direction.

 

I've never had brake failure or brakes catch fire. I was taught to use steady pressure vs stab method and never had any problems. Whichever works best for you.

 

I use light steady air pressure 10psi or less. You can literally ride your bakes all day and they won’t overheat or fade. Because the drums dissipate heat and at 10 psi you are not making more heat then the drums can dissipate.

The truck needs an Applied Brake Pressure gauge from factory, I don’t see many truck with that gauge. My current company truck doesn’t have one, we don’t run out west. They do train new drivers but obviously they don’t even know how train for mountain driving. They just tell everyone the stab/release method. I don’t think that good method when road is snow or ice covered