Controlled, Stab, Snub, Threshold braking

Yabba dabba doo!

You do it Fred Flintstone style, push your feet on the ground.

 

I have a few issues with this information:
1. The first braking technique was from the old days with spring bakes, not for the current air brakes. Depending on the length and percentage of grade, you could almost guarantee the brakes to be cooking up a good smoke screen if the grade was any decent length...like Cabbage, Snoqualmie, Syskiyou, Donner, or White Bird.

2. Stab and Snub are actually the same thing, terminology (the name of) differs between West Coast and East Coast drivers. Using this method, the critical part is to NEVER allow the wheels to lock up. Once a skid is begun, technically, you are out of control! In the same thought, if in a skidding position, any contact with another object (car, K-rail, embankment, or the likes) the driver is deemed out of control and the investigation will obviously point to excessive speed for conditions.

3. In an ABS actuation, the driver cannot control the release point and the brakes will not (are not supposed to) lock up. The statement "feel/hear the ABS engaging" has me curious. What you "feel" is the sudden "lurch" forward when the ABS releases the brakes (no driver input will change this), and what is it you think you will "HEAR"? I know...the crunching of fiberglass and metal parts....right?

4. At the top of Cabbage and Siskiyou the "RECOMMENDED" speed and weight is posted (very very large sign). [also at the top of each of the 3 downgrades on I-5 above Lake Head of Shasta] Why do I say "RECOMMENDED"? Because the signs are yellow background with black lettering/numbers...this is a recommendation not a SPEED LIMIT! Color combination means everything! These down hill recommended speeds are from the old days of spring brakes and many trucks without jakes or engine brakes. Also there are still a few signs on the West Bound I-80 (just west of Nyack down to Grass Valley) where one can reminisce old school trucking when you see the signs: "TRUCKS LET ER DRIFT" ....

 

Waiting for the expert truck driving professor manly mcmanly to tell us all...drivers... How to do it! According to his sciencetific research we are all in error

 

This is your 666 th post. You're going to hell, now.

 

After all these years i been doing it all wrong! Can't wait till the super trucker comes and correct my patch.

 

On the first point.. That's the method I was taught/have been using... Downshift to the appropriate gear, use jakes + occasional braking to control speed. Never smoked the brakes, never even got them hot enough to where I can smell them burning. Even going down US14 through Big Horn near 80k gross. I think that's like a 13 mile, 8% grade with a lot of fun curves.

edit: actually those cabbage recommended speeds are a lot slower than I thought..

I know I'm a new driver, and I haven't yet achieved that over confident, know it all attitude that many drivers have, but I have no problem going down a grade at the recommended speeds. The extra 2 minutes it takes me is nothing. I'll happily drop a gear or two and take my time. I also slow down for exit ramps and construction zones. I know, I'm an #######.

 

As the old saying goes... You do not need a parachute to go sky diving, you only need one if you want to sky dive a second time.

You do not need to know how to properly descend a mountain grade to get down it, Gravity will take care of that, you only need to learn the proper way if you plan to do it a second time.

Learn to do it with the Jake because the is how you will usually do it, BUT, also learn to do the snub/stab method without the Jake because you don't want your first time to be when the Jake has gone out on you.

 

You folks have me confused here.

Back when I started I was taught a light brake pressure and the correct gear, optimally the same gear or lower than the gear you pulled the hill with.

I ran the Grapevine and Ashland usually maxed out without the benefit of a jake or brakesaver.

Seemed the stab and jab guys were the ones who got their brakes smoking early.

 

All I know is I have snub braked down every mountain I have ever been on and I've gone down most. Never had a problem and I'm not changing. But every driver drives his truck his way so as long as you're getting down safely who cares?

 

Headed down Parley the other day with a medium heavy load at about 55 mph without needing to snub, stab, or stomp; when reefer went flying by at least 65-70 mph. Just before coming to a high speed turn he smoked the tires, then proceeding to go all "Yankee Doodle" around the turn (cranking the wheel hard in a rhythm so the trailer was rocking back and forth). Cars on either side of him were forced to scatter to make room since he couldn't hold his lane.

I suppose that must have been the requisite stab braking method?

I never learned that one. Maybe I should go get retrained.