Driving an automatic on icy roads and taking off on hills?

I'd imagine the heads keeping the fuel warm.

Maybe. (SHRUG)

 

Clearly you’re not familiar with some of the roads I was talking about, and you must keep forgetting that the reason it was brought up was because someone mentioned loggers using theirs coming off a mountain.

Since you brought up chains, do you know how many times one side of a pass will be fine and the other side isn’t? Countless times I’ve gone up the Montana side with no issue and been over the top and it starts dumping snow. I’ve never been one to just stop in the road to hang iron when there’s no shoulder. Same with Lost Trail. The Montana side gets way less snow than the Idaho side. And to answer your question, yes there are 25 mph corners on both of those passes that will suck you into the bank on the low side if you’re creeping down on your brakes.

If you want to talk about chains if you just chain up the outside 4 on the drives that wouldn’t cut it on the roads we’re talking about. It’s three railers on the back axle and go. And no, unless you’re in a state that requires them, most people don’t bother with a drag chain on the trailer unless they’re pulling doubles.

Anyway, like I said previously, you’re free to do things your way and if I ever make it back out to the mountains I’ll keep doing them my way.

 

Once upon a time maybe... I'm not sure how everyone else does it with the HPCR fuel systems, but DD's fuel return happens outside the head, alongside the block. So you get some heat while stopped, but not much once there's cold air moving. More like the old mechanical Cats or Macks. Even with electric heat in the Davco, I pay more attention to fuel treatment and end up blending #1 way sooner than I did with the motors that dumped so much heat back into the tanks.

 

Right the skidding or spinning faster or slower tire will want to come to come to the front, why do you assume all the trailer brake will lockup at same time ? You can have one wheel end lockup and skid and you will get the same reaction as the engine brake slowing down a drive tires. That’s what you want to avoid. It’s very easy to avoid this with the engine brake by simply turning it off and not using it.

You should already be driving slow so you don’t even need the engine brake. Why do you or we use the engine brakes. It’s to save the brakes or cause less wear on the brakes or go faster downhill. You are not trying to go faster because the roads are already slippery and if you have to stop going faster will make it more difficult to stop.

Are you trying to save the wear and tear on the brakes ? My goal is to NOT jackknife and if needed stopping. Using the engine brake is setting yourself up for a possible jackknife or jackknife recovery. Why would you do that to yourself ? I’m not worried about the wear and tear on the brakes. The bigger goal of avoiding a jackknife is more important. I also don’t want to do a jackknife recovery move. Because you have to act very quickly, if not you will get past the point of no return and you can’t do anything to stop a jackknife. Yes traction control might cut the engine brake just like ABS will stop the trailer brakes from locking up. You need to be able to drive the truck when the ABS and traction control don’t work.

 

The goal is to get down safely. And from an ergonomic standpoint, coming down monitoring the Jake is far less taxing than spending 30 minutes making sure one is not overbraking.

And no matter how many times you say it, slippage on one corner of the drives does not require Jack knife recovery.

Also, using the Jake isn't to get downhill faster, it's to get downhill with very close to 100% of stopping power in reserve.
I don't know who trained you to use the Jake to come downhill just below the brake overheating threshold, but that's asking for disaster. First time you have to make a hard stop mid-descent, you'll discover that using up most of the brake systems heat capacity to get down faster is going to leave every brake on that truck smoking and fading, and hopefully the small time savings doesn't cost someone their life!

 

When you are using your service brake it’s not like they all lock up at the same time. If one or more do lock up all you do is take your foot off the brakes and let tire spin again. Then slow back down as needed.

When you use engine brake and a tire spins. You have to turn off the engine brake. Then wait for the tire get traction again and get rolling back to same speed as other tires. You are wasting time with the extra step vs just taking your foot off the brakes to get the tires rolling again. The longer it take you to get the tires rolling again the more likely you will jackknife

If you going downhill and around a banked corner I agree it inherently less safe. Are you saying you use the engine brake and let the trailer push your tractor around the banked corner ? That’s not good if you are. You need the trailer brakes to help hold the trailer back so your truck is in control. My point is about the tire chains was if you are saying it’s so slippery that using the service brakes will cause the trailer to slide. I would say you should have already had tire chains on. You should be able to to stop if needed

You can drive anyway you want but would you really recommend a new driver or something asking how the automatic transmission works in the snow going downthill use the engine brake.

 

The way I was trained is you use light steady pressure on the brakes. At 10 psi of brake pressure or less you can ride the brakes all day and they won’t overheat and you can still stop if needed. That’s why I never used the engine brakes in snow or ice. There is no reason to use them, they sever no purpose. When the roads are dry, you can combine the light steady pressure brake pressure of 10 psi or less with the engine brake. Yes now you can go faster downhill using everything the truck has and still be able to to stop if needed. Not sure if this is true but they told use this was also the way drivers pulling double or triples would drive because it the safest option.

I agree slipping the drive tire dose not necessarily mean you will jackknife but you are setting yourself up for a possible jackknife. I would not set myself up for that and try to avoid it as mush as possible. That is why I trained to never use engines brake on slippery roads. No reason to put yourself or myself in more danger when it’s not necessary.

 

It's a dark and snowwy night. How are you going to tell if your trailer tires are turning until you see the trailer going sideways? Counting on abs?

 

You drive like you do in the daytime. You can’t see the trailer tires generally. You would see if the trailer starts to come out from behind your truck. Then you take your foot off the brakes to get trailer tires rolling and the trailer will go back behind your truck. When driving downhill you’re checking your mirrors to make sure trailer is staying behind your truck.

You’re riding the brakes at 10 psi or less. You’re looking in mirrors watching the trailer. You need to check the trailer because if it start to slide out from behind your tractor you have to react quickly to stop the jackknife.

If you see trailer is sliding you take your foot off the brakes to get tires rolling. If that doesn’t work you are starting to jackknife. Now you need do a jackknife recovery to save yourself. You step on the power and pull the trailer downhill and pull the trailer back behind your truck so you are back in control of the trailer. Then you can apply the brakes again to slow down.

When you’re stopping for a traffic light in snow or ice. You check your mirrors to see if trailer brakes lockup and trailer is sliding out from behind because it will hit parked cars. If you see it sliding you’re going to wreck or hit the parked cars. So you take you foot off the brakes get control of trailer and get it back behind you. Then apply the brakes again trying to stop for the traffic light. You keep trying to maintain control to avoid accident and hope you can stop or maybe the cars will see your having trouble stopping they will stop before going through the intersection.

 

Drivers, if you cant safely operate a semi then shut it down until you figure it out.