Driving in mountains?

Howls at the moon. ARGH... sissification going on.

ENOUGH!!! waaaaa!!!!

 

If you wanna jake, do it with Jacobs or go home. On a big Kitty cat or lumper detroit. Cummins just aint got it.

 

On my 3 year old Detroit, the engine brake works "so-so" but the guys in the newer Detroit trucks [with autos] say those engine brakes work twice as good as the older Detroit setups with the sticks.

 

When rockwell auto 2001 mated to a Detriot 500 in our Century in manual mode via paddle, I had all the jake I ever wanted. In fact, Mount Eagle provided me a problem. Too much jake at times in certain gears. Causing her to sort of snort and pitch like a horse wanting to throw you forward. Makes sense?

6% was too flat needed something like 12% or higher to make it settle in those particular gears.

 

I've spent some time studying this video. The driver was a rookie and out of gear. Both the driver and trainer in the bunk were killed. The accident happened after a long flat with a slight rise before starting the that particular descent. Donner is a series of hills, not one big hill.

That's the facts as I understand it.

It may be the inexperienced driver want to speed up to get up the short rise, then realized he had too much speed and attempted a shift. Now he had a runaway approaching a curve. As he passed the truck taking the video his trailer is wagging pretty bad, as if he had one hand on the shifter trying to jam it in gear and one unsteady hand on the wheel.

Even at that speed he could have made the turn without incident IMHO, IF he had made a smooth steer around the curve. Instead he was yanking the wheel, causing the trailer to rock, THEN at the WORST possible moment he hit the brakes and all that weight pushed him over.

 

Great question. You have had lots of good advice from experienced drivers. Study their replies, especially the more technical bits about drive train specifications and strategy.

My word of advice to all rookies is that you need to PRACTICE shifting going uphill and downhill. Practice it until you are completely comfortable with it. Practice on hills that aren't dangerous, like maybe a one mile straightaway 6% descent. Intentionally start the grade in a gear too high, then practice your downshifting.

Why practice? Because even the same grade can be a completely different experience every time. The gear and Jake setting you usually use changes accordingly to weight, traffic, road blockages, weather, or type of load.

As soon as you figure out you need to downshift, smoothly apply about 20 psi brakes to drop your rpm's to 800. That's about the point Jake will shut off, as it's designed to do so it won't stall the engine. NOTE YOUR SPEED. Now make your downshift to catch the next gear, trying to catch it at about 1200 rpm or so. Because you initiated the shift so low you have room to chase rpm's up as the truck speeds up.

What if you can't get it in gear? No problem. Remember the speed you noted when you started the shift? Smoothly apply 20 psi brakes to get to that speed and try again.

No need to panic or stress at all. With lots of practice it should become routine. The only times I have had to bring a truck to a complete stop in order to downshift was on dirt roads greater than 20-24%. The lower gears and quick acceleration give you a fraction of a second to rev from 800 to 1800 and hit that gear perfect.

 

Am reminded of the old pilots saying.....there are old pilots, and bold pilots, but there aren't ANY old, bold pilots

 

I understand navigation on a stack of different radios and such at the right seat, But Im pretty piss poor hamfisting that little 152 in large 100 to 200 foot changes of altitude. Those things are too light in hand. Need to add about .. oh 40 ton.

I have been reluctant to talk about shifting outside the normal 1300 1550 or so range on the tach, as others have said you can use the bottom of the tach with jake on or jake off to shift a certain way to either get ahead of or somewhat behind your rig. I don't have the ability to describe how best to do it but .. when I take it down to 900ish maybe a touch of 800 and then shift, That engine is going to basically be turning over pretty easy if done right and she will settle down nicely. But I don't have the words becuase this form of shifting is not usually taught to .. newbies as a rule.

I'll introduce something else. Someone mentioned being scared of the mountain. I was. Instructors found it in school in our little big savage which is 7 miles into downtown cumberland which features a wall bigger than your 18 wheeler for the singular purpose of not falling into the city at the bottom curve.

You cannot be scared. As in too scared to function. You absolutely have to stay cool and execute decisions in battle for possibly your life, load and or that of someone else. Ideally nothing happens and no damage. Just one scared driver. And maybe a story out of it. No one taught me how to run backwards downgrade but.... eh. One of these days Im aim to try it sometime. The ineffective newbie will just sit there squealing in fright and trapped in a mental matrix of OMG etc and either killing himself or someone.

I leave you with a possible last thought of a trainer who had to be carried off Donner by his idiot trainee. "#### do I have to die today, by this... this.. PUP!? Boy did I not do my job..." Not all trainees are stupid. But you sure want to find whatever scares they have deep inside and exploit it.

 

Steep Downhill and you need to downshift