Ever get a ticket for using your engine brake?

One thing that seems to be missed with today's engine brakes besides the decreased stopping power of yesterday is as follows; Loud engine brakes tend to scare motorists. This is a good thing because in the past, when some inattentive motorist is trolling along side you for 3 miles refusing to pass you could give them a little "jake" and they would usually figure it out and either pass you or slow down. Today, safety takes a back seat to convenience all the time, at least in this country. A few years ago I was on a bus in Mexico, half asleep when an old W-900 came along side the bus and let er rip. It was loud enough to wake the dead and music to my ears. It made me want to go drive in Mex. lol!

 

I ran down that way quite a bit in the 70's. Seems the area north of Lewisville to south of Bradly was a good place to get speeding tickets while south of Lewisville is an easy place to drive over the speed-limit.

Had a friend several years ago that was driving a Pete with a jake & strait pipes, going though towns he was very bad at, cowboying, accelerating them letting off racking the pipes, & they were loud. Finally he got a big ticket, he sure did hate paying that ticket yet he surely deserved it.

And one talked about scaring people sometimes if you scare them in that manner it causes a wreck. Why would a truck driver chance causing anyone to wreck?

 

Those clowns running straight pipes and jakes are part of the reason the public and safety groups are so anti-trucks. There's no excuse for being so ignorant and causing problems for the rest of us. No one thinks you're cool except you! Same clowns popping off the jakes while running through truckstop parking lots and thinking all the other truckers are fawning over them with admiration.

 

Yes... you can still hear a muffled Jake brake. Nowhere near as loud as those ####### with straight pipes though.

 

What's the point in using jakes in a town .. fear and/or a attention grabber ?

Turn em off muffled or not.. period

 

I had a friend that got a ticket in the town royalton MN. Yes it's the song the royals came from. It's a tiny town with a dumb stoplight.

 

In my town the signs read "Brake Retarders Prohibited". I figure you "could" probably get off on a technicality if one of our local cops wrote a ticket. Thing is, the signs would probably be corrected within the week.

 

Due to the wide spread problems associated with DEF based vehicles, my boss buys older tractors and fully restores them. I'm driving a 19 year old XL Classic with a well over 500 HP Cat. It is in a word - NOISY at almost all operating loaded times. The Jake on a downhill will wake the dead then scare them into running for their lives, (er, uh or something like that...) I have a heart and shut the brake off in rural and residential settings, especially while people are sleeping.

To the guys who run straight pipes - I don't know how you stand the noise all day long, but to each his own I reckon.

 

Strait pipes are not legal either, my mechanic won't dot my truck without a muffler