Freightliner auto transmission on steep down grade

that's what my thread on this topic that I posted was for. My driving instincts that I developed while driving a manual transmission truck go against everything I know.

 

I've never heard of brakes disengaging jakes, cruise control sure, but the moment the cruise disengages your jakes should come on to whatever level you have manually selected on the jake switch.

 

What about the little semi-steep bunny hill grades coming down I-84 from Idaho into Utah. Sure you could set your cruise to 55 and let the transmission/engine hold you back but your mean average speed would be 55-60 for those hills.

I set the speed to 65 cruise and use Manual on the downhills, let it spool up to 70 and apply appropriate jake setting, either 1, 2, or 3 . If it tries to go faster, bump gear stalk one time to lower gear from 12th to 11th and go down at 70. Using that free downhill momentum to get back up the other side maybe at 65 or a little less.

Meanwhile, trucker using cruise at 55 (to hold back to no more than 70 downhill) goes down perhaps 50 with jakes and engine screaming then dumps a ton of fuel to try to get back up the other side of the bunny hill at 45 miles per hour.

My way saves fuel and gets through the territory efficiently.

 

Is it true that the cruise won't work with the wipers on some of these dopey trucks...?

Cruise sucks anyways. I never use it..

 

I'm sorry, but I had to LOL @ @Cat sdp

 

That's what I heard ....

no cruise with wipers and some with no manual mode on trans.......

 

Some companies do cancel cruise with the headlights on and with the wipers on it is true.

 

Just a little FYI, these engines all have a setting in the ECM - engine brake with cruise control. If it is off, it won't work.

 

The engine brake lever has to be set to off when on cruise control.

 

The only way Jakes are turned off in the auto is if you're using the pedal. When in cruise control, the Jakes are in auto mode.