How much braking is too much

After 13 years, the same thing has always worked. I start out the grades slower and in lower gears, using the brakes sparingly. Sure I might be going a tad slower, but I make it down every time.

 

here maybe i can clear the air on this a little better for you, yes allot depends on the truck and type of load you are hauling that is a giving. but here is a basic rule that i follow no matter what....

1) in good weather (going down like cabbage, or any other grade)

a) be in the proper gear
(to be in the proper gear will take a little bit to figure out but once you do its a no brainer) but realistically. When I go down cabbage for example and I have a heavy load 35-40k on I already know that 6th gear will be the correct gear with jakes on. If I am light, then I know running in 9th gear maybe 8th will be fine for going down.

but lets say I don't know what gear to be in I follow this rule: When going down a hill if I have to use the brakes more than 3 times to slow down I know I am in a gear too high for the grade I am on.

On Icy roads or snow covered road, with no jakes I try to only hit the breaks 1x every 45-60 seconds and to bring the speed down to 5-10 below where I was running at .

If you start seeing smoke coming from your brakes well you obviously used them way too often and better find a place to stop to cool them down, or hope you can make it the rest of the way down the hill without having to touch the brakes for awhile in order for them to cool down.

as of yet, I have smoked my brakes 1 time and that was when I was on coming down Mt. Hood, on us26 when I was a noob. Haven't smoked my brakes since then and still in one piece.

 

The OP is asking about descending with no jake, but you're exactly right. I figure that if I have to use the brakes more than once or twice on any reasonable grade, I screwed up. Far too many guys run too fast downgrade, they'll argue and say they aren't smoking their brakes, and that's true. But they're running close enough to overheating the brakes, that if they did have make a sudden stop, they gonna get a rude awakening via major brake fade. But ya can't tell 'em nothing!

 

I was told very early on, it shouldn't take more than 10 lbs. of pressure to stop a loaded truck. ( if you have an air application gauge) I know, that's not 100% accurate, but I always tried to follow that, and I never put a set of brakes on any truck I had, or any co. truck, or rarely on my personal car , for that matter. Another old timer told me, brakes should last the life of the vehicle. While that may or may not be true, the old saying goes, "Save your brakes, and they'll save you".

 

My rule of thumb, whether descending with or without jakes, is six to one for snub braking. I want six seconds run time for every second of braking. That gives time for the brakes to cool.

Brake application should be about 20 lbs during snub braking. This is enough to slow and get equal application to all 18 brakes and not so much to smoke the tires or brakes.

 

Hi Lepton, all 10 brakes.

 

Are you saying your truck doesn't have a engine break? Or just not wanting to use it! My engine break is NEVER turned off, summer time, winter time, never ice used my engine break in all kinds of weather

 

[QUOTE="semi" retired;4356716]Hi Lepton, all 10 brakes.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for correcting that.

 

I imagine he's talking about not wanting to use the jake during bad weather. Then there's the possibility of the jake being broken and the company not wanting to get it fixed right away, if ever.

 

There were times I wished I had 18 brakes. My Pete (below) only had 4. (no steer axle brakes) A little planning goes a long way, and half way down a steep grade is no time to be asking the impossible from your brakes.