I'm sold on light steady pressure rather than snubbing

B

Are you trying to make me think I am living in the twilight zone?
I live in a universe where stab breaking gives your brakes time to cool and you need all the space you can take up to make a right turn

 

He's the one living in an alternative world. It surprises me that after all these years he still insists on being wrong.

 

I didn't read every comment since I'm on my phone, but everybody seems to be comparing snub vs steady braking without noticing that OP geared down for the steady braking. Thus he didn't need the brakes as much when doing the steady brake test, his test is flawed since he didn't have the same operational conditions with both braking tests.

 

Doing the light steady pressure going down a mountain, and have a brake application gauge, don’t go over 20 lbs pressure on pedal, if you do, you’re in to high of gear, 15 is a good steady pressure, and if you go to slowing down to much on less of a grade, just ease up on brake pedal.

 

Wouldn’t be that hard to rig up a laser thermometer pointed at a brake drum and a go pro or dash cam to record several trips down the mountain to compare


I was taught to use the stab method and , my instructor called it sawtooth , since that’s what your speed going down looks like .
And While I have no data with trucks I can assure you than in four wheelers , constant riding the brakes all the way down a mountain will burn them up .

we have family that lives at the top of a steep mountain and following the flatlanders (Florida license plates ) cars down the mountain , seeing the rear lights come on and stay on for three miles , you can smell the brakes getting melted ,
Get behind a local with North Carolina plates and you see the brake lights come on right before the curve and then they are off again until the next curve .

 

Was taught to use the light steady pressure or feathering the brakes as some called it. And it’s worked for over 40 years.

 

Pretty much like striking a match.
The greater the pressure the more heat.

 

The heat is greater yes, but you get recovery time for the brakes to cool down and you dont get that with constant pressure.
Sorry but I am going to have to see some pretty compelling evidence before I throw away stab braking, a few californians in lab coats is not quite enough
That said, this thread has my attention and something I have taken for granted my whole driving life is now uncertain

 

Gosh, you just reminded me of something that's become one of my greatest annoyances of late: a lot of the newer trucks leased (or rented) by some companies I've worked for in the past and now don't have applied foot pressure gouges. Granted, I'm more prone to use a combination of jake stage/gear/rpm going down grades these days, buy one of things I was always appreciative of when I first started with TMC 12 years ago was those old 379s and several of their newer 579s had all the dash gouges. The first time I got into a truck that was missing all those gauges, I was dang near lost.

I'm not sure why manufactures choose not to include AFP gouges these days (along with several other gauges), but I know this: I don't like it. I like to ascertain at a glance what's going on. Some trucks have the extra gauges tucked into the digital screen in the instrument cluster, but that's extra time and effort trying to figure out how to get to them--and on the go, that really ain't a safe thing to be doing.

Anyway, rant over--back to controlled braking vs stab braking

 

Here is something I just stole from another trucking website :

Maybe a bit of confusion here. Stab braking is for emergency braking. With stab braking you're hitting 'em hard enough to lock up the brakes, then release. Controlled braking is when you use enough pressure to slow down but you're not locking up the brakes intentionally. I'm assuming you meant 'controlled braking.'

The latest research supports controlled braking. You're supposed to use it in context of the 5-3 method. For other readers, 5-3 is when you determine your safe speed, brake with enough pressure where you're only applying constant pressure for 3 seconds to bring you 5 mph below your safe speed. Wait for your truck to reach that safe speed again, rinse and repeat the 5-3 method. That's controlled braking.

Some old timers still use constant pressure and swear by it. Schools are teaching the 5-3 with controlled braking for a reason, but, some drivers can brake safely with the constant pressure method. I'd be careful teaching a new driver the constant pressure method, since they might over-brake and not know how much pressure to use. Controlled braking using the 5-3 technique seems to me that it would protect a new driver from smoking the brakes.