jake brakes; when to use them, when not to

You have a quiet emissions truck. They don’t make any noise whatsoever. They should be kept on all the time to save on brakes. But you don’t pay for brakes so it doesn’t matter.
I use my jakes loaded or unloaded but as a common courtesy becuase I have a cat motor with 8” loud pipes. I keep them off on early hours when around houses. But anytime after 8am I let em rip. Brakes last me forever.

 

The affected language is Ascii. I forget the details right off hand but it's probably from that time period.

 

Some drivers used them all the time. They relay on them to slow the truck down everywhere they drive. Some drivers abuse this way and a very few use them to apply added stopping power to the truck. Myself, I drove most of my loads in the city and on surface streets in an oversized gasoline tanker hauling gasoline for ARCO. The way I drove was taught to me by the old school drivers so I timed my stops to the lights and never raced from point A to point B. I only used the engine brake on downgrades and went slow enough to where I didn't need to use the truck brakes all that much. When the truck had an engine brake. Most of the time, when I was pulling OTR heavy loads was with the Navy, I had to rent a tractor from Ryder and pull a Navy 60 ton trailer. The Navy at that time just did not have the equipment to do the job and I needed the sleeper because I was out for long periods of time. When I did go out, I could just about figure all the time the engine brake did not work or, it was not even there. So I had to go down all the grades you hear about coast to coast with 120,000lbs pounds on with only the truck brakes. Thank you old school drivers. I believe the engine brakes are used to slow the truck down on downgrades. That's my believe and I'll stick to it. I respect the drivers that use the brakes all the time and use them correctly. Especially O/O that are taking care of their equipment. Those other drivers that are using them to turn heads are hot rodders and in my opinion won't last long.

 

Designed to be used all the time to save on brakes. Hence the reason for different settings. Trucks can make steep grades without them and that’s how it was done years ago when truckers knew how to drive. But hey 90 percent of you don’t pay the maintenance bills. People like myself that maintain their own truck and have actual loud jakes due to no emissions junk use them all the time and only shut them off in residential areas when its late at night or early morning or of course there is an ordinance. Emissions motors don’t even need to follow the ordinance becuase you can’t hear them. That’s my 2 cents

 

Well you're the 1% that uses them the way they should be used. But like you say the old time drivers were different and I've been out of a truck for some time now.

 

Well it was a different time and a different day. Without them today, these knuckleheads would all be going down hill with brakes on fire. How bout it

 

I even got an engine brake on my Toyota Corolla. Makes me comfy. Like I’m driving my truck.

 

I use it when I’m turning on the high way and on declines