Mountain Driving Tips

Heres one. dont drive on ice.

 

wow! why not

 

Well said.

 

If you're in the proper gear running down one of those long, steep grades against the jake, you should hardly be touching your brakes at all. In that case it shouldn't be a problem bringing the truck to a complete stop with your service brakes if your jake fails.

 

this is not good advice,especially if your jake is not working and the mountain is 6 percent going down but was only 1 to 2 percent on along ascent going up.we train new drivers how to descend mountains with over 65000 lbs gross with no jake break without setting their brakes on fire.best rule of thumb no jake,highest gear low range,5 to 10 lbs constant pressure on brakes.brakes will never smoke with this principle.

 

You are 100% correct. That is going to be a safe way to do it. I have a post on this thread telling how i went down grades in the rockies without a jake. Our trucks did not have them. There is a dvd you can get for free from the Colorado Motor Carrier Association and the narrator even states that there are drivers out there driving the rockies every day without jakes. I have one of the original cassette tapes from the late '80's called crossing the rockies on I-70 from denver to vail and then back on the east bound. That is alot more informative and is narrated by C.W MCcall.

 

yeah that was the old rule of thumb,and it would be great if all mountains were consistent on both sides.but they are not.im glad i have a great jake on my new pete,its awesome.but if i got to the top of parley or donner w/80000 lbs and my jake went out,i could get to the bottom,no sweat,and never blink an eye.some guys have no clue,some no respect for the mountain,those are the guys you see at the bottom on fire.had a guy the other day,blow by me on union pass the other day,tough grade,looked at my student,who was in 4th gear and said idiot.i said watch him.half way down his breaks were smoking and he was on the breaks hard to get it stopped.he got it stopped.of course he was gonna have to sit there for awhile as we tortoised by at 15 miles an hr.lol was a great training moment for my student.

 

Hi Kirk cullum,
I am going to start cdl school soon, wife and I both, was just curios who you train for? Hoping Crete Carrier, one of the company's close to our home we wre taking a look at.

Thanks, Randy

 

Your post reminds me of the last time i went down donners about 12 yrs. ago, a truck went flying past me and a short time later there he was sitting along side the road with all his brakes smoking like crazy. When i was running to the L.A. area i was coming down Cajon pass on I-15 and with no jake,it broke,I was pulling a reefer and loaded to 79,000.Drivers where flying past me asking what was wrong, well i took my time and what do ya know? there all the drivers were sitting in the off ramp to the scales, they were stacked up like cord wood waiting to go across the scales. When i got there they put the big word out and i just slowly cruised by laughing my butt off. By the way where is Union pass, i don't recall that one.Don't know if i went down that or not.

 

union pass is just north of kingman there on us/ah hell cant remember the highway number there.just north of kingman,running into laughlin and bullhead city.its long.good 10 to 12 miles at 6 percent