My brakes are smoking when on steep grades.

Company driver. I'm driving a loaded tank on 5fwy north going down the grapevine. I kept the truck at 35mph the whole long down grade. Towards the bottom of the grade my breaks were smoking heavily. The tractor and trailer breaks. I have pulled over to let the brakes cool down. I'm still seeing some material in the break shoes. Looks like the breaks are still working. Can I continue to drive after the breaks cool down or do I need to call emergency maintenance?

 

Did you use your brakes to keep you at 35 or the engine brake .....

You will have to wait for everything to cool off before driving - roughly 45-60 minutes

 

I used the breaks because this truck is an automatic unfortunately. But although automatic it still did apply some engine breaking. Just not as much as I would like. Thanks for the advice yeah I will just sit and wait for about 60 minutes.

 

I've had that happen and I kept driving until the smoke stopped.
This was on an interstate where I could drive the speed limit and not have to stop.
By stopping, there's risk of a major fire on the side of the highway. By continuing to drive, the smoking will stop within a few minutes.

 

Just in case you didn't know ( or if you're allowed ) you can switch your truck into manual mode and gear down yourself.

 

hey bud did nobody teach you how to run mountains? grapevine is a small hill compared to others and if you are going north you need to learn quick... you need to use the engine break and find a speed that it will hold it at. i dont know automatic transmissions very well or how to get it to stay in gear going down a hill. maybe @Cattleman84 would know... but its very important you understand how to run mountains in a big truck or you will end up like that guy out in colorado that just got 100 years prison sentance

 

If the brakes are smoking DO NOT pull over right away. Cool em down 1st or you risk a fire

 

And don't stand next to them until they are cool.

 

Yes exactly that's what flashed in my mind as soon as I saw the breaks smoking, the Colorado guy. Thanks alot. There are some gear shifts here on this automatic I'm gonna experiment with to downshift.

 

Thank you sir God I got so lucky. I pulled over in fear I would lose the breaks. It didn't catch fire luckily but I know for sure next time.