plz help!

^^^ GEAR DOWN. If you gear down enough, the engines natural compression will help slow you down. It doesnt matter if you crawl down at 5mph. Yes, a Jake is great, but even a Jake is useless if youre in the wrong gear.

One more thing, It's your name, your license and record on the line. Do not allow any desk jockey to pressure you to drive a truck that you do not think is safe. What's the worst thing that can happen? They "threaten" to fire you? I've told deskjocks before, "I can quit you at 0800 and have another job at 0803 and to go intercourse thyself."

 

I have hauled 45k of paper through the same hills without a jake. Go slow and "snub" brake (did they change the name? It was stab braking when I went to school). If you overheat your brakes you started out too fast. What part of Wisconsin you going to? Southwest has some hills but the rest of the state has a total of 6 hills with 7k in the box I imagine you will probably live to see another day.

Also why is there an APU on a team truck?

 

I do dedicated runs wi, mn, ia, mi. I can tell you don't worry about jake breaks, I never use em around these parts. But if I were you, I'd refuse that load until the tractor is fixed. Shop knows better, then the guy looking at the screen all day long.

 

Not saying the company is right here but if I owned the company and you refused to haul a 7k load from Texas to Wisconsin (very few hills the entire way) because your jake brake wasn't working and the APU on a team truck wasn't working I would fire you.

 

Welcome to the trucking industry.

 

you don't need a jake, that is what the have those things, oh what are the called, brakes for. Learn how to use the transmission, and brakes properly and you will not need the jakes. APU's totally not necessary. If the DOT said your truck was good to go. You tried those excuses with my company, I would bring you back to the terminal and have you pack your gear up and tell you that you needed to go drive a trash truck locally. After doing that for about six months you would learn to appreciate driving a truck that actually rode, drove, and the AC worked. That's right no jakes in the trash truck either. Let me go out and check my 92 Pete, oops the Jakes quit working about 4 years ago, nope don't need them. My dad ran glass in that truck from KC to NJ without any Jakes, never broke a piece. If you want to be pampered you came to the wrong field.

By the way I am just venting, because I have heard to much crap from wannabe truckers over the last few years.

Here are just a few.

The CD player is broken, I lost the remote to the stereo.
I don't have sirus on the stereo.
The mirror just flew off as I was driving down the road (it really did so he got a giveme)
I can't change that blinker because I don't know how. Wait a minute I showed you that at the terminal!
The cruise is not working properly, well dingle pull down the visor and read the proper operations of the truck

I could go on and on about how this new generation of driver believes that the world should be handed to them. Once again I will point out to this driver, that DOT said your truck was fine. Learn how to adapt and overcome, or get out of the truck and go back home.

 

First mountain I did with out a Jake for training was parlays summit 2nd was Grapevine..

 

This post sorta scares me. Best of luck to the OP.

 

I don't think so - I'm in school now and learning stab braking, but it's when you're trying to stop fast and you don't have antilock brakes.

 

Wow I did several runs in the past from NYC to Chicago in my truck which has no engine brake at all. Never ever ever had to worry about the brakes, never. Then I spent 8 weeks driving between Denver and slc with the same truck and never had an issue with the brakes fully loaded both ways.

Complaining about the engine brake shows you don't yet understand how to drive but the other issue is something that needs to be checked. By the way hoping to get put out of service goes on your record too, and seems to be totally childish at best. Maybe you need to reevaluate your skills before you worry about the company.