plz help!

Ok you pros.. Give a lesson, in addition to tooting your horn that you can drive down any hill fully loaded down with just a leprechaun standing on your catwalk dragging his magic shillelagh across the back of your tires.


I think there is a big difference from what we're learning in school and actual driving experience (ya think?) so it would be great if some reassurance came down the 'pike? Not just that you all drive broken rigs...so buck up (even if you do, and even if we need to...)

 

Well, I don't mean to sound harsh but if you had to pull over to cool your brakes down then either you were going way too fast or more likely you didn't need to pull over. In 9 years OTR the only time I had to pull over because of hot brakes was when I lost my trailer brakes pulling 45k down the Grapevine. Even then, although my tractor brakes were literally smoking they didn't feel all that different.

If my Jake went out tomorrow it wouldn't change my driving all that much. Now trying to get yourself put out of service is honestly the biggest rookie move I've ever heard of. Why in God's name would you do that? If you honestly feel the truck is that unsafe then call the safety department. DOT is NEVER there to help a truck driver! All they do is lighten your wallet and do their best to ruin your career. And to pull in for a jake is a bit dramatic.

You have to understand that very few of us drive trucks that have no problems. There is a difference between a problem and danger, you need to learn those.

 

What is a Jake break? Is that something to do with HOS?

 

If I'm not mistaken the OP said it was a team operation , and had driven only 7,000 miles. Where is the trainer during all of this , why doesn't the trainer actually train the OP how to negotiate a hill without an engine brake , why doesn't the trainer , train the OP....just curious.

 

Ok, the mere fact that dispatch sent you 2 to Laredo, is because the shop does NOT SEE having no jake brake a safety issue. As a driver, and yes even though you are new, I can only surmise your co-driver is your trainer, Frankly (and if he/she is), then that person should have shown you how to gear down an automatic.

If however your co-driver is another newbie, then as 2 noobs out there, you really gotta use BOTH heads, like maybe one perhaps read any owners manual in the truck?

There you go, now at the very least 3 people told you the truck was fine to drive..Your shop, Your dispatcher (who get's the ok from the shop) and the DOT.

Frankly ASKING the DOT for them to put you out if service can be construed by your company that you wish no longer to work for them, and this can be bad, should they have a back up driver waiting at some truckstop when you pull in, and he yanks your butts out of the truck and leaves you there.

And so..?? you hate that truck, in another posting you say you want to do flat bedding...Ok, what will you do when you have to struggle with the tarps in high winds, bone chilling cold and ice???

What will you do when the straps are frozen to the bed, or that you have to spend several hours shoveling and breaking ice off the flat bed..?? you gonna hate that too..???

You hate your current employer, why because you are so darned new that everything is supposed to be perfect, is that what your school told you that every day everything will be perfect..??

You had better wise up and toughen up now...

Cuz frankly, you sound like a guy with all your complaints, and I thought that I was once told, the female sex was the tougher one..???

 

Who's Jake?

 

It is the duty of the driver to make sure the truck is SAFE to operate if not don't drive it ,dispatch has NOTHING to say in the matter.

 

I think that is a Jack Break.

 

Correct , but either a non-working APU , or a non-working engine brake is or are a safety issue...neither one are DOT required /mandated safety components to a commercial vehicle.