plz help!

I'd get the jake fixed. They can't route you through a terminal?

 

Grrrrrr, don't bite me

 

I read this thread before starting to work today and I've been cogitating about it all day. Here's my thoughts:

1. The DOT is correct that the jake isn't essential to safely run a truck. Many a driver has run mountains with heavy loads without it, and you should learn how to do it as well.

2. While I was a trainer at Swift the trainees weren't supposed to use the jake at all for the first 50 hours of training (with the trainer in the passenger seat). That was the official policy, but unofficially I always taught my trainees how the jake works, the fact that it works based on horsepower and not torque with peak horsepower at around 1500 rpm, how and why it will cancel, and how to use it in conjunction with cruise control. I would never start the team phase of driving and be in the sleeper berth with a trainee at the wheel that didn't know how to use the jake, even during the "weaning phase" of team driving (sleeping with clothes on and ready to jump into the passenger's seat at a moment's notice).

The adage that you need to descend grade in a gear or two less than you climb it is largely based on not using a jake. With a jake you can descend a grade in about the same gear or even higher gear than you climbed.

The principles of descend with or without a jake are the same. Use snub braking in a 6 to 1 ratio with letting it run against the jake or coasting without a jake. For every second you apply the brakes you should have six seconds without the brakes to allow them to cool. Snub braking is NOT stomping on the brakes as hard as you can, it's a gradual application to about 20 lbs psi and a gradual release.

I wholeheartedly disagree with the notion that you should never shift on a downgrade. Everyone should learn how to do that. Practice it. There WILL be times you will need to be able to do it, and it's best to have practiced it as a matter of routine. Simply snub brake until the rpm's drop to around 800 (around the rpm's that the jake will cancel if you are using a jake), then make your downshift to around 1300 rpm's. By dropping the rpm's that low you have a chance to "chase" the downshift up to 1500 rpm's if you don't immediately get it as the truck picks up speed. If you miss it completely remember the speed you were at and just apply brakes again to get back down to that speed and try again. No need for panic at all, this should be routine.

All that being said, your company really should fix the jake. Do you know whether they checked the fuse? If not, check it yourself. Find out which fuse is for the jake and check it. It really could be that simple.

 

Good points both of them, but let's remember they pulled into a scale and basically asked DOT to put them out of service. Do we really need those type of drivers out here? If you wonder why a lot of us are being so hard on her, that is the main reason. I realize that every rookie is going to make mistakes, and that not every truck is perfect. Coddling individuals that do not understand the basics of the lifestyle is not needed. They are the ones that end up cutting over in front of others and gripe about us not flashing our brights to let them in. They are the ones that try and run my wife off the road after the two blinker rule goes into effect. They are the ones that are downtown KC yesterday trying to run over the hood of my daughters car, after she backed up to try and help them out. The noob opened the door and started yelling at her to get the F*** out of the way, when he should have not been there in the first place. The feeling that you need a Jake is the same feeling that the noob will have as they are sliding down the mountain this winter because of improper training. This is why almost all the training companies don't want them to use jakes in the first place, they also don't usually have trolly bars either. The noob barely can hold the wheel, has no business using devices as such until they understand the basic principles of how to properly handle the machine.

You look as if you were an excellent trainer, don't think I would be suggesting to a noob about downshifting going down a grade. They will panic, they will smoke the brakes, they will end up off the side of the mountain. That is a skill that only the best of shifters can master. Hope you don't hit the wrong gear and blow that engine up one day, have seen that happen to one of the best shifters who used that technique. Like I tell my drivers I can buy a lot of brakes for the price of that $30,000 engine.

 

It's been my experience that when the Jake goes out it's been a symptom of another bigger problem. It would be in their best interest to get it in.

Until then just getter in a lower gear and don't ride the braked too hard. I see too many guys smoking and ready to catch on fire out there already.

 

There is more to come trust me.

 

The Jake brake works on compression horsepower has nothing to do with it.

 

Stop paying peanuts and you won't have to hire monkeys

 

While that's true from an the internal mechanical perspective....Everything else about it from your finger to the head is Electrical.....and I'd bet dollars to donuts the problem is somewhere along the 9million miles of cabling&sensors in these new trucks

 

The brain and nerve controls are also a function of electric impulses so from the finger to the head in the other direction is all electric too. I'm betting the biggest problem is some frayed wires on that end.