Safest way to drive downhill?

Rarely do I see any trucks going the designated/posted truck speed down hill. Sad but true.

 

Pick a gear that will keep you off the floor brake, use that jake brake and most important, don't let the super truckers influence how you drive-you are captain of your ship.

 

And some of them end up burning up their trailer. I've seen it at the grapevine in SoCal

 

The regs for determining the truck downhill speed limit were written back when engine brakes weren't standard. You're going to want to do that speed in a '70s truck with no Jake, loaded to 80K.

 

First off, who cares how fast all the other idiots go. You need to go a safe speed. Secondly, you can use the jake int he rain, just be prepared to turn it off in the highly unlikely event your truck looses grip. (your more likely to skid by using brakes in rain, but to stop the skid, you just relece brakes. With Jake on, you need to hit a switch which may take longer.)

The proper way to decend a hill is to be in a gear low enough that you rairly need to use your foot brake. You need to get to know your truck. You should get a feel for what % grade and weight requiers what gear. In the mean time, go in a lower gear then you think. You can go to slow all day long. You can go to fast only once.

When descending the hill, use your jake and try an maintain a safe speed. If your in the right gear, the jake should hold you motor back and the rpm / speed shouldn't rise much. If your in to high a gear, it will creep up. Most drivers use speed, but i prefer going by rpm. When rpm gets near 1900 or so, use the brake to slow it to 1400 or so. Apply the brake hard enough to do this in 3 seconds. Repeat as necessary but don't hold the brake more then 3 seconds. Dont shift on the downgrade untill you are within half mile of the end and there are no turns in the way. NEVER hold brakes or ride them lighlty. Never pulce brakes quickly (unless on ice/snow) since this will quickly use up your air. If air alarms go off, stop the truck at all cost. At 30 psi, your spring brakes will come on and you wont have controll, so when the alarm goes off, try to stop. If you get bellow 90 psi, try to brake harder so you dont need to repeat as soon.

 

Please dont think this guy is serious. This is flat out dangerous and on most hills he would be way faster then 80

 

That is ~correct, but they probably said "lower than you used to climb the front side of the grade", but that's a "general rule", a starting point. The "right" gear is the gear that precludes braking, including for corners.

If the road is clear and dry and your Jake will hold you there, that's fine.

You get a few more miles and you'll see the occasional driver crawling down a grade, apparently FAR slower than necessary. You can go downgrade "too slow" 10K times; too fast, just once.

No kidding...!

Huh. Musta been a rookie trainer...

And you shouldn't.

As your instructors instructed. I drove everywhere as if my rig had no brakes.

It's a safe bet everything you see most other drivers doing is pretty close to exactly how it shouldn't be done. "If you drive like everyone else, you're doing it wrong".

You drive your truck, let them continue to imagine they're driving theirs.

 

Or only drive in Kansas. Everyone was a rookie at sometime. A good driver respects every hill everytime. When I see a driver that is going slow off a hill I don't think what rookie. Just opposite. The guy knows his limits and is trying to it the right way. You get the howdy wave from this old timer.

 

I have stupid autoshift and so I put breaks on going up or crest of hill so drops into lower gear. Jake in 3 position before going downhill never touch the breaks unless absolutely have to

 

Just put it in manual mode and downshift as you crest the hill.