Semi stopped near bottom of the hill. Much smoke.

From every thing I have ever been told yes it would have. Luckily I have never had the experience

 

I think he panicked once he saw the brake pedal almost sink to the floor and decided it be better to stop he should kept going because once he stopped and applied the brakes thru the knobs on the dash his brake pads and the drums fuse together because of the heat and thats the end of the road for him.

 

Brakes take a lot of heat before they get to that level. Consequently, they take a long time before they expel all of that heat. Going up another grade would obviously let them cool a bit, but not enough to be safe before going down the other side.

 

Best to stop and wait. Then see if it would be safe to continue after inspecting the equipment.

You've been-----\/\/\/\-----Thunderstruck!!!
With a ThunderStick

 

Brakes will melt everything. Thats why Railroads have hot box dectectors. I saw a SantaFe train East of Belen NM doing about 70 MPH at night once and the axles on 1 car were red from the heat. I smoked mine around the 86 mm in Utah going W on 70. This was in the 70s when we didnt have Jake Brakes on a VT903 Cummins. They would run and put out about 380 HP but with 80,000 gross got the brakes hot. I didnt stop but it impressed me.

 

Yea dude they will actually fuse when you go to release them they wont release some will some wont plus the ones that do release they will actually be missing chunks of pad and they will be stuck to the rim or you will see the pads just cracked and mangled softer than jello plus if you manage to stop you must wait al least 1hr before even thinking of inspecting or getting close because at that point the tire can blow up and kill you!

 

Boy.........It surprises me what they come up with on here. Most of them GUESSING :smt017 and not knowing the true fact's. Most of them with NOT to much experience but know it all.

 

but the huge amounts of heat that is present from brakes hot enough to smoke does not dissipate very fast when you stop and are in still air, so if you have any kind of seals leaking from being bad or the excessive heat, that is a great time to have a fire.