So first time overheating brakes

And what happens when the little 14 gauge wire powering the jake actuators decides that's a good spot it wants to break. Personally i prefer to go down a hill at a speed that my brakes can safely stop without the need of the engine brake.

 

Some of you guys are funny. 2 year old thread and still giving advice. By now the OP has probably learned a thing or two. Sometimes we are lucky when mistakes happen and we learn what not to do again.

 

Didn't catch it was that old of a thread. Jay saw it on the front page. Good eye.

 

I've had a few oh crap moments running rebar out in the KY hills coal country.
Actually melted a tire once
There comes a moment of no return
The more you brake, the more it smokes and the faster you go.
9 on the sphincter scales

 

I also had that problem in Yellowstone
Running down a hill and suddenly realized it was black ice
Thank God Everytime I came up on a car no one was in the other lane coming up.
That's a lesson I'll never forget.

 

Didnt notice it was a two year old hackle. Oh well, good day.

 

how much does replacing the drums and shoes roughly cost?

 

See I don't really understand why guys are being lazy about checking their brakes, ever since I got my CDL, company to company and my own truck always check and readjust the brakes every 2 weeks when it's getting greased. Making sure there is plenty of pad, nothing is broken, they all have the same size slack adjusters, if one set of pads is wearing out faster on one side than the other then making sure it gets fixed right away, I've ran grapevine many many of times and never have smoked the brakes, for the c15 to hold me back on a 6%.i gotta be down at 25mph but most of my loads are 105,500 lbs in Washington and Oregon and it's about 90% mountain driving, I'll run down hills snubbing the brakes all day and it's completely fine when I know all my brakes are good, good rule of thumb is half the posted speed limit for downhill runs, I'll usually go down around 30 let it run up to 35 hard snub back down to 30 and repeat, I can go down a 6% grade for 4 miles then come to stop at the bottom and my brakes are barely warm, no smoke, no brake fade, going on a year and a half with this truck and have only had to change out the front brakes so far, drives and trailer brakes still have plenty of pad and drum thickness. Don't be lazy and use the excuse of oh it's the companies truck so it should be the companies responsibility to check the brakes. No as a matter of fact you should be the one checking your brakes since you're the one driving it every day and if there's an issue you need to put your foot down and tell the company hey I'm not driving this anymore till this gets fixed. Because at the end of the day if you run into the back of someone, you cause an accident or you're upside down at the bottom of the hill it's your ### on the line and your fault for not making sure your brakes were in good working order. A quick 15 minutes every other week is a small amount of effort to put in to potentially save your driving career cause when it comes down to it if you're running for a big company they don't give a ####, they'll pay the $500 deductible get a new truck, fire your ### and hire a new steering wheel holder and not even take a second look back at you and you'll be the one jobless, injured or imprisoned hoping there's some chance of a career or life in trucking afterwards

 

Its called doing the bare minimum.

 

99% are just that lazy.