the unnecessary usage of j-brakes, why????

Nothing against motorcycle riders, but why is it a law for a truck weighing in excess of 40 tons sometimes to use his/her jake to slow down in a residential area.......

And a Harely motorcycle(example) can run straight pipes and everybody says cool listen to him go, with no signs up for them.

Some of those motorcycles are just as loud if not worse.

 

The Jake Brake!..is a'good addition to'the Truck" A'Real Help!..On
Hills'.like Tennesee' For instance' Big Help,
Roco
rryanaries@yahoo.com

 

I agree with kc0rey I used my jake as safety equipment anything to help stop 80,000 lbs quicker is a good thing and I would use it whenever and wherever I felt there was a need even in the I-10 tunnel in Mobile.

 

The streach of road on I-40 east going into Albuquerque had one time a no Jake rule, it is a 5% grade for several miles...

 

What is a Jake break?

 

As a four-stroke internal combustion engine, each piston in a diesel normally moves up and down twice in each cycle. For the nit-pickers out there, there are many two-stroke diesel trucks on the road as well. The process begins when the fuel and air valves are closed and the piston moves upward. This compresses the air in the cylinder to as much as 25 times atmospheric pressure. This is much higher compression than a gasoline engine (typically ten times atmospheric pressure) and results in the air getting very hot, about 900 degrees Fahrenheit. At this time fuel is sprayed into the superheated air which immediately begins burning. The second stroke, the power stroke, is the downward movement of the piston as fuel burns. The third stroke is an upward movement with the exhaust valve open to clear out the combustion products while the fourth stroke refills the cylinder with air.


The Jake brake completely changes all this, redefining what the valves do as each piston moves up and down. With the fuel flow terminated, the upward moving first stroke still compresses the air to very high pressure. As said above, this transfers mechanical energy into heat as the air becomes highly compressed. If nothing else were done, most of this energy would be recovered, except for frictional losses, as the cylinder moved back down and the compressed air expanded. The Jake brake, however, opens the exhaust valve just as the air reaches maximum compression, dumping all of that energy in an almost instantaneous explosive release. The result is a very effective slowing of the vehicle as mechanical energy is converted to heat and then dumped. The Jake brake effectively transforms the internal combustion engine into an air compressor.

 

I want one on my car!

 

And a set of train horns also?

 

I rarely turn off my jakes simply because I like that assistance in slowing down. I don't run them in truckstops, rest areas, weigh stations, or some small towns.

As far as the small towns go, I make a judgement call based on the traffic/pedestrian density as well as road conditions at the time that I am travelling through. If it's late at night or early in the morning with nobody on the road, then I see no need for the jakes. If there are a lot of vehicles and/or pedestrians on the road, then my jakes will stay on until I feel the need for them is no longer present.

I do not mindlessly obey the "No Retarders" signs at the expense of the safety of myself and those around me. And I would invite any Fife with a tin star to write me a citation for exercising an awareness for possible hazardous conditions.