They put those brake check pull off's there for a reason.

I pull in and spend some QT on Pornhub. But I also don't have a hottie at the house like @God prefers Diesels

 

I really wish they’d stop using the term “brake failure”. I’d wager a guess that an actual failure of some sort plays a roll in a very small percentage of these wrecks. Call it what it is. Driver error. Especially on Donner where there are signs that literally tell you when you can let your truck roll to cool your brakes off.

 

Well, ya remember the ol" days, you got out with your 9/16" box end wrench and went back to adjust your brakes. Before these new fangle self-adjusting "slack adjusters".

 

Even without auto slacks, I still wouldn't adjust my brakes there. I adjust them in the comfort of my driveway. Last time I was at a brake check, there was 2" of slush on the ground. Screw crawling around in that unless I have to.

 

Forget the slush, I ain't crawling around under there without a hazmat suit.

 

I didn't tell you what the slush was made of...

 

Well Thanks to idiots.. they did away with those .. Because drivers were to stupid to understand rightie tightie....leftie loosie

 

I go under and check, so do my drivers. None of us have that much faith in automatic slacks, and the only way to know what you have for brakes is go under there and check the travels. They shouldn’t need adjustment if the slacks are working right, but that’s a big if. Look at the picture on my profile. We have to get down off of #### like that all the time with b-trains at 140,000lbs. Automatic slacks are too unpredictable, you never really know how many brakes you have available to you at any given time. You might have a few that you wouldn’t get a lot of brake effort out of until the application pressure is off the scale. It doesn’t make much difference on more or less level ground if they don’t all adjust equally or you have one or more over adjusting a bit. You probably wouldn’t even notice stopping the truck normally. But, descending something steep and having your Jake quit for whatever reason is a bad time to find out you can’t get any use out of 2 or 3 of your brakes without setting fire to the other ones first. You could find yourself in a bad way. Only takes a few minutes to check, and big hills have no mercy. A hill big enough to have a brake check is probably more than capable of killing you. Gravity never takes a day off, but I’ve seen wheel brakes and engine brakes do it lots of times for any number of reasons. A hill that big won’t give you a second chance to get it right. At the top, when you’re stopped, is a better time to find out your brakes aren’t 100% than part way down.

 

Disposable painters coveralls have saved me an unpleasant experience or two I think. Been times I seriously questioned the composition of that slush.

 

I used to have to adjust my brakes a few times a day due to the steep hills I'd run all day. Automatic slack adjusters are definitely nice. I know drivers who have never had to adjust their own brakes. Many wouldn't know how and some would refuse to even do it. It used to just be part of the job.

 

I usually adjust my brakes in a rest area in route before getting to those hilltops. Depends In the brake check areas. Some have a red/green light. No parking.

Others have enough room to park. Do a walk around. I'll pull the trailer brakes, release and go.