What Happens When You Don’t Do A Brake Check In California

How? Do you measure stroke at every brake check area to make sure one set isn't making contact before the other three? I mean you personally. What would you personally have done at a brake check area that would have prevented this?

 

So you think the brake check area on the top of a mountain would majically fix this? No, dumba** went downhill way too fast, and rode the brakes.

 

I think the hope is that a driver might stop and check things out. Maybe smell the brakes or see smoke, at least give things a chance to cool.

By the time you get to that brake check area you have already come down a part of the hill.

 

FYI, I go down Monarch, Wolf Creek, Lookout, Fourth of July, Sonqualmie, etc very frequently. Been dpwn a few steep one in I think TN and WV too.

I've never stopped at a brake check. I also go down hills at speeds where jakes can hold me. Maybe 30mph, maybe 50. Depends on the load and the grade.

But i make it down these grades and never touch my brakes

 

All the check areas I see are at the top of the pass, never seen one on the grade.

Maybe different in the east though

 

Stopping at brake check areas, Most I've been at have a map of whats ahead. Starting downhill from a stop, compared to downhill rolling at 55-70mph. This will help you keep a slower roll.
I always pull the trailer brake to check if they work. Tractor is not as easy to tell.. I do adjust them if I feel my brakes are weak. I usually check my brakes every time I get into a mountain range. If it's dry, usually in a rest area.

 

Right. Brake check areas are a holdover from the days before automatic slack adjusters.

Just like the weekly hour rule (now 70) was supposed to protect unionized trucking companies from more efficient non-union competitors back in the days when the ICC was setting fixed freight rates.