Did My Engine Brake Just Go Out?

There is very little scarier than to NOT have brakes. I was taking an off ramp to stop for my 30 minute break, when I noticed that I wasn't slowing down like I should, so I applied more pressure on the foot brake, and FINALLY came to a stop. I was able to pull into a truck stop and assess the situation. I also detected the faint smell of brake.

Maybe I was going too fast, I thought. Everything checked out, and I was on my way, once again.

Then I started to notice that my engine brake would not engage when I went down hill. I thought, this can't be good, so I decided to pull into a rest area. Needless to say, I was unable to stop in time, and seeing what looked like smoke in the mirror, I decided to speed up and head for the on ramp.

While driving, back on the interstate , I called maintenance. I was able to get the vehicle slowed down and pulled to the side by driving on a steep hill on the interstate (NOT a runaway ramp).

Maintenance gave me instructions on a reset procedure. I tried that, and it FAILED. Maintenance said to drive carefully, and bring the truck in to maintenance.

Later on as I was driving on the interstate, I noticed that the GREEN LIGHT for the engine brake was NOT lit. I had accidently shut the switch off.

Dave

That might be a lesson to us all, every now and again check and make sure your switches on.

Dave, this might be a good time to put a Post-it note on the dash to remind you to check to make sure that the engine brake is on or off as need be. Then again I'm guessing that after that experience you will not have to be reminded to check.

That might be a lesson to us all, every now and again check and make sure your switches on.

Dave, this might be a good time to put a Post-it note on the dash to remind you to check to make sure that the engine brake is on or off as need be. Then again I'm guessing that after that experience you will not have to be reminded to check.

Well, I USUALLY leave it on. I was going up a steep hill and had my hazards on. When it came time to shut off my hazards, I must have flipped the engine brake switch off at the same time.

Believe me, I'll be paying better attention to that. I almost burned out my regular brakes.

Dave

That's fun stuff. This is not really the same, but I was in the mountains in VA on night, and I cut my headlights to let another truck in that passed me, and when I flipped the switch back up, the toggle came off in my hand, with the headlights still off. At about midnight. That was a waker-upper. I just kept up with the truck in front of me, and got out my pocket knife and used the tip, and luckily I was able to nudge the innards of the switch up and turn the lights back on.

That's fun stuff. This is not really the same, but I was in the mountains in VA on night, and I cut my headlights to let another truck in that passed me, and when I flipped the switch back up, the toggle came off in my hand, with the headlights still off. At about midnight. That was a waker-upper. I just kept up with the truck in front of me, and got out my pocket knife and used the tip, and luckily I was able to nudge the innards of the switch up and turn the lights back on.

Sometimes, if you try and start the vehicle too quickly, the dash lights won't come on if you turn on the headlights. I had that happen to me about a month ago.

Dave

Hey Dave, if you'll take hills in a low enough gear you won't need the foot brake at all to hold you back. If you're using enough brake to actually start smoking them and losing braking force you were really working em way too hard. So I'm not sure what your strategy has been for going downhill, but I always tried getting down the hills without touching the foot brake 95% of the time.

The other thing that can happen, but it's rare with modern self-adjusting brakes, is you can have the brakes adjusted too tightly and they'll drag while you're driving. That heats up the brakes without you even using them and can cause brake fade or brake fires if it's bad enough.

If I was having concerns over the brakes or had work done to them I would regularly walk around the truck whenever I stopped listening for air leaks and checking the temperature of all of the hubs to see if some of the brakes were working harder than others or if some of them weren't working at all. So keep a close eye on that.

When I finally stopped at a Petro for the day, I went in to eat. After dinner, I was walking back to my truck, and I happened to notice that the BLUE AIR HOSE was disconnected. Did I forget? Well I was able to drive from Salt Lake to Evanston, Wyoming, and stop in Evanston for fuel with no problems. Was the hose not on all the way? Maybe. I am usually careful, and try to ensure the hoses are connected all the way? Did some yahoo disconnect it, as a joke, in Laramie? Maybe. Did someone disconnect it as a sick joke in Evanston? I would like to think NO, but I will always have that in the back of my mind.

You hear stories where people who were fired by a company taking it out on another employees equipment. If that is the case, from now on, I'll have to watch my back.

Dave

When we ever stopped at a truckstop, before getting back in the truck, we did a walk around...You just can't trust the sick people out there now...sad but true...

While in the CDL training, I spent two weeks with an OTR driver. He had a new ProStar that had a light test function. His rule was when returning to the truck from any break, activate the light test, do a walk around and thump the tires. Sounds like a good habit to learn and it only takes a minute.

Yeah, next time you have something odd with your brakes make sure you walk around the truck right away and put your hand near the drums to see how much heat are coming off em. Don't touch em - just put your hand near em. That will tell you how much work each of the brakes are doing. If you did indeed leave your blue air line off you would have noticed that the trailer brakes were ice cold and you'd know where to start looking for the problem.