Jake Brake Question

I sent this to my dad who has been working on semis for 30 years and had been a shop manager now for almost 15 years and he laughed and replied with "you drivers come up with the strangest theories".

Good idea, Grumpy. Do your thing once you go solo. Just grin and bare it for now. You are going to gain the most knowledge once you're on your own anyhow. One day at a time, one load at a time, sometimes one mile marker at a time.

I'm driving an LT625 now also, Rainy. I find it useful to vary that selector by weight. Light load, 1....medium, 2....heavy...3. Sometimes change to higher even with lighter load if in mountains.

My FLs had Hi and Lo. My international has 1, 2, 3. I only use 2.

I leave my jakes on at all times weather permitting. So when slowing at an intersection, taking a ramp, etc, im already slowing just by lifting my foot off the accelerator. It feels weird to me now if they aren't on.

In the event the jake isn't holding going downhill, i simply service brake then downshift and the jake holds. In my FL manual, i put it in 7th gear and rode the jakes down Monteagle without ever touching my service brake. In this autoshift International, I did the same on Cabbage. In bad weather without using the jake, I downshift 2 more gears.

The whole point of the jakes if to not burn up your brakes....going downhil and constantly riding them will smoke them or worse....cause a fire.

I'm driving an LT625 now also, Rainy. I find it useful to vary that selector by weight. Light load, 1....medium, 2....heavy...3. Sometimes change to higher even with lighter load if in mountains.

My FLs had Hi and Lo. My international has 1, 2, 3. I only use 2.

I leave my jakes on at all times weather permitting. So when slowing at an intersection, taking a ramp, etc, im already slowing just by lifting my foot off the accelerator. It feels weird to me now if they aren't on.

In the event the jake isn't holding going downhill, i simply service brake then downshift and the jake holds. In my FL manual, i put it in 7th gear and rode the jakes down Monteagle without ever touching my service brake. In this autoshift International, I did the same on Cabbage. In bad weather without using the jake, I downshift 2 more gears.

The whole point of the jakes if to not burn up your brakes....going downhil and constantly riding them will smoke them or worse....cause a fire.

I had about 40,000 pounds, using low setting in PA hills, just to keep speed from creeping up.

I may have posted this elsewhere, but yesterday, I smelled the brakes fairly strong when he was driving. Obviously, I don't have enough experience to know, but smelling burning brakes was alarming to me.

Obviously, I don't have enough experience to know, but smelling burning brakes was alarming to me.

To be honest I'm not sure you can smell your own brakes while you're driving. I've smoked the brakes before on the trailer and couldn't smell anything while I was driving. I think if you're smelling brakes while you're driving you're probably smelling someone else's.

Also, the smell of brakes does indicate that they're getting hot but it's not necessarily overheating. Smoke is the definitive sign of overheating.

Jake/Engine brakes are there for a reason. I can say for sure he has never been on I-40 east of Asheville, NC going down hill to Old Fort, NC. The posted truck speed is 35mph and is heavily enforced. Constant S-curves on mountain side going down a 7% grade for 4 miles. I have seen many a truck on the Old Fort turn off with a brake fire.

Obviously, I don't have enough experience to know, but smelling burning brakes was alarming to me.

To be honest I'm not sure you can smell your own brakes while you're driving. I've smoked the brakes before on the trailer and couldn't smell anything while I was driving. I think if you're smelling brakes while you're driving you're probably smelling someone else's.

Also, the smell of brakes does indicate that they're getting hot but it's not necessarily overheating. Smoke is the definitive sign of overheating.

I thought the same thing, but there were no trucks in front of us. Unless it was from way in front of us.

I thought the same thing, but there were no trucks in front of us. Unless it was from way in front of us.

Yeah, that smell is potent and can linger for quite a while. It's something I had thought about quite a bit over the years and I just don't know how it would be possible to smell your own brakes while you're driving. Maybe if it was the front axle that was really hot, but it wouldn't be.

You can also pull off the road once you get to the bottom and find a safe spot, then walk around the truck to see if the brakes smell or if they're smoking at all. If you got the brakes that hot you can put your hand near the drum (don't touch it!) and feel the heat radiating off it.