…….alive.

Or any load. Today’s trucks with air brakes and Jake brakes make it seem easy. TOO easy sometimes. That could be a problem. Mass and Inertia don’t care….they can fool you. If you get fooled you can die. Worse….you can cause other deaths.

Here’s how I do it…it works for me. First thing. STOP.

I’m talking serious hills now. Like Cabbage or Lizard Head or Pipe Stone or Black Mountain. Not just a downslope somewhere. I’m talking hills where the DOT of that state have deemed it to be a serious hazard and have “taken steps”. There’s always a place to stop and do a “brake check” and generally a sign you’re supposed to read with a map showing the run -a -way truck ramps. There’s a place to stop.

so STOP.

Get out….walk around the rig. Stretch your legs a little. Cause when you get back in the truck it’s time to go to work. You need to be mentally prepared.

You might actually check the rig ..and the load….somewhat too….that never hurts and sometimes it helps.

Next…I always turn off the CB. ..and the AM/FM …and the Sirius/XM (not that I have all that but if I did I’d turn them off) I’m gonna be busy and don’t need the distraction.

Ok….now pull out onto the highway. Go slow. Ignore those yahoo’s buzzing past. This is serious.

down a hill

The goal is to find the right gear that you can “hang” …on your Jakes….. and never touch your air brakes on the way down. You don’t want to use up the air brakes. You might need them. Air brakes CAN be used up. If they get too hot they fade and then ……..no brakes at all. So…find the right gear. This may take a little hunting. The neat thing about going slow is that you CAN stop. It’s actually possible to slow down and drop a gear.going down hill. I do it all the time…but I go down serious hills SLOW.

Like I said…ignore the yahoo’s. On a serious hill like I’m talking about there are a LOT of signs saying things like “slow trucks”..” trucks use lower gear” and like that. It’d be better for someone to hit you from behind than for you to loose it on the down hill. Legally as well as otherwise.

Once a likely candidate gear is determined….roll on. Keep an eye on the tach. The higher the RPM the more “hold” power the jake has….but don’t….really DON’T….. over do it. That way lies a blown engine. I like to keep it right about eighteen or nineteen hundred. I have a twenty (something) hundred rpm Cat but I don’t like it to turn over that fast…so nineteen max. Find a gear such that at seventeen to nineteen hundred rpm the jakes are “holding”….you’re not speeding up….just rolling downhill at the same speed.

down a hill2

That’s why no radio. You need to pay attention to RPM, speed, the road, the curves….and “stuff”. Distractions are bad.

Then just roll. If you get to going too fast for the jakes just tap the service brakes a little and slow down. My rule of thumb is drop back to fifteen hundred rpm. If you have to do this TOO much….such that the service brakes are in ANY danger of overheating….step on the brakes…come to an almost stop…and drop a gear. If you miss the gear? Well you’re almost stopped. You have backup….it’s not critical as if you were going ninety. You grab the right gear and continue. All this assumes youre in the right lane. It’d be really, really stupid to get in the hammer lane going down hill with a heavy load. If you overtake a slower truck….don’t pass. Just slow down some more. What’s the hurry?

That’s it. That’s the whole secret. Ride your Jakes down. Don’t touch the service brakes unless you have too.
It takes a while and everyone including kids on skateboards can pass you…but who cares? Like an old man once told me.” You can come off a mountain too slow an infinite number of times….but you only come off it too fast once….then you take a short ride in a hearse.”

So why push the envelope? I promise….the bottom of the mountain is still gonna be there when YOU get there…..no matter how slow you go. Cabbage has a sign that has weights and recommended speeds for those weights. If I remember rightly if you weigh eighty thousand or so the top recommended speed is fifteen miles per hour.

I’ve come off cabbage weighing twice that. (and…going half that speed). Why should I care how long it takes? I’m normally going to stop at the Arrowhead for the night anyway….another thirty minutes isn’t going to matter.

If a heavy haul can come off a hill weighing twice, three times or more what a freight hauler weighs….what excuse does said freighthauler have for smokeing brakes? Or crashing. Of course if he crashes he doesn’t need an excuse…he’s likely dead.