What does it feel like to smoke your brakes?
Posted by psychic_legume@reddit | Truckers | View on Reddit | 25 comments
I'm driving concrete trucks and haven't gotten crazy enough to smoke my brakes, but I saw a truck smoking his brakes for about 7 miles down i-70 into Denver. His trailer was smoking when I first saw him, and his drives close to the bottom, and I never got close enough to see if his steers were smoking. Hauling ass too, 65 or more the whole way down. Still smoking after a mile or so of flat. How easy is it to tell your brakes are billowing smoke out behind you? Does the pedal feel different? How long can the brakes smoke before you'll start running away?
AsphaltPirate74@reddit
The closest I've gotten to smoking my brakes is being able to smell them. Happens occasionally in the city when mashing on the pedal too much, once going down a mountain when I was new because I didn't start in a low enough gear before going down.
Having to keep pressing the brakes every 10 seconds because the truck speed kept climbing up quick with the rpms running towards the red, while fully loaded and the engine brake fully engaged gave me a damn near heart attack. Never again. Take your time and go slow.
StrideCypher@reddit
Wow you techometer got near the red line? Im not sure how Jake brakes would work if your going over 5000 RPM?
Dont you stop gaining more engine resistance once you get to a ceirtain threshold RPM wise?
Is you engine and transmission wearing out quicker at higher RPMs but you have the same holding engine resistance as if you were below 3500 RPMs?
HowlingWolven@reddit
Your jakes keep gaining effectiveness until the point your engine explodes in overspeed.
StrideCypher@reddit
I know the jakes keep working as long as the engine is intact, im curious about the potential effectiveness of the jakes with the added momentum from the weight and gravity?. I know in car engines you have no extra resistance accumalating towards the 3000 rpm range, would it be true for jake brakes which are an extra added part of an engine and not just part of the compression piston upstroke?
AsphaltPirate74@reddit
I said running towards it, it never got to it.
jqmallah@reddit
Once you smell them, you are already behind it. Slow down before the hill, pick the lower gear early, and let the engine hold as much as it can. Riding service brakes all the way down is how they get hot enough that the pedal starts feeling useless.
PlastomaGaming@reddit
Oh yea I remember a few weeks ago I was on i44 before a hill and smelled brakes BAD and sure enough some mother fucker crashed into a car. Didn’t feel too bad bcuz the guy was driving like an absolute jackass going like 85ish in a 70 that going into a work zone.
Ok_Bug_6470@reddit
The smell. My first company didn’t believe in Jake brakes so we did not have them. I was a rookie and knew it all. It was dark night on a mountain highway in NC and a curve came out of nowhere and I wasn’t paying enough attention and I slammed on my brakes and smoked them to where I had no brakes. None. As soon as they failed I thought I was done. Like it was over, Johnny. Just then the highway straightened out and a shoulder appeared out of nowhere and I was able to coast over and stop. I sat in that seat for 30 minutes calming down. Btw, I’m the slow guy going down hills.
westknight12@reddit
Probably holding on tighter to the seat cushion than to the steering wheel. I learned from it, shift down enough to the point where your engine cam hold most of the load and only brake in intervalls with relative force, to slow down enough and allow breathing windows for the brakes to cool.
Happened to me on my third gig for the first time. I was going downhill into a town, with a bus stopping in the middle of the road, to let people out. I put my engine brake on full force and pushed my pedal down far enough to where i felt comfortable, only for it to start to smell and my brake force fading halfway down the hill.
Engaged my handbraked slowly, to give my service brakes a breather, without locking up my rear wheels, and then after a few seconds, i stomped them full force and shifted it into fifth. Came to a halt just before the pedestrian crossing., maybe 15 ft infront of it
CMDR-L@reddit
Harder bursts of brakes with time off the pedal is a more effective way of braking. Lets them cool in bursts if my understanding is correct. Let it rise 5 mph, brake 7mph, repeat, and if there is a "stale" green light, make sure you are well prepared to stop for it.
HowlingWolven@reddit
This is correct. You dissipate the same energy with a squeeze and hold as you do with regular snubs, but the regular snubs get better airflow between lining and drum/disk, and thus, better cooling
HowlingWolven@reddit
The pedal won’t feel different, because it’s air and there’s no feedback through it. You’ll feel them fade, though, and you’ll smell them. You’ll also rectally absorb your seat cushion when you feel your brakes going.
The smell of hot brakes (and hot clutch) is unmistakable. Pungent.
That driver you saw shouldn’t be running mountains. 70 EB into den den is one of the ones you don’t fluff with. Take it slow, let the jakes hold, get it slow enough that you don’t need to snub. Just put the blinkies on and fluff all the cars behind.
unloader86@reddit
On a mountain? I did it once. Got going downhill too fast in the Appalachian mountains. Wasn't a fun time.
Melodic-Magazine-174@reddit
Honestly the smell is usually my first tell once i smell the slightest i pull over & just wait for them to cool
HM02_High@reddit
There's a foundry near where I live, and the smell gets me every time because it reminds me of what hit brakes smell like.
Emergency-Bus-998@reddit
This is what I had to do yesterday
MostOriginalNameEver@reddit
Once you do it the smell you won't forget.
Mfenix09@reddit
Well, I remember being passed one night heading into vail on i-70 by a FedEx double, I could see the brakes glowing red like lava, next day I come back and that trailer is burnt down on the side of the road in vail (on the straight through vail). I've never lost braking (I've stamped on the brakes though and freights moved pushing out the headboard of the van by a few inches). I have lost jake brakes though, heading into denver and basically stopped at the top of every hill for 10-15 mins as I was using my brakes. Eventually found out how to trip the jake brake switch in the clutch and smooth sailing.
Whitehoneybun666@reddit
Had it happen to me going down deadman pass in Oregon I belive was driving a pos truck with a major air leak was at 78k going down a mountain with no trailer brakes
Usual_Safety@reddit
Feels really bad when you get to call boss man and explain that your shit is on fire
MajorHymen@reddit
Feels like you got two gas pedals because no matter which one you push that speedometer keeps on a climbing.
Baconated-Coffee@reddit
I usually prefer to smoke a ham or brisket
NoMasterpiece2063@reddit
Kinda feels like brake fade on a regular car but with much more dire consequences
MssMoodi@reddit
Only smoked my brakes once and that's when the pet cock fell off and the air was just going straight through I had no brakes going northbound on the Grapevine it was not fun and I just smoked them a little they were red hot and I just smoked him a little bit I just let her roll
Upbeat-Interview8554@reddit
Happens to me when I have to work up in the hills transporting asphalt. Last week I was coming down a hill at 45 miles an hour in a 55 and had to come to a stop at the bottom of the 7% hill, I wanna say a good 1000 feet.
I was braking and dropping gears and my truck was fighting me to slow down. I made the tag axle and rear wheels smoke up. I could feel the braking was weakening more and more but luckily the light turned green again and I let off. I don’t think I would have stopped in time. I drove the rest of the way giving enough space and time to not need to brake again hoping the brakes cooled off by the time I got to the job site.
It’s almost instant loss of braking once they smoke up it feels like. When I got to the job site I inspected them and they looked fine. I just did a couple turn key brake adjustments and was good. You notice the smoke but before the smoke there’s a smell. It’s nasty. I drove way slower next time lol