To the fellow with the Jake brake on I-75

Hay hay hay

Well-known Member
Today you pulled along side of me as we drove up I-75 on flat ground. I was the guy pulling the horse trailer. Just to have a little fun you decided to pull the jake brake, not once, not twice, but 3 times. Wow that was funny! My horse broke her wall tie, snapped her halter and fell down in the trailer. You sure have some great sense of humor.

Will you please notify me when your mother dies so I can drive up and down the street in front of the church during the funeral , blowing my horn, squeeling my tires and playing my boom box. I want to give her a proper big noise send-off. She had you, so she surely appreciates big noise, with no substance.

You are so cool. I doubt that you will be reading this...or reading anything at all.
 
Ran an 85 Mack Econodyne many years loaded with corn at 80,000 lbs. It didn't have a Jake brake. They are unnecessary devices that should be outlawed.
 
That's nothing compared to about 90% of the Harley's on the hwy. OOOH cool a noisy bike. I bet you're the first one with one of those.
 
They have their place.You want to go down a 7% grade for 10 miles without one grossing 80,000?If you dont believe me,come drive some of our Colorado mountain passes for a while.
 
Not much of a comparison, but many years ago a guy was behind my car at night screwing around; riding right behind me then fading back then back on my bumper, etc. I finally took my foot off the gas until I was going so slow he had to pass. I got the plate number. A few days later I was taking to a police officer friend about it and he asked if I had the plate number. I gave it to him and he went to see the owner of the vehicle.

Just throwing it out there for an idea for next time. Maybe that driver could use a visit from an officer to change his ways.
 
(quoted from post at 19:41:24 06/29/12) Today you pulled along side of me as we drove up I-75 on flat ground. I was the guy pulling the horse trailer. Just to have a little fun you decided to pull the jake brake, not once, not twice, but 3 times. Wow that was funny! My horse broke her wall tie, snapped her halter and fell down in the trailer. You sure have some great sense of humor.

Will you please notify me when your mother dies so I can drive up and down the street in front of the church during the funeral , blowing my horn, squeeling my tires and playing my boom box. I want to give her a proper big noise send-off. She had you, so she surely appreciates big noise, with no substance.

You are so cool. I doubt that you will be reading this...or reading anything at all.
If he was on the jakes three times, how was he still beside you? They are, after all, called a "brake" for a reason. He was either slowing down fast, or in neutral to be on the jakes.

As for outlawing jakes, DeltaRed hit the nail on the head, try driving loaded up in the west or up north without jakes, no fun at all, and not safe for you or others.
 
I kinda understand how they work as far as turning the engine into an air compressor, then cracking the valve open just before TDC. What causes the extra noise. Is it still using the complete exhaust system? There are quite a few towns and cities that ban them, which is reasonable out here in the flatlands.
 
sorry you had a problem--jacob, or c-brakes will apply if you fully release the accel. pedal, & sel. switch is on, choice of 2 or more cyls, I don't think the driver was trying to mess with you-he was coming off the fuel. its a long road with lots of hours for a driver--s--t happens.
 
Funny thing I was motoring my sailboat up river coming to a bridge when a trucker gave 3'short blasts on his air horn. That's the signal to raise the bridge . As I wasn't going farther I turned around and headed down stream.
I bet that bridge tender was about as mad as you were, besides waking him up he also had to stop the traffic and raise an then lower the bridge.
Walt
 
Well I am glad you did not think you needed a Jake brake. I have three different semis. One does not have a Jake brake on it. It costs me $2000 more on brakes each year. I do keep all of my exhaust stock and leak free.
 
My question to you is how come he was besides you all three times???? The Jake brake comes on when you let up on the accelerator pedal and you slow down. Why where you still next to him if he was slowing down???? Could it have been it was down hill just a little??? I use the Jake brake all of the time unless it is in a town. I do keep all of my exhaust stock and leak free. I also have all Cummins ISM and ISX motors. The Jakes are not as loud on them as Cat and Detroit.

Like I posted below. We own three semis. They get about 100K each year in miles. One does not have a Jake brake. I usually spend $2000-2500 more on maintenance on it than the other two. I will not own another truck without it having Jake brakes.

You don't like the Jake brake sound. I hate the straight pipes on: trucks, motor cycles, and tractors. All make too much noise.
 
Sounds like you need to work on that horse before taking it out in public. They aren't motorcycles that you just get out when you want to ride. And you can't blame the truck driver for your horse's lack of training... Hard to even call it training tho..... A lot is just the horse itself.... We have 4 mares that came from the States that handled several hundred miles of highway travel, airports and plane rides, and another trip on the autobahn like they were born to it.... If your horse freaks at a highway noise while in a safe trailer, why would you consider getting it out in public and sticking a family member on it???

That's just me tho..... Hope she wasn't hurt..
 
I've had my CDL for 25 years. Actually a "Class A" back then. Jakes are a good thing to have on a truck, but too many drivers treat them as a toy.
 
Delta Red & JDSeller are spot on. It's not the Jake , it's the idiots with straight pipes that are the problem.
Last 9 years before retirement I drove Volvos, 14 liter Cummins with stock mufflers. Never turned off the Jake switch.
One CB conversation going down Cajon Pass into Ontario Ca:
CHIP- Hey K***, your brake lites no working
Me- haven't used brakes, letting Jake hold it back
(tap brake pedal) lites working now?
Chip- yup, can't hear Jake
Me- fleet has stock mufflers
Chip- ok, have a safe trip.
Company would pull tractors at around 450,000 miles, make us take a new one, assign older unit to new recruits. After one change out I happened to be at shop when old unit was getting annual inspection. Asked mechanic how shoes looked. Reply was still 50%, won't have to do brakes before it gets traded off next year.
Willie
 
The engine brake comes on automatically going down hill depending on your speed. It will come on, slow you, then turn off. It will turn on or off as needed. I would think if you were beside him that long you should be thanking him for having good tires and not blowing one while you were in the "dead zone".
 
2000 dollars a year for brakes because you don't have a jake? What you need is a new mechanic and a driving lesson. I could put brakes on three times for that money and if you are doing that you definitely need a driving lesson. When I started driving we didn't know what a jake brake was and would drive 150,000 miles a year and replace brakes every 2 to 3 years. We had one driver that would only go 50,000 miles and the boss made him ride with me to learn how to drive a truck and I was the youngest driver he had and that embarassed him enough to learn.

Jim
 
You just showed everyone on here that you don't have much horse training experience, a very good rope, and you don't know that you should never tie a horse in a trailer. If the horse is that skittish and you took it out on an interstate highway with a tied rope it's a wonder you didn't kill the horse or at the least have a horse left to ride. We never tie a horse in a trailer they can get down if you have to do any inadvertent driving. Train your horse to ride in a trailer and that when it hits the end of a rope it automatically stops pulling back. Everything you described here is your fault and your fault alone.

Jim
 
not cool with the horse, but like others have mentioned how can you still be beside him after 3 brake applications, while jakes are very much needed if your running in the mountains where i do most of the time, they do require a driver that knows when he needs it and when slacking off on the fuel, or downshifting a half gear or full gear will slow him enough in the flats, [ they do have a on/ off switch on the dash, most have a selector for how many cylinders on the engine you want to brake with too] after trucking for almost 30 years i wouldnt want a truck without some kind of aux braking devise on it, but there are a lot of kid drivers out there today that simply want to make noise too,
 
I disagree on the kids being the ones making the noise. They mostly drive company trucks with stock exhaust. It's the Pete drivers with $5000.00 worth of crome strait pipe exhaust that like to make noise and they mostly have a lot of experience.
 
I doubt he paid any attention to you... Many of us drive with the jake selector turned on and any time you let the fuel pedal up the jake comes on. Kinda need that given the way most idiots on the road think it's cool to cut the truck off or jamb on the brakes in front of him... So I'd say he was either worried about running over someone or he was shifting gears. That usually gets a snap of the jake too if the selector is turned on...

As far as your horse goes... I don't know why you had him tied... and if you need him tied you obviously need more restraint. There's a lot more things on the road to spook him that a jake brake.

Rod
 
I suspect the truck driver was oblivious to you and your horse. The jakes on my truck are automatic and come on whenever I let off the pedal. I do have a jake muffler installed so I can use it even when I'm in a "no exhaust brake" zone.

A tip: Stay away from trucks. Give us plenty of room. When I pass another vehicle I give plenty of room before I get back in the right lane. Invariably some impatient sob cuts in behind and passes on my right. That's my blind side. Another idiots move: ride right beside the tandems on the tractor or trailer. If a tire blows your going to get pieces of it through your window. Idiot move: ride my bumper, drafting to save fuel. If I have to lock it up over the idiot who just cut me off your going to end up under my trailer. Seen it happen!

Tied up livestock in a trailer?!?! Duh!

Disrupting Mom's funeral, for any reason, let alone over a spooky horse would get you a good old fashioned azz whoopen from me and my family.
 
Yep, cousin had that old tractor with 28' wet hoist dump trailer 10 years, we put trailer brakes on it once. We used the gearshift and brake pedal to run it. He didn't like buying brake bands and tires either. Live in TN now, lot of loggers use those old Macks to waller timber up out of the hollows. OTR fellows, please be courteous on our mountains when passing through our state and stay in the right lane. Thank you.
 
There are those people who feel so entitled to do whatever they want, regardless of how much there "normal behavior" crosses over from "individual freedom" into just plain old fashioned rude and obnoxious. It's the old "I'm pretty sure I'm the only one on the planet" mentality.

Part of being a safe driver is realizing not every one else around you has there full compliment of your Jeff Gordon genes. Some people don't grasp that concept, not even a small bit.

Moral of the story, You're just gonna have to deal with the fact there's a lot of people who just don't give a flip about anyone but themselves. And it seems to become more and more common as time goes by. It's called {Lack of} respect.
 
I agree with you completely on this issue. We have become a country that puts personal convenience ahead of the good of others. This issue is a perfect example. Engine brakes save maintainence, laws that restrict them cost money. This money is passed on to shippers as higher shipping rates, these in turn are passed on to consumers as higher product costs. Since everything that we have, from food to cars, even the water we drink comes to us in trucks, then everythinmg costs more because a few people are inconvienienced and are so self centered they pass that inconveinience on to everyone else. It's a sad situation and I don't see it turning around soon.
 
For those of you with horse advice and jake brake advice, and I-75 advice.

1) This horse has been trailered 1000's of miles, always tied, like all the professional horse haulers do. I am not a rooky horse handler. Logged 25,000 miles hauling last year.

2) No way to avoid trucks on I-75, sometimes they are 3 lanes wide. many pass you in the inside lane even when you are doing 75 MPH in the middle lane. I know they think they own the road but I pay taxes too.

3) Jake brake jerk was purposefully making noise...note i said flat ground. He would speed up then slow down and let it rack-off. I was running 70 MPH. I doubt if he owned the truck.

Now what other excuses do you have for his inconsiderate and crude behavior?
 
I very much doubt that you are getting passed very often if you are doing 75 mph in Ky. The best spd limits are 70 and frequently 55 for trucks in your state. I've been on the road enough to know that is a very rare trucker that will go over 70. It just costs to much. I will say that it is posible that it did happen, just not much.
 
To JD Seller, I read your posts quite often and respect your expertise on tractors. Since you have 3 trucks, I assume you don't do all the driving yourself. It sure would be nice if the truck owners (like you) explained to their drivers that a condition of the job was to be a responsible and considerate citizen. Like don't rattle all the windows in town when you come home at 2 AM from a late night run, and Don't trigger the jake brake as you pass a church on Sunday morning, and don't let your truck idle for hours on end outside a hospital.etc etc etc. Just common decency. It reflects on your companies reputation too.
 
Ed, don't let them get to ya. I live in TN horse country and run I40 almost daily in a car for my job. About 20% of OTR truckers have no clue how to safely get up and down a mountain. It's pretty scary and it ticks me off to see semi in town using a Jake brake so he can try to stop like a car at intersections. I have been around machinery and trucks all my life. Jake brakes are the most misused accessory that was ever put on a truck
 
Most of our freight is east of 35 and I drive those roads regularly and trucks going over 75 are VERY rare. I'm sure everyone, and that includes me, has seen it, but that doesn't make it common.
 
Jake brakes have pretty much been banned around our area. Had several "hot dogs" new to the area when all this gas drilling started, they thought it was pretty funny barking those until they started getting big fines. Several whined that these were automatic on their trucks. The local cops tell them "here's your big $$$" reminder to get that changed.
 
You got half of it right.......the second part. I wasn't around, but the first part was probably also right prior to the early '30s...........
 
Ah the new generation of the truck driver got to have 7 inch straight pipes make lots of noise drive like total nut cases can't read and are inbreed . I spent many years driven and (1) i hate LOUD pipes (2) Drive like i am suppose to , (3) do not tail gate . won't say i never ran over the speed limit and won't say that every load was legal . I live on a hill on a main state route in town and at the city limit sign there is a RED sign that says NO JAKE BRAKES , just love it at 3 in the morning when one of the IDIOTS runs the jake with straight pipes from the time he crosses the bypass all the way down to the bottom of the hill past the house oh and that is a mile and a half. Myself i have brought many of BIG loads down past the house WITH OUT usen the Jake and we are talken 150000 lb. loads not some feather merchant load of 30-40000lb. or and empty box trailer.Yep we have some great truck drivers out there anymore fresh out of truck driven school with there new C B radios tennis shoes and shorts and know it all about the road.
 
Dean, how do you shift if the Jake comes on when you let up on the accelerator.
My farm semi does have a jake but is 15 years old, so please excuse my ignorance.
 
(quoted from post at 08:32:57 06/30/12) Ed, don't let them get to ya. I live in TN horse country and run I40 almost daily in a car for my job. About 20% of OTR truckers have no clue how to safely get up and down a mountain. It's pretty scary and it ticks me off to see semi in town using a Jake brake so he can try to stop like a car at intersections. I have been around machinery and trucks all my life. Jake brakes are the most misused accessory that was ever put on a truck
So you drove truck in TN? I would bet my bottom dollar that you don`t have much idea how to drive in the mountains. I`m sure your hills and hollers are beautiful, but they are not mountains. Driving in real mountains without jakes is silly and dangerous. Around here, even the tour busses have jakes. And here is Alaska, you do not find trucks up here without jakes. They give you a margin of safety that has reduced the accident rate in the mountains 10 fold.
 
Uh no we have mountains here, Jelico and MontEagle just to name a couple. Jake brakes have their place on downhill grades to prevent overheating and in emergencies but I maintain they are over used to the point of being stupidly dangerous. It's not the brake system itself but the nut on the steering wheel.
 
20% seems a bit high to me. I wonder how you came up with that figure. The NTSB and several other gov. agencies track this sort of thing and actual statistics backed up by actual evidence would suggest that your figure is inacurate. The truth of the matter is that trucks and the trucking industry have gotten much safer in the last 20 years. As a matter of fact the accident rate is about 50% of what it was 20 years ago. I find it hard to believe that the rate could fall like that if 20% of drivers were incompetant. To back up my point I have added a link. Of course I'm just a dumb trucker and maybe I don't really understand statisics, and as a trucker I certainly wouldn't have any common sense.
Untitled URL Link
 
So if I understand you correctly here, your saying that new drivers today with 6 weeks training and another 6 weeks with a co-driver have less experience and less training than new drivers 20 years ago that had no schooling and didn't have to drive with a co-driver? Don't forget that you hauled your first load without any experience too. And probly made a few mistakes along the way.
 
(quoted from post at 00:53:53 06/30/12) I kinda understand how they work as far as turning the engine into an air compressor, then cracking the valve open just before TDC. What causes the extra noise. Is it still using the complete exhaust system? There are quite a few towns and cities that ban them, which is reasonable out here in the flatlands.
omebody ''knows'', but I will give it a shot........in engine operation, the ex valve opens near bottom of stroke when cyl pressure is nearly expended, whereas in j-brake operation, valve opens near top of compression stroke (high pressure) . High pressure release = high noise.
 
Just put put nearly $600 worth of brakes on my Freightliner toward the end of last year. Since I am a mechanic by trade, and like to save money too, I shopped around for the best price, and put them on myself. So the $600 was the cost of nothing but shoes, drums, and spring kit for ONE axel. For guys having to put the same basic brake setup on three truck axels on the truck alone (usually bigger and more expensive even than the ones on my smaller truck), and possibly on the trailer for an owner/operator with a full rig, $2000 would be a very reasonable price.
 
Having read all of the posts so far I've got to call it somewhat of a so far as most make a prety valid point. Jakes brakes, when used properly, are a great thing. In fact I just came back from a service call in the mountains of NC yesterday and used mine all the way back down the mountain. Without it I would have either turned some car into a pile of wreckage, or done the same to myself and my truck.

As far as the guys that learned years ago on trucks without Jakes, all I can say is be glad your not still driving. Years ago there weren't but maybe 1/2 to 1/3 of the amount of cars and trucks on the road as there are nowdays. With the addtion of all of those new cars and trucks came the addtion of about 10 times more idiots that feel that they are the ones that own the road and you, as a truck driver, are in their domain, and as such they have the right-of-way 110% of the time. So, when your driving around in town, and doing your best to maintain a safe stopping distance between you and the car in front, using regular brakes, you'd be well advised to keep the Jake on anyway because you never know when some idiot is going to cut your safe distance by 1/2 or more. I've had it happen too many times to count since the majority of my driving is around a city the size of Charlotte.

Too, I see guys using the Jake all the time for shifting, and I've got to say that is a bit much. Like some of the other posts have said, there is an on/off switch located on the dash. roblem is it's up to the driver to use their own discression and common sense to know when to cut it off.

Beyond that I don't claim to know much about horses, but the people I do know that have them wouldn't haul them, or ride them around others unless they were 100% BOMB PROOF. Don't know whyt your's freaked just from the sound of a Jake, but it did, your upset, and given the circumstances I guess you have the right to be since your side of things is all any of us know. Still, upset or not, mess with someone's family during a funeral and your probably going to get an a$$ kicking that there is no doubt you do deserve.
 
Ah NO . Back then ya had to RIDE with someone for a while and he would teach ya . I rode for a good while as a flagman when we would move heavy equipment as back then ya had to have a Flagman in the cab . We were on a move of a 12000 gallon fuel tank when my boss pulled over just east of Akron Ohio and i thought that we had a chain come loose so i jumped out and checked all the chains and when i came back to the truck he was setting in my seat and said that i had ridden long enough and to take her to the job site . The truck was a 1957 B 71 Mack with a 711 with turbo and a 5 and 4 with no powerful steering no A/C and no air ride seat no AM/FM 6 disc changer and deferentially no air ride . From that day till i did not work there i was the driver of the Mack and John my boss drove the BIG truck that was the Autocar that had the BIG engine with the 6 x5x4 transmission That one was used to haul the big cranes and shovels i hauled the Dozers and pans . When i started driving coal bucket i did not have to ride as i could drive but did have to run with the old guys for a couple weeks . Then i became the guy doing the training and sayen yea or nea . Some guys are natural and some guys should not be behind the wheel . Like my Accountant he is one that should not have a CDL as he is plum dangerous . But he does have a CDL . The old timers taught you curticy and the do's and don't , they taught ya to help your fellow driver when he was in need . Back in the day if you blew a tire and pulled off the road to change it before you could get the brakes set and the fourways on there were three to five truck pulled off behind ya and someone was already jacking up the trailer or tractor someone else was loosening the lugs and someone was getting your spare out of the rack and if by chance it was flat someone was loaning you a spare to get you to a truck stop and would stick with ya. Now today god help ya if you pull off the road as these new kids on the block will try and hit or atleast see how close they can come to ya . Back in the good old days we got to know each other and would look forward to meeting at a truck stop for dinner or just a cup of coffee and pie . Sure ain't that way today .
 
Love to hear about those days. I actually drove a b model mack with a 5-4 so I know what you had there. But don't be so hard on the new guys, many things have changed, the biggest being satelite systems and cel phones, which have mostly eliminated the need to stop and help. Also todays trucks don't have much that a driver can repair either, so there is not much that anyone can offer. I hear all the time people asking on the cb if someone along the road needs help and almost always they say help is on the way. And now roadside repair services are abundant and most people don't even have a spare with then, or the tools to change a tire if they do. Most companies today would not allow it anyway for the safety of the driver. So most of the changes you mentioned are just natural progression of the times. I really don't believe that new drivers today are worse than they were in those days, and I believe that even back then the oldtimers thought the new guys were something less. I will say that young people as a group today are less respectful than we were when we were young. That is a sad but true fact of life today.
 
Eddy of Ky. We own three semi tractors and five trailers. My two sons and Their two brother-in-laws do 90% of the driving. I just drive as a fill in. We don't have any "hired" drivers. We use the Jake brakes just about all of the time out side of towns. The biggest difference is that we keep the exhaust full factory stock. I hate a loud truck. The two that have Jakes on them are not very loud even with the Jakes turned on.

As far as idling we don't have to do that much as we rarely ever have to stay out over night.

I hate the loud exhaust on many of the trucks today. I would not mind a $1000 fine for first offense for loud exhaust. Second lose your license for one year and a $2500 fine to the owner of the truck. Third offense just seize the truck like a drug offense. I want the motorcycles done the same too.

For the guys that say they drove for ever without Jake brakes and they never wore out brakes. BS If any of that is even close to true then you drove in flat country or did not haul very heavy loads. We have up to 7% grades on many of the roads around us here. We are license for up to 97,000 in Iowa and MN. So that puts a little more strain on things. Most of the driving is on two lane small roads that you don't have high speeds but you have hard blind drives/curves and etc. You just about have a panicked stop every day. The car/cell phones are driving me crazy.
 
Some drivers use the jake to bring the older engines down in rpms faster so they can catch the next gear quicker and loose less speed between shifts. It takes a lot of practice and skill to do it. I've never done it. The newer trucks,2004 and newer, run at a lot higher compression and have a lot more exhaust back pressure so they do this naturally. With my 05 cummins I have to keep a bit of throttle in during shifts or the engine drops so fast it will put back presure on the trany before I can get it out of gear, or it will drop right past the next gear before I can hit it. It takes a bit of gfetting used to the first time you try it.
 
That's a fair question!

Just control the RPM's with your right foot. Don't let off all the way all at once.

My 2005 387 Pete is geared with 400 rpms between the gears, 200 on the split. When running up through the gears I can ease off the accelerator, lose 400 rpm and drop it into gear before the jakes kick on.

My 500hp C15 CAT's power is best between 1300 and 1700 rpm going up and slows down best between 1000 and 1400 coming down through the gears.

Coming back down through the gears let the jakes lose the rpm's for you and them run the rpm's back up to get it into the next lower gear. I rarely use the brakes till the last 100 feet before a stop.

If you lose too many rpm's because of jakes just run the rpm's back up to get it in gear.

I hate loud motors period. I keep good mufflers and have jake brake exhausts so I can use them in town.
 
There's absolutely no reason that a horse that has been trailered 1000's of miles becamr scared because of an exhaust noise. Why would you want to tie a horse in a good horse trailer? We never tie horses in a trailer that is made for a horse. My educated guess would be that YOUR driving did something to disturb the horse before the trucker ever got involved in your altercation because horses that have been trailered a lot don't get scared very easy. Now fess up what did YOU do to start the trouble that you want to blame someone else for. Cause what you say don't add up buddy. TELL THE TRUTH SOLDIER. NOW

Jim
 
Well all I can say is I don't want your mechanic. That would be 466 dollars an axle. That would be 155 dollars an axle if he took an hour on each one, he'd have to be one poor mechanic and way over paid. Where do you live because I'll make you a heck of a deal on a brake job.

Jim
 

I could picture that trailer wagging around at 70 mph and the truck that was trying to pass slowing down to keep out of your way... You's the only one that was there and knows the story tho.....
Only aloud to drive 50 mph with a trailer here and we see them wagging all the time when folks try to go over while eating a sammich or talking on the phone or to the passengers......
 
One mistake that creates dismay is looking in the mirror after you pull away from the trailer and see the air lines laying on the road. On a busy 2-lane. On Friday evening.
 
Well I am glad he did not decide to pull out a gun and shoot me and my horse because you would have found some reason why that was OK. You have very fuzzy logic.
 
It's a bit ironic that the person who thought it was a good idea to disrupt someone's mother's funeral now is worried about being shot.
 

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