Well then, I dont see what's the point of having a blue and a yellow button on a truck, if they perform the same thing. On the other hand, they say set the yellow knob in the winter time, which probably means yeah, it doesn't set the trailer brakes.. otherwise there would be no point really .

 

FOZZY, the WHITE-FREIGHTLINER I drove back in the late '70s didn't have to have any throttle applied with starting out. I'm really not doing anything different now than I was before the electronic engines. And, I really don't believe that that old 8V71 Detroit had anything electronic on it. Granted, I wasn't driving in San Francisco, but places like Idaho meant starting up hills too. No turbo and no jake did mean a lot of different things, though.

If you feel yourself sliding when going down a hill, you've already done something wrong. All too often, doing anything with the trailer brake will only make you lose control of the trailer as well. Check with DART safety dept. The only thing they recommend is to put the clutch in. Believe me, as long as you have not gone too far in your slide, it works wonders. If you have gone too far in your slide, the trailer brake will be too little too late. Golfhobo has had the experience already. He thought he regained control by locking in the diffs, but when looking at the procedure for locking them in, he regained control before he ever threw the switch.

 

My tractor has a red button for the trailer brake, a yellow button for the tractor brake and another red button on the dash for something else, it's the same size and color as the trailer brake button, it's in the middle of the dash, can anyone guess what it's for? winner gets........ absolutley nothing

 

yeah.. right! This is hte primary reason that fleets removed them. This is a trucker myth on the tallest order!

 

About the same as when you have a serious cross-wind, the faster you go, the more the wind alongside the trailer will keep it straight. Another myth, and the farther you will slide on your side when the wind rolls you over.

There are times when you DO use the trailer brake, but going down a slippery hill is NOT one of them.

 

Fredog said:

Not sure what "sticker" you refer to, but from the manual page that Splitshifter posted, if you read carefully, you'll see that pulling the yellow knob, sets the tractor brakes AND the trailer emergency brakes but ONLY because (as we all know) if you pull the yellow knob without holding your thumb on the red valve..... it, TOO will pop out!

If you hold the red knob in, while pulling the yellow, you are setting ONLY the tractor brakes.

The manual ALSO says, that if the air pressure drops to the critical level, the yellow knob activates, and again..... just as I stated above, the red will pop out TOO!

The wording is confusing, because it assumes activation of the yellow knob by itself with no Driver Control over the red knob.

Very simply.... yellow=tractor, red=trailer. The blue knob was for a MANUAL (not air pressure balanced) application of the tractor brakes to be used temporarily while starting the OLDER trucks.

 

That's not EXACTLY what happened, WW. I remember that I said you might have been right at the time (in that old thread,) but the more I think of it, I don't believe I engaged the clutch at all. I remember that I let off the FUEL to regain some traction with my drives. And in that situation, it wasn't the BACK of the trailer that was swinging out, it was the FRONT. The drives were slipping sideways and the FRONT of the trailer was "passing me by" so to speak.

I don't want to rehash that whole argument that I had with Rocky over this, but I still believe.... and have experienced..... the "drag chute" affect of applying a LITTLE braking power, using the trolley valve, to the tandems to help straighten things out, EXACTLY as ThunderDan is saying.

And it works whether it is your drives or your tandems that are sliding. But, it is not an EASY maneuver, and many CAN mess up by doing it.

However, I also agree with you that, past a certain point, it will not work.

 

...I did it Friday...empty flatbed...it ain't got antilock...and yes if you do get to that point you have already screwed up to be bending in the middle down a slippery slope...
I think having a trailer without antilock and a tractor with antilock can be tricky...the first couple of quick stops empty on a slick surface anyhow...

 

...how about jake brakes on slick roads?...some say you should never use them...thoughts?...

 

if you want a hair raising experience, use it on an icy road