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Originally Posted by heavyhaulerss
I will tell you one thing. i have gone down mt eagle 3 times loaded. i have a 11.1 det & no jake. after udjusting my brakes, i started down the hill. a sign read trucks use lower gear. ive always made it to the bottom, but what confuses me is i start in a low gear but my brakes cannot hold it there & the engines rev's to 1800-2100 rps & i have to up shift to keep from over reving. then after in the higher gear, brake will only hold at that speed for a min or less & the rpm's start to go way over unless i grab another gear & so on. but i have made it all 3 times & my brakes were smelling & hot but not smoking. dont know if i performed everything as i should have, but i made it.
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I do the same thing, I start out very slow. Let the brakes do some work, let the motor do some work. Shift a gear, let the brakes do some work, let the motor do some work. It usually does the trick but sometimes I get some good smoke rolling. But if I hold the brakes with steady brake pressure I have them smoking way to soon, I do use the brake stab but not with a great amount of pressure.
But going down steep grades with doubles is a whole different beast, The brake lag causes you to hold the brakes longer than you would with a 53'. When you apply the brake you can almost count to 3 before you actually feel the brakes catch to the rear causing more pressure on the lead trailers axle (and thats the axle where the brakes are always smoking). Then you have the problem or the rear trailer's brakes locking and smoking the tires(less weight on the rear trailer), and more serious problem will happen when you going down a grade on a 35mph curve, brakes are glazing and smoking and your rear axle is locking up. You are actually relieved when you reach the bottom in one piece.
