Yesterday I had a Columbus-Norfolk run, and had to cross Sand Stone Mountain on I64 in West Virginia. I have crossed it several time when I was OTR and it's no problem with a Jake Brake. But last night I came across Sand Stone and was probably 75k gross, we don't have Jake Brakes on all of our trucks and it was a hand full. It was dark but I could see the smoke rolling from the brake lights and could really smell the brakes.
Now on Sand Stone speed limit is 45mph with some pretty good curves and there is no way you could make the curves rolling out of control. So that made me think. If you lost your brakes, would you try to get around the curves to get to the truck ramp? but risking gaining all the speed to lose it on a curve or do you try to get in the ditch before you get out of control?
Has anyone here had to use the truck ramps or lost your brakes on a hill?