Quote:
Originally Posted by COLT
When the roads are icy, it's always a challenge to keep your trailer "strait" behind you when empty if your braking "too" hard for conditions...
The simple answer is to drive "ahead" of yourself, anticipate traffic slow downs, and traffic lights etc. This is why your paid the "big" money...
Watch for "stale" green lights, watch for "don't walk" lights on your "lane" of travel, sometimes, I know, 7 flashes of "don't walk" = yellow light...
You will learn how to anticipate a "Slow down" OR CRASH :wink:
Your Question about Jake Braking and "JackKnifing" ....
Jackknifing is a very Rare thing in the north... ????
The farther south you go, the more common it seems to be. Using a Jake on bad roads can certainly contribute to a jackknife, but going too heavy on the throttle can do the same thing. Especially, if they have the diffentials locked. If all four sets of drives break loose, the tractor goes into a "tail-spin" because of being on the side of the "CROWN" of the road. Gravity pulls the "loose" wheels to the side and in about one second, it's too late to recover. If you "
FEATHER the throttle, just enough to maintain momentum, you stand much less chance of breaking the drives loose. Also choose a higher gear to reduce the torque on the drives. If you do not have the differentials locked, chances are that only one drive will break loose, the rest act like a rudder to keep you in line, and you have time to release and re-apply a little less throttle.
Quote:
We drive on icy roads and don't "jackknife" Hmm...
I would strongly suggest, those who do "Jackknife" are relying on their Jake rather than slowing up the unit as a "whole" unit.....By using the brakes...
OR THE BRAKES ON THE TRAILER ARE COMPLETELY OUT OF AJUSTMENT !
Or, they are relying on the differentials being locked ("
4-WHEEL DRIVE SYNDROME") to give them enough traction to drive like they are on a dry road, and apply far too much throttle.
Doing 35 or 40 at the bottom of a hill, and 10 at the top gets you over the hill. Doing 20 at the bottom and coming to a stop half way up gets you into very serious trouble.