Ya, I agree, but my post would assume that you are doing what is necessary to set the brakes properly. And putting enough brake pressure on the peddle is part of that.

There are other reasons for your slacks to not adjust properly, but most of the time it is because the slacks are bust.

I think the key is that you need to do proper pre-trips to insure that the equipment you are driving is working properly.

If you spend any time up in BC and sit at the top of the hills where there are brake checks you would be astounded at the amount of "Professional" drivers that don't even get out of the trucks when they pull over, even if they pull over at all.

I was teaching an Air Brakes course this weekend and we where talking about brake checks and I always ask the same question.

"How many people in this classroom make a brake application at the top of the hill in their cars before they start to go down the big hills?"

The only person in the room that raised their hand was me.

I asked the same question at the end of the lesson after we talked about what causes brake failure and what the result can be.

Then I asked the same question again and all of them raised their hands.

I am a firm believer that brakes are for stopping, not slowing or controlling your speed. That is what your engine is for. And with good planning and road managment, you will hardly ever use your brakes, even in a city.

 

Dangit rocky I agreed with all of your post except I do kinda like them brakes for slowing down, as well as stopping! I must be spoiled or sumthin....

Don't tell me you use the jake down at 25mph in 6th gear!

 

He does.

 

If your running in snow, you must use your brakes! If you don't use them, you willlose them! Ice will coat your drums,even a 90 p.s.i. application will take awhile to melt that ice! I know this firsthand, it's alitle unnerving. You should be using your brakes on ice to slow your unit down as a whole, every Axel, not just the Jake slowing 1 corner of your drive tires. When it's icy, use your power divider. Touch the brakes once in awhile!

 

I'm kinda confused on the automatic 'auto slack' adjustment. I've heard of several methods.
1) hard stop when reversing
2) several full pedal applications when stopped
3) five hard stops at slow forward speed


Just want to make sure all is good before I do the mark and measure. I sometimes need to pass the lot where the inspectors pull trucks in for a closer look.

 

The correct awnser is #2

 

#2 SHOULD (and make sure you read should, and not always) do the adjustments. But you have to make sure that you have 80 psi or more in the tanks.

You cannot assume that this will do it, you still need to get underneath and check for the 1/2 to 3/4 inch hand pull, or best yet, do a full brake application and you should be about the 1 1/2 inch of stroke from rest to full brake application.

 

Yes I do, and at a lot slower speed than that when I am heavy and running steep grades.

 

This was what you did when you had "self-adjusting brakes" on a 4-wheeler. There was a cable from the top of the rear shoe to the adjuster at the bottom. If the top spread apart too far, the little lever at the bottom would turn the adjuster another notch.

Air brakes are a bit different. #2 is right. Not that it works all the time.

 

With regard to automatic slack adjjusters, I guess it's a matter of who made the thing. Some adjust properly; some don't.

If you have auto-slack-adjust which don't, driver braking techinque has a lot to do with it. If your slack adjusters aren't adjusting, do a bit a stab (read hard) braking for three or for braking incidents. Force them to adjust.

I've had many instances of drop-and-hook in which I had poor braking in the trailer. Hard braking a few time forced the auto-slak-adjust to adjust properly. Otherwise, I also carry a small throw rug, breaker bar and socket, so that I can manually adjust if all else fails.