After Truck Driving School: Smoking The Brakes
91A Load Of Beer
Several months after graduating from truck driving school, I had yet to smoke the brakes on my assigned truck. For all but four or five days per month, the big red Volvo tractor was my home in motion or at rest, towing a 53-foot dry van here and there and everywhere. No longer truly a rookie, I'd never missed a delivery deadline and never wrecked a rig. Smoking the brakes was for dummies who didn't know what they were doing.
They say pride goeth before a fall. I say inattention leadeth to smoking the brakes. And so it would prove to be.
For the reader who doesn't understand the gravity of this topic, however, a word of explanation is in order. If you've driven any mountainous portion of our nation's highways, you've seen a sign here and there announcing a Runaway Truck Ramp. Those ramps are designed to save lives...supposedly. A big rig heading down a steep grade is often a stupendously heavy 80,000 pounds in motion or as close to it as the carrier can manage. A load of household furniture doesn't weigh much, but a load of carpet does. So does copper pipe...bagged cement...the list is endless.
In case this is not self-explanatory, consider: A four hundred pound fat man running down a steep hill just cannot stop as quickly or easily as can a wiry, hundred pound gymnast in the same situation. Your personal car is that gymnast. A loaded semi trailer pushing a truck tractor is the fat man. They do try to teach you about this in truck driving school, but a few hours of training is not the same as covering the country day in, day out.
If the service brakes are used too extensively on a long downgrade, they overheat. The "Jake brake" which serves to retard the engine speed does help avoid this problem, but the driver still needs to use his or her noggin. If you settle the rig down into a low enough gear and take your time, there's no problem. If you're impatient or careless and choose a gear that is even a litle bit too fast, you will overheat the brakes. Smoking the brakes can lead to (a) losing braking capacity altogether and/or (b) starting an actual fire from the severe friction and unbelievably high temperatures.
My wife, Pam, rode with me some months. The day this happened, she was right there. We'd picked up a super-heavy load of beer at the company's storage yard in Denver.
How heavy was it? So heavy that we couldn't fill the fuel tanks all the way or we'd be overweight. We had to play the "fuel game", running on half full tanks or less.
The load was destined for California. As we headed west on I-70, on up, over, and down Vail Pass in Colorado, life was good. Pam rests well when we're on the road as long as she knows I'm not fighting fatigue behind the wheel, which (that day) I was not. She went to sleep in the sleeper bunk. Our Moe Key Man travel cat sat up in the passenger seat, watching the road with considerable interest. I listened to a comedy tape by the late Richard Jeni.
We were just a few miles on the downgrade side when I checked the mirrors and about crapped a cruller. Great clouds of gray smoke billowed alongside the rig. It had not just started; it couldn't have done. How long since I'd checked those mirrors?
More importantly, how could we escape disaster? I didn't need any truck driving school lectures to tell me this was a life threatening situation. Furthermore, if we made it down in one piece yet with the brakes on fire, there could be untold damage to truck and/or trailer. My employer wouldn't take that kindly.
There was one thing for which to be grateful: Pam was still sleeping peacefully, confident she was riding with a driver who would keep her safe. Time to Git 'R' Done.
When brakes are hot, the only way to fix the problem is to let them cool. That means don't use them; let the airflow wick away all that excess heat over the span of a few miles of cool running. Truck driving school had taught me stab braking, how to brake down hard for just a few seconds, drop the rpm's down to enable a downshift. I didn't dare do that. One hard stab might be the match that set the forest afire. Thinking hard, I believed we had something like eight miles of fairly steep grade still to go....
It was a tap dance the rest of the way down the mountain. We didn't roll over or lose braking ability, but once things leveled out, it still took another ten miles of highway before the last tendril of smoke disappeared from the rear view mirrors. Truckers going the other way had seen us rolling hard and definitely in trouble, but there was nothing they could do about it. Ya smokes yer brakes, ya deals with it. Or not.
Once I could safely stop with no visible evidence of my foolishness, I pulled over on the shoulder to check things out. Pam woke up immediately, tested the air, and asked, "Smoke the brakes?"
"Yep. Got past it, but I'm mighty glad you slept through it."
"Me too," she agreed fervently.
When we stopped at a truck stop near the foot of the infamous Grapevine a few weeks later, both of us got a powerful whiff of that all too distinctive smell....and my song titled Smoke In The Mirror was born.
Smoke In The Mirror
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Good hub, good song! Can ya' dance too? This is the first time learning about smoking brakes. i knew about blow outs however. Why is it that so many trucks have blowouts anyway? Is it because of the overburdened weight of the tractor/trailer?
Thanks Dohn, but you don't want to see me dance. Except for the Bronc Rider's Twist, my own invention, which will clear a dance floor in a hurry.
As you say, big rigs do have a lot of blowouts. The reasons are as follows:
1. LOTS of miles. If the average long haul trucker runs much under 110,000 miles per year, he's not doing his job.
2. Like you asked, yes, the heavy loads are a factor.
3. Most truck tires are recaps. New tires are enormously expensive. Steer tires are never recapped because a steer tire blowout will kill you. But the drive tires and trailer tires--16 of the 18 tires on any 18 wheeler--are more likely to be recaps than not.
Which just inspired my next Hub, publication forthcoming within hours.
An excellent hub. I have been around trucks and truck drivers most of my adult life. I have even driven a truck before. Not a tractor trailer but a large truck with a long bed. It was my first time driving one and was petrified when it came to the hills, luckily I had a passenger who knew what he was doing and talked me through it.
Wesley, the "petrification" is understood. Nothing like that sense of riding a rampaging bull elephant into a swarm of malaria-ridden mosquitoes to get your attention.
Ghost I just had an experience like yours. I had a 6% grade west bound out of southern California. I was fairly heavy 76k +. I just didn't have a low enough gear. So I not only smoked them, but ran out of air. Luckily this was a training run with my uncle. He has 30 + years of driving, so he helped me get her down the hill. He told me it wasn't the first time a new driver did that with him. Once we got down to the bad bottom, he said he was going back to bed and didn't tell me about the other 6% grade a little further down the road. That time I came to a complete stop, smoked a cigarette then went down it in 3rd gear and full jake break. I crawled down ever so slowly. As of right now, I am terrified to when I see any kind of down hill. I am really nervous cause we are going back to Cali in a couple of days. To get an over sized load. My uncle said he would do all the mountain driving. I'm still not looking forward to it. I would probably turn down this load, but the plans were already in place. After this trip I am staying east of the rookies and hope to stay away from any eastern grades. Give me flat land ! Just an fyi, my uncle wasn't didn't go back to sleep, he was testing me. He didn't want to kick me out of the drivers seat, because he was afraid I would never want to drive again.
Scuba, thanks for sharing. And while I totally understand and sympathize with your decision to stick to flatland driving, I'd like to do some sharing of my own--use it or not as you see fit:
1. Your uncle sounds like a topnotch driving instructor; feel free to tell him I said so.
2. Your crawl downgrade after the big scare was a logical thing to do. I have a close friend who never did learn to deal with about-to-run-away rigs...and yet he drives roughly 150,000 miles a year, pullling heavy-laden reefers up and down steep mountain grades in Montana, Idaho, and Utah. He goes down EVERY grade like that!
3. Fear is hardwired into our systems for a reason: If our ancestors had been too stupid to be scared out of their wits by a sabre toothed tiger attack, for instance, none of us would even be here now. But it's most useful when we have control of it rather than the other way around. If you'd like to get it under control to the point that even an 8% grade doesn't so much as give you butterflies, it can be done.
4. The first thing is to KNOW you'll NEVER run out of air again, no matter what. You know why: Smoke in the mirror is scary as s***, but at that point you usually still have SOME stopping power. But run out of air, and you've got brakes automatically locking up--when that happened, I can only imagine how hard you were pushing the Panic Button!
5. Even at the risk of smoke and fire, pumping the brakes on a big rig will run you out of air in a hurry. But if you PRACTICE on safe roads, learn just how many times and how hard you can push down on that brake pedal and still maintain a safe level of air pressure in the tanks, it will eventually become something you KNOW without having to look. That gives you a baseline.
5. Once you have that baseline, learning the "stab braking" I describe above would be a great next step. This is best practiced with an empty trailer, of course; you don't want to be jerking a load around for no good reason. Weirdly enough, I smoked the brakes several times AFTER that beer run out of Denver...but was paying better attention to my mirrors, caught it earlier, and did not fear so much to "stab down" to the next gear...and in a couple of cases, repeat the process several times until reaching a low enough gear.
6. Once you have those TWO baselines (air pressure control and stab braking technique), the next "secret" is to begin learning a "grade versus load versus gear" chart, one you keep in your head. By the time I'd been driving for six months, I knew (for example) that with 60,000 pounds, I could go down any 6% grade in 6th (was driving a 10 speed)...but that with 79,000 pounds, 5th was going to be about right if the grade wasn't more than a mile long, and 4th if it ran on "endlessly".
I do truly hate seeing any driver let fear run the show long term. My best friend in trucking school was the most natural gearjammer ever born, never ground 'em once after the first two weeks at school, but the combination of heavy loads and steep grades so terrified him that he made one run west from Montana to Washington, one run back, then left his loaded rig in the company yard and drove off in his four wheeler, never to return.
Summary: I sincerely hope you decide to gradually whittle that fear down to size--but if that's not the way you choose, then hey, enjoy Kansas!
Ghost,
Thank you very much for your information. I am going to print this out and take it with me.
I just excepted to take a load from OK to IL and it's over sized, not heavy (30K), just longer than the trailer. I didn't even think to ask if there are any steep grades on I-44 going through MO, until after I excepted. I was told there are some between Lebanon MO and Saint Louis. Do you know much about any of them ? I am doing research on it now.
Thanks for the encouragement, my whole family has been supportive also, which helps tremendously.
Scuba, I have run that area and don't remember any of the grades being "Rocky Mountain High". Not that you won't need to pay attention (duh), but I'm thinking none of the slopes are steeper than maybe 5%, and none of them long enough to run you out of safe braking power (with a 30K load and a Jake and an engine that still has reasonable compression) if you're using any logical gear.
Another "trick" I didn't think to mention in my last comment: Any time you're approaching the crest on an upgrade you don't already know, if you have ANY doubt about the downgrade, back off the throttle a bit...once you know you're going to make the summit without powering out. My habit is to time it so that I top the crest at maybe 5 to 10 miles UNDER my ideal running speed.
Then, of course, I pay very, VERY close attention to how the downgrade wants to affect the rig. We're headed downgrade now, right? Completely off the throttle. HOW FAST is the load trying to ramp up more speed? If it's not going to "hold" properly, then you have TIME to "stab brake" down a gear, start once again at the 5-to-10 under speed, and...repeat the process.
Foolproof.
Thanks again Ghost !
It's great to get advice from Veteran drivers.
You're welcome any time, Scuba. And...keep us posted, eh? :)
This is amazing hub that you have written, i have never seen before that. Any thanks for great hub
Great hub. Loved the song. I hope you get it recorded so I can buy a copy.
Thanks, Coach. Probably won't happen soon, though. I hung up the guitar in November of 2009 to focus on political writing. Probably won't get back to it until (at least) after the Presidential election (2012).
On the other hand, I'm always "up to something"...so ya just never know! :)
I know you guys will know the name of that hill in Denver where the Petro is at the bottom. Or maybe it's a TA. Well, I'm easing on down, like a pro I think, and I looked in the mirror and saw flames. Thank God for a wide place to pull over, and believe me, I wasn't the only Rookie sitting on the side. I've never been so scared in a truck. Gawd, how I miss it. Thanks for a terrific hub, and thanks to all the good "commenters".
Lin, I can't name the hill for you--it's been a while now--but Denver and west of Denver most certainly provide suitable terrain for plenty of, um, "adventures" in the braking department. You didn't say, but I presume you got the flames out without further mishap, so that's a good thing!
I surely did, and btw I like your song.
Thanks. Writing it definitely kept me safely awake behind the wheel for a while--always a bonus.
First trip down garden gulch, At that point I had my CDL for 3 days.
LOL! Empty or loaded?
Fresh water up, production water down....
My "greatest Garden Gulch adventure" happened down around the...if memory serves, between the 1 and 2 mile markers. A spot-shower had greased the grade, but neither I nor the guard shack could tell that for sure--it was dry down below and nobody had yet reported that things had slicked up.
So I wasn't chained, spun out, hugged the right as far as I could get, and got ready to hop out and throw iron. BUT at that moment, here came two empty water haulers (transports) over the rise, coming at me from maybe 500 yards up. The lead guy...nope, he was definitely not in full control.
I was loaded, figured he was empty, had the parking brake set, stomped down on the service brakes, braced myself, and waited.
He got most of his tractor by me, but then came the half-jacknifed trailer.
Bounced him half off the road and into the trees. A bit later, no drivers (of those 2 trucks) to be found anywhere. Their boss had snagged both of them--illegals--and hightailed it. Got a couple serious tickets for his troubles, the boss did, but the drivers no doubt hitched a ride on up to Wyoming somewhere and kept on trucking.
This is my style. I want to do this someday. I have composed few songs and I want to share this someday with my friends.
The smoke brake is helpful I guess to have that song. LOL!
The smoked brakes were definitely helpful as an inspiration for the song--but they weren't helpful for much else! The best thing about an experience like that is learning not to do it again. :)
I want to get back to writing and publishing more songs, too, but have to wait until after our U.S. elections in November (which take priority for now). It's pretty cool that we can now upload vidoes directly to HubPages instead of having to put them on YouTube first.
That sure brought back memories! My first solo drive was for C.R. England from Salt Lake City to Denver in bad weather. Seems like a lifetime ago! Enjoyed this hub!
Glad you enjoyed it, David. I was fortunate in that my first solo drive was actually on a sunny day with no "weather" on the ground whatsoever. Made up for it later on and then some, but it was nice not having to sweat the small stuff the first time out.
Ghost32 Hub Author 2 years ago
Hubchallenge Hub #15 Pub. 08/02/09