Cooling front brakes
Any ideas or devices on how to help front disc brakes keep cooler.
Forum Discussion
Interesting how many Texan's weigh in! No disrespect, just an observation as to how many visit my beautiful state every year. I don't know where a highway grade is 17%, but if you say it is so, it must be so. I know I will never travel up or down it in my MH. Steepest we see is 9% and that is very steep.
OP, from what I can deduce, is in a Chevy powered workhorse. This is good as the Allison has grade braking.
As far as equilibrium, that I don't use and for the coach the OP has at a little more than 20K lbs, I wouldn't think it would be necessary. I would say that there is a spot where you are going too fast. With the tranny in low and you engine RPMs up and slowing the coach, you shouldn't have to touch the brakes very often. For my coach, at 31K + 4.5K of toad for 35.5K total, going down 7-8%, I need to keep my speed at or below 55mph. This is the speed that the Allison's grade braking and exhaust brake work best with little input on the brakes. I came screaming down 285 into Denver and was doing 65-70 downhill with a lot of braking.....the rear drums were smoking and smelling. Not a great scenario! Go slow enough in low gear as you may gain a little speed but not so much you can't use minimal braking. The faster you can go, the more air gong over the discs.....meaning cooler temps. Don't misread that! I mean 20 mph vs 45-50mph. 20 mph is not fast enough to provide a lot of cooling....
And for those that care, if you need a lot of downhill braking, the best way is 1-2 second bursts of brake and 4-5 seconds of cooling. The more you can stand to slow in those 1-2 second brake bursts, the longer the cooling time can be....
Be aware that gas coaches are different than diesels and standard brakes are different than air brakes. Know your coach and get advice from those that share a similar setup.
OP, from what I can deduce, is in a Chevy powered workhorse. This is good as the Allison has grade braking.
As far as equilibrium, that I don't use and for the coach the OP has at a little more than 20K lbs, I wouldn't think it would be necessary. I would say that there is a spot where you are going too fast. With the tranny in low and you engine RPMs up and slowing the coach, you shouldn't have to touch the brakes very often. For my coach, at 31K + 4.5K of toad for 35.5K total, going down 7-8%, I need to keep my speed at or below 55mph. This is the speed that the Allison's grade braking and exhaust brake work best with little input on the brakes. I came screaming down 285 into Denver and was doing 65-70 downhill with a lot of braking.....the rear drums were smoking and smelling. Not a great scenario! Go slow enough in low gear as you may gain a little speed but not so much you can't use minimal braking. The faster you can go, the more air gong over the discs.....meaning cooler temps. Don't misread that! I mean 20 mph vs 45-50mph. 20 mph is not fast enough to provide a lot of cooling....
And for those that care, if you need a lot of downhill braking, the best way is 1-2 second bursts of brake and 4-5 seconds of cooling. The more you can stand to slow in those 1-2 second brake bursts, the longer the cooling time can be....
Be aware that gas coaches are different than diesels and standard brakes are different than air brakes. Know your coach and get advice from those that share a similar setup.
