Air brakes

The air keeps the brakes from engaging and when air pressure is release or disappears brakes activates.

Please take an air brake course, or at least undertake to thoroughly educate yourself via books or the internet & you tube about air brake systems (not opinions from a forum)......trust me, at this point, you do not know what you do not know about air brakes,..... that may be expensive and scary for you at some point.
(in case you are wondering, I have a class#1 with air brake endorsement DL and have driven otr rigs)

Guess I didn't explain correctly about letting it build back up. I was referring to speed or RPMs. Yes, if you loose brake pressure your brakes will lock up. The only problem is that if your brakes are to hot even if you loose air the brakes will not stop you. That is what is called brake fade. Yes, I found that out the hard way coming down I17. from Flagstaff to Phoenix AZ. I was an otr driver and had no engine brake or exhaust brake.

et2 wrote:

koda55 wrote:
You never ride your brakes when descending a steep hill. This will heat them up and you will end up with brake fade. No Braking. When coming down a steep hill select the proper gear. You let your speed or rpm build up, you then apply heavy braking to get you 5 to 10 miles under your safe speed. You then release your brakes and let it build up again till you need to use heavy braking again. Hopefully you also have an engine brake or an exhaust brake to assist you in descending a steep hill.

Yes, also to remember is too much repetitive brake application going down hill in a short time frame can also bleed air brakes to the point they won't work until the pressure builds back up. Need to watch the air pressure. I haven't had downhill experience with air brakes yet, so this is stuck in my mind.

My MH has what is called a retarder. I thought it was an exhaust brake with the Cummins engine same as my PU was. It's not, more like the trans acts as the exhaust brake with aggressive downshift patterns in no throttle situations. Curious how this works going down hill compared to a real exhaust brake.

Unless you have an air leak, You won't use the brakes enough to run low on air, and Should you run low on air. The vehicle "should" stop until the air builds up enough to release the brakes. Brakes lock up with out enough air pressure.

garyhaupt wrote:
I do not want to hijack this thread, but am going to put up some information that people operating RV's with air brakes really need to pay attention to.

Failing to know your braking system will get you into deep deep trouble.







You have heard the news reports of the truck that lost it's brakes...it didn't 'loose' them, they either were not propely adjusted, over-heated, or the driver ran out of air.


http://youtu.be/_gmoIkP8ywI



Gary Haupt

Have they changed the way Air Brakes work? When I was driving the trailertrucks, and busses And you ran out of air. The brakes locked up. When the low air buzzer came on, You better get off the road NOW, or you'll be stopped on the road. "Some" had a duel stage air system, and if you lost air. You could push the button half way in, and be able to release the brakes long enough to pull off the road. Do they not work like that any more?

koda55 wrote:
You never ride your brakes when descending a steep hill. This will heat them up and you will end up with brake fade. No Braking. When coming down a steep hill select the proper gear. You let your speed or rpm build up, you then apply heavy braking to get you 5 to 10 miles under your safe speed. You then release your brakes and let it build up again till you need to use heavy braking again. Hopefully you also have an engine brake or an exhaust brake to assist you in descending a steep hill.

Yes, also to remember is too much repetitive brake application going down hill in a short time frame can also bleed air brakes to the point they won't work until the pressure builds back up. Need to watch the air pressure. I haven't had downhill experience with air brakes yet, so this is stuck in my mind.

My MH has what is called a retarder. I thought it was an exhaust brake with the Cummins engine same as my PU was. It's not, more like the trans acts as the exhaust brake with aggressive downshift patterns in no throttle situations. Curious how this works going down hill compared to a real exhaust brake.

You never ride your brakes when descending a steep hill. This will heat them up and you will end up with brake fade. No Braking. When coming down a steep hill select the proper gear. You let your speed or rpm build up, you then apply heavy braking to get you 5 to 10 miles under your safe speed. You then release your brakes and let it build up again till you need to use heavy braking again. Hopefully you also have an engine brake or an exhaust brake to assist you in descending a steep hill.

Hopefully, everyone with air brakes knows the proper procedure for testing the system for the alarms, pop out, etc. Which should be done on a regular basis

vic46 wrote:

et2 wrote:
We just purcased our new DP. Regarding the air brake system. Is there a air storage tank that needs to be drained for water.

2013 Fleetwood Expedition.

Does your state of domicile required an air brake endorsement on your license? All air brake courses deal specifically with your question. One of the best air brake manuals is Alaska's, IIRC. All states, and provinces, will have a manual.
Vic

It does not require an endorsement. I do realize that endorsement covers it, hence the reason for my question. I'm a bit under the weather currently or I would go to the MH and retrieve the appropriate manual.

I do know after looking into the engine bay there isn't an air tank of sorts that I could tell. Not saying there isn't one as there has to be, but it wasn't visually apparent looking around the engine area. If there is one it's in a area that doesn't seem readily accessible by me.

I agree there is some great info regarding the air brake endorsement that I didn't know. Emergency procedure, pumping the brakes and its affects, "maintenance", etc.

et2 wrote:
We just purcased our new DP. Regarding the air brake system. Is there a air storage tank that needs to be drained for water.

2013 Fleetwood Expedition.

Does your state of domicile required an air brake endorsement on your license? All air brake courses deal specifically with your question. One of the best air brake manuals is Alaska's, IIRC. All states, and provinces, will have a manual.
Vic