whosgreg wrote:
Hi fellow RVers,
For the 3rd time, going downhill in the mountains, the brakes vibrate. I had to manually use the BC instead of the truck brakes. Tires are brand new. Brake pads are good.
Yep, brakes have been too hot and caused glazing on the pads and/or rotors.
Is the truck diesel or gas? If diesel, do you have an exhaust break or does your transmission have and engine braking feature? If gas, are you leaving the transmission in 'D' or are you shifting to lower gears?
When descending a hill, you really need to let the driveline work for you to scrub off speed. A general rule of thumb is to descend in the same gear you ascended the hill. We have a long steep climb in eastern KY that was always 2nd gear @ 40MPH. I would leave it in 2nd gear on the downhill side and let the engine backpessure scrub speed so I only needed to tap the brakes occasionally to maintain control. If I don't, I'd be on the brakes the entire descent and they would cook in a hurry.
