Cooling your brakes
Being from the east coast I've yet to encounter my brakes heating up enough to require pulling over to let them cool down, at least not that I know of. This summer/fall we're doing our first trip out ...
Forum Discussion
the bear II wrote:Lynnmor wrote:
The idea of repeatedly hitting the brakes hard and then coast back up to speed is nonsense. What you are doing is causing the brakes to go thru exaggerated heat/cool cycles.
Actually this is a well tested and proven technique for preventing brake fade or brake overheating. Before I learned of this technique I would run out of brakes before I ran out of downhill on a 21 mile 6% grade. By the time I reached bottom, I had very little truck and trailer brakes. There was no way I could have made a quick stop. In fact, one time the right front brake pad material on my truck shattered due to over heating.
Once I began using the "Aggressive Braking Technique" I made it to the bottom of the grade with good brakes. No problem with quick stops if needed. No adverse affect on the rotors, drums, shoes or pads on the truck or trailer.
Yeah, follow a big rig with big loud stacks down any pass and you can hear the jake brake run up and then stab the brakes and a drop in noise/rpms. Run up and stab the brakes. They do this all the way down the mountain.
If for whatever reason brakes are actually hot its best to of course not use them and keep rolling. Stopping the truck with hot brakes can heat soak the bearings and brake fluid. One time incident may not cause any harm but damage can be cumulative of several incidents.
