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
Now that you have three pages of advise, I hope that you have your answer.
Basically you really don't need the brakes very often going down a hill if the engine is downshifted to the correct gear, and you start off the downhill around 45 MPH. Of course a small highway might have 35 MPH curve signs, and those would dictate the speed limit while on such a curve. But the yellow signs that say 35 MPH does not mean the whole highway is limited to only 35 MPH, it probably will have a speed limit of 55 mph and the 35 MPH yellow sign is "Caution, curve recommended speed is 35 mph". More for a speed rating of fire trucks than anything else. Cars many times will go about 10% faster than the recommended speed. Yet if there is snow or ice, sticking to or going slower than the recommended speed would be prudent.
I prefer to apply the brakes for a short time, then let them cool while still moving. 35 MPH breeze will cool them fairly quickly. I would recommend a slightly less than firm application of the brake pedal, where "Firm" is what would be used while stopping at a stop sign.
If you can select the gear - 1 to 6, then I would first slow to about 55 at the top of a mountain while on a interstate, then shift to 5th or 4th. Then if the curves are not to wild, I might shift up to 5th and let the speed gain up to say 60 MPH. However if you are trying to control speed due to curves in the roadway, or a sign that says 7% downgrade, you would want to slow to say 45 MPH and then shift down one more gear to keep the engine above 2,500 RPM, all the way up to something like 3,800 to 4,200 RPM range. If moving downhill, and the engine speed gets up around 3,800, then apply brakes enough to slow down to about 3,400 - 3,500 RPM range, then let the speed build up again.
Fred.
Basically you really don't need the brakes very often going down a hill if the engine is downshifted to the correct gear, and you start off the downhill around 45 MPH. Of course a small highway might have 35 MPH curve signs, and those would dictate the speed limit while on such a curve. But the yellow signs that say 35 MPH does not mean the whole highway is limited to only 35 MPH, it probably will have a speed limit of 55 mph and the 35 MPH yellow sign is "Caution, curve recommended speed is 35 mph". More for a speed rating of fire trucks than anything else. Cars many times will go about 10% faster than the recommended speed. Yet if there is snow or ice, sticking to or going slower than the recommended speed would be prudent.
I prefer to apply the brakes for a short time, then let them cool while still moving. 35 MPH breeze will cool them fairly quickly. I would recommend a slightly less than firm application of the brake pedal, where "Firm" is what would be used while stopping at a stop sign.
If you can select the gear - 1 to 6, then I would first slow to about 55 at the top of a mountain while on a interstate, then shift to 5th or 4th. Then if the curves are not to wild, I might shift up to 5th and let the speed gain up to say 60 MPH. However if you are trying to control speed due to curves in the roadway, or a sign that says 7% downgrade, you would want to slow to say 45 MPH and then shift down one more gear to keep the engine above 2,500 RPM, all the way up to something like 3,800 to 4,200 RPM range. If moving downhill, and the engine speed gets up around 3,800, then apply brakes enough to slow down to about 3,400 - 3,500 RPM range, then let the speed build up again.
Fred.
