Driving With Your Gears and Not Your Brakes

I've done so much talking and brushed across the old subject of taking hills, using your gears and just hadn't thought, you might not know what I'm talking about.

What I'm about to describe to you is old school - I mean before Jake brakes. This is how the old timers did it. If you try it today, you'll probably get run over but knowing how, might save your neck some day.

Knowing the basics, even if you never have to use them, is fundamental, in my way of thinking. Being the master of your truck can someday save your life.

You know all those runaway ramps, you see? They're needed today but back in the day, nobody ever saw a runaway ramp unless they were in the hills of TN or something. Very few areas thought there was such a need. Well, today we need them and lots of them. The kids today aren't trained the way they used to be.

It's kind of like riding a bike down hill for the first time and you only learned to ride, yesterday. You can panic at the wrong time. I've scared myself a few times. I know what I'm talking about.:)

You know how when you leave the truck in 2nd gear, if you don't apply the accelerator, you slow down? That's the gears holding you back.

This is how it was done in the old days. Listen and learn. Just having the knowledge empowers you to master your truck.

At the top of a 6% grade, we slowed down to 2nd gear. As we let the truck role forward, at some point it would hold, long before it maxed out the R's. That meant we could go to the next gear. So shift into 3rd. Let it role. If it held it's place,without maxing out the R's, then we shift to the next gear, and so on. Letting the truck do it's own driving, without adding any acceleration, the truck told us when a gear was holding and when it wasn't. When you have finally shifted up into a gear that runs away, instead of holding back (and under the max R's), then you applied the brakes enough to slow down and shift into the previous gear. That's the gear you used to finish out the hill.

Doing it this way, your gears held you back,without running away and you could go safely all the way down the hill without ever touching your brakes.

Today, you're taught to do this with the Jake. A hill you can safely maneuver in 7th gear, would have been something like 3rd gear, without that Jake. You listen to the engine and when it drops, you know you can go up a gear but sometimes that doesn't work and you either use your brakes or you drop a gear.

Today's trucks can take a lot more than they used to. But there's always that exception. Like the day I was in too big a hurry to check things out, had just picked up a trailer from the shop at the home base. I trusted those guys and when I asked if they had adjusted the brakes, they assured me they had. I mean, they had just worked on them. Should be safe. Right?

I top over Donner and head down. I started to run away so I applied the brakes softly, mind you. A few more feet and I saw smoke. Oops. Hmmm, it was coming from one side of the trailer. What the heck? Right?

I pulled over and stopped and made sure I didn't set the trailer brake. It was steep enough, I ran the front tire right up to a rock, got out and went to check. Oh nice, a dragging brake shoe. So what did that mean? No brakes on this hill, that's for sure.

If I didn't know how to use my gears, I would not have been able to go on without a mechanic. It wasn't like I had all afternoon to try and fix it myself. I had to go on or miss my appointment so I reverted to the old days and just snickered back at the other drivers. "Aaah shut up"

See smoke = stop!