While I was at Prevost Car in Jacksonville last week I mentioned to John Kincaid the service manager that when I am running down the road or worse running down long grades and take my foot off of the gas pedal I do not feel the full affects of the engine retarder in either position one or two until I am below certain speeds but certainly not at highway speeds in six gear.

John said that my Allison was set at a factory default setting for six gear and that he would make the change in a few minutes with his computer. He did it in about 5 minutes time and set the default to 4th gear, what a difference now.

When I take my foot off the gas it actually does something and really helps me stay off the brake pedal in occasions when our friendly truckers (not picking on Truckers all future Nascar drivers qualify) decide to turn their rigs into NASCAR's and pull out from nowhere to get around slower cars in their lanes.

What I like most is that I can either allow the full force of the retarder to kick in, use the 1st setting or simply turn it off. I cannot wait until I get out West as I was finding myself using too much braking action to get the bus down to speeds where the retarder could actually work efficiently.

I am sure this is old news for you pros but it was a cheap date for me and a great solution to a old problem.