Alison Tranny Retarder vs Jake Brake

[dreadnought]

See my earlier post. The retarder costs more, much more.
And Peter, The Jake on my Peterbilt is hooked to the cruise. If it can't hold the set cruise speed on a down grade the 1st stage comes on, if that doesn't do the trick the second stage and then the 3rd if needed. All automatically, with no driver input. Towns put up no Jake signs cause Grandma got tired of being blasted out of the bed at 2 AM by "chicken trucks" with straight pipes. My truck has 8" pipes with no mufflers but I've never had a problem cause I know when to behave. Jacobs Engine Brakes have been around for billyuns and billyuns of miles and work, period. I'm telling you, this is all a plot cooked up by Allison to sell trannys.

[Petervs]

See my earlier post. The retarder costs more, much more.
And Peter, The Jake on my Peterbilt is hooked to the cruise. If it can't hold the set cruise speed on a down grade the 1st stage comes on, if that doesn't do the trick the second stage and then the 3rd if needed. All automatically, with no driver input. Towns put up no Jake signs cause Grandma got tired of being blasted out of the bed at 2 AM by "chicken trucks" with straight pipes. My truck has 8" pipes with no mufflers but I've never had a problem cause I know when to behave. Jacobs Engine Brakes have been around for billyuns and billyuns of miles and work, period. I'm telling you, this is all a plot cooked up by Allison to sell trannys.

Sure, I agree, but I bet your Peterbuilt is newer than my 1994 with a DDEC II. The later ones do it your way and that would be a great feature to have. But like I said, I do not think I will change coaches for just that.

Peter VS

[Jon Wehrenberg]

It seems clear we would like to have a Jake instead of a retarder, but there is a downside to the Jake that nobody has mentioned yet. A Jake works best at higher RPM.

One thing I have noticed with the retarder is that when it is on and I hit the brakes the retarder aids in stopping power to a noticeable degree. With the Jake, when we got down below about 20 it dropped out and while it wasn't like the coach accelerated, there was a noticeable loss of stopping assistance.

I guess if it could be done Perter's idea of having both would be the ideal.

[Just Plain Jeff]

I really don't know what I am talking about (as usual) so bear that in mind.

However, our Angola had a retarder which was almost useless. That bus just did NOT want to stop. Witness the knuckle-marks on the steering column and my footprint on the brake pedal!

The Vogue had a Jake Brake on it and it sounded kinda cool (now we are Series 60 land), but I didn't see any big difference in stopping power with it.

Our new camper has kind of a neat deal. On the right hand side of the steering column there is a lever with a 4-position adjustable retarder. I was goofing around with it the last few days and as the tranny downshifts and you change the range of effect on the retarder, you slow down mighty quick.

I wasn't looking at the temperatures as I try to watch the road, mostly.

So that's my 2 cents worth.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

This may be a rather difficult concept for a postal worker to grasp, but since he is alone and presumably desirous of avoiding trouble, and with the lady of the house tending to the welfare of New England, maybe he might want to spend spare time with a good book, like the owner's manual.


That unknown device to the right of the steering column is not the RH turn signal switch, but a supplement to your braking power. Since you may be driving that rig in close proximity to mine, please read what neat things like that thing does. It just may keep you from bumping into me.

[Just Plain Jeff]

Jon:

Thanks for the good idea.

However, I don't see very well, so the manual is a problem.

I use the 'Audio Parking Method.'

When you hear it crash, step on the brake. That's the one left of the GO pedal, right?

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Whoa......That's all I say and it stops. Whoops, that is one of Deb ponies. I don't know how to stop the bus. I haven't gotten that far in training.