Anyone had to use a runaway truck ramp?

You will get a few different responses, but if you know you are going to take a downgrade that is very very long during your route, it would be wise to check your slack adjuster strokes before you leave on your trip. A bad slack adjuster will can go out of adjustment in one day. Other than that, if you are in the proper gear, your jakes should hold the truck. Yeah you may be going under the speed limit but sure beats snub braking. I can’t speak for automatic trucks. So many dangerous drivers out there just hammer down all the way, riding the breaks and snub braking the wrong way.

 

There’s notmuch you can check on top of the mountain. You check for gaps between brake shoes and drums (if none is excessive) and if there are no wheel seals leaking (which combined with a lot of braking could set your brakes on fire). You should also check for cracks and missing parts.

 

I didn't truck in an area that had big hills, or runaway ramps, but have done a lot of traveling cross country, and can remember only maybe once or twice seeing a truck in a ramp. It should never get to the point of needing a ramp, a good driver should know the condition of their brakes long before the hill. I can say, I live near Monarch Pass on Hy. 50, 7 miles up and down in each direction with a runaway ramp at the halfway point in both directions, as a testament to the drivers skill here, they don't ever look like they've been used. Not to pick at a sore wound, but I know of a certain ramp on I-70 that should have been used.

 

Incorrectly coming down the mountain can cause brake fade even to components that are in good working condition.

 

I have been driving a semi for 6 years now. I am going to play devils advocate here and please don’t yell or cuss me out.

Last month while driving on I-80 in Iowa I lost all power to the truck with automatic transmission. Couldn’t turn emergency flashing lights, down shift or use the engine brakes. All I know is that my truck was cruising @70 mph and I had nothing but steering (not power) and brakes I was able to stop the truck on the shoulder from the middle lane in the 3 lane highway. It was a blown ground fuse that had disabled my truck. I guess these auto transmissions are designed to go on neutral if you loose power. If this driver had the same issue in Colorado he still had a chance to take emergency ramp to stop his truck. I don’t know if he understood the emergency ramp sign or he made a bad choice to follow the road and try to save his truck (emergency ramps stop the truck quickly but cause some damage to the truck). If he lost power after the emergency ramp exit it would have been hard to stop 80K truck in heavy traffic from the middle lane.I don’t know what lane he was traveling when he was passing emergency lane or how heavy was the traffic at that point.
I might be wrong but as far as I remember that stretch of 3 lane I-70 does not have truck lane or speed restrictions. If he was traveling in the middle lane in heavy traffic when(if) he lost power to the unit he might have panicked or was scared to take the ditch and instead followed the road.

P.S. Drivers in these outfits usually are scared to get a single scratch on the truck/trailer as the owners deduct heavily for any little damage.

 

Good idea to do a short pump brake check when you’re entering the brake check area. Just a quick pump check. By that I don’t mean go into the brake check hot. Just check how responsive your brakes are with how much pressure you’re putting. 25 psi should be WAY more than enough to hit a dead stop from 20mph at max legal gross weight. Also when you stop you want to visually inspect your brakes. Check if they’re hot already, or if one of the brake linings are not making contact. It’s much easier to respond to a problem early on. If you know your brakes are faulty at the top of the hill you either call road service or if they’re still operating just not as strong I would use a much lower gear that would definitely slow me down with the jakes alone and just use the jakes engaging them on and off and should I find some reason I need to stop I’m already at a low gear that slows me down with just the jakes alone.

This is how I do it. Everyone else has their own way of doing things just find what works for you. I just prefer to follow what the older truckers always say about being able to go down too slow a million times and only once too fast.

 

I always get strange looks from other drivers when I'm going down a grade because it appears that I'm riding my brakes all the way down. What they don't realize is that on new trucks, the brake lights come on with the jakes. It sucks, but that's how they make them now.

 

Who is yelling? We can speculate what happened until the cows come home, but if they can piece together the 8 million pieces of a plane crash and find the cause, you can bet that truck is in a warehouse somewhere in Denver getting the once over. Just have to wait and see.