Driving in the mountains advice for new drivers.

If your driving a manual, go down in a gear or 2 under than the one you climbed with.If you're in an auto,switch it to manual and do the same thing.Watch your rpms and don't let it get too high.
Use some brakes and downshift if you're going a little faster than you want .It takes some practice and experience.

 

It's real fun going down the mountain and you hit ice and snow

 

Speed is key. You can have jake settings reset to lower mph.

A buddy runs a 12 Volvo with a D16. He says the engine brake is so effective, he'll run down 6%'ers at 70, and the brake will slow him down easy. Never touching his brakes.

His engine brake quit two weeks ago, and he about lost it droppin down from Parleys Summit.

I drive an older truck with a Jake that's nothing like newer trucks.

6% and loaded, i come down around 30mph. I like keeping RPM's below 15-1600 RPM with the jake on especially in inclement weather.

I've gone up and down grades up to 10% loaded with no issue.

I try to stay below 20mph 7% or over

 

Rule of thumb....the gear you go up in, you need to use that gear or a lower gear to go down. The heavier you are, the lower the gear. Also, don't get caught up in what some of the other idiots are doing, many will fly down mountains. Be patient an take it slow.

 

Yes.


Theres 3 methods without jakes

1. "hopes and prayers", this smokes your brakes every time you dont rollover
2. Get in a gear where you can use 20-30psi brake application pressure to go 5 mph above amd then below your prefered speed, (ie target 20 mph, be in the right gear for it, when it hits 25, slow down to 15mph, let it go back up this mostly works, but on very long grades will smoke your brakes


3. Be in the right gear to hold your speed or lower with 0-10 psi brake application pressure steady, no speedup, no slowdown, ie, 20 mph, it speeds up at all, you apply up to 10 psi pressure, if that doesnt bring you down to 20 mph, you are either in too high a gear or targeting too fast of a speed. If you can keep it below 10 psi, its unlikely youll ever smoke your brakes. Did 0 jakes like that through pa with my 9 speed, worked a charm, gutless going up a hill and stupid slow going down

For determining speed for the gear, for method 2 and 3, you want to be at peak torque for your engine +100 rpm (so for my 3406e, torque peaks at 1250, so 1350), too far above that point you will get to runaway, too far below that, the engine cant hold you back.

By adding in jakes, all you do is go up a gear or two (or4), theyre nice to have but not neccessary, can go a bit higher on the rpms, but too far still puts you in a runaway position

Also, what do you mean jakes wont work under 35 mph? Thats just not factually correct, or if it is, whoever put that limiter in was an idiot. Jake applications should be limited by too low an rpm, not a speed of vehicle, i have descended a long twisty mountain in co just using jakes and 4th gear (13 spd) to hold me steady at 12 mph for about 3 miles.
Turn your cruise off or tap your brake, jakes should engage down to at least 1000 rpm, much lower than that they can stall the engine

 

Welcome to Colorado and to the site. I did the same thing almost 7 years ago from the Badger, and never looked back. If you haven't run Hy. 50, that cuts the state in half, it's a great bypass to go around Denver, if you can stomach Monarch Pass, you can do anything. We never had brake scorching hills in the Badger, and the utmost concern here is speed. I've heard old timers out here would crest a hill at a crawl. It was a lot easier to speed up than try and slow down. We never had engine brakes, so proper gear selection was essential. The same is true today. If you find yourself going too fast, several methods are used, the "mash 'em hard" to slow before overheating the brakes, or the "stab and release", aka, panic mode. The passes require finesse, and CDOT does an excellent job, but can be overwhelmed pretty quick. Readouts on your "info gizmo" should alert you of pass closures, and not sure you can "hang iron", but better learn, as there are big fines for not doing so. We have our 1st snowfall in the hills for this weekend, I'm sure I-70 will be affected too. I've found, people in Colorado are pretty cool, and will do their darndest to help.

 

I see your problem. You're spelling " brakes" wrong.