I've been going down this Mtn for 5 years and never had the first problem, I love when truck's blow by the mandatory stop and see the trooper waiting at the end for them. Use lower gears and jake break on high and you don't have to even touch the breaks
s Holder, driver what a great comment! You are so right! Keep the sunny side up, and the dirty side down. Keep America rolling safe. Ex-driver here for 25 years! Be safe out there everyone!
You will never go up a mountain fast because of the irresistible force. But you can go down it as fast as the force will take you. The question is.......can you control the force???????
My father was a cross-country trucker I'm not sure if he ever traveled the Monteagle but this video reminded me of the handful of times I was able to join him on his rides...
I've been over that mountain quite a few times but one time particularly stands out. We were going south (family car, not a truck), late at night and the fog was so thick I had to open the door to see where the lines were. One of the most nerve wracking trips I've ever had. Scared to death the whole time down that something was going to come up behind us.
i have fallen down that hill many a time, grossing 80thousand, in an old Mack cabover going to Atlanta. BEFORE it was four lane. the old two lane road was a real pleasure!!
An old truck driver once told me, "You can go down every hill too slow for the rest of your life, or you can go down one hill too fast for the rest of your life."
When I was young working in the forest industry in British Columbia I saw loaded logging trucks crawling down steep hills with what I thought were smoking brakes until one of the older hands pointed out that it was steam, not smoke. The trucks and trailers were equipped with water tanks that dripped a continuous stream of water on the drums to keep the brakes cool. Never saw a runaway there. My wife's uncle had a low bed to haul his D8 around the province where he built roads for the logging companies. His tractor had both a Jake and a transmission retarder and needed both to avoid a runaway on some of the steepest roads I've ever seen a tractor trailer on.
Grew up on the BC coast some of the biggest loads an steepest grades thats for shure. On loggers sport days the outfit put a old 1ton on the main line drove a empty hayes into it an would put it at the enterance to the parking lot with a sign said "we can't stop"there haul road was only way in an out of town it was a private road. The drivers would stop if you ditched your truck back up tell you "hook onto somthing solid boy cause its coming withme" a off road hayes 16f bunks on a 24f road a site to see those drivers were the best
I went down that very same road a few weeks back, I seemed to be the only truck driver obeying the speed limit. A flat bedded with a coil flew past me, brakes smoking, I lost sight of him. A mile or 2 later I saw a huge cloud of dust, yep he had to hit the runaway ramp.
Yep... saw title and in my head... 'he said folks when the truck picked too much speed, I just ran along beside it and drug my feet' . It's a shame the writers didn't stick to what made the first one great. In fact it seemed like they wanted to go the other way on purpose.
"Hit Monteagle in a driving rain, so hard he couldn't even see the passing lane. Well he stared down grade when lost him a gear, hit them brakes found he had no air. The Monteagle grade is steep and long, everybody that seen it thought the Bandit was gone. Well his truck jacknifed turned completely around, he was coming down backwards bout the speed of sound. Lot folks seen it, and they all say, he had his head out the window yelling clear the way"
This is I-24 south out of Nashville. I've been down it a hundred times. It's really not that bad if you use your head. The 4 wheelers that zip around you like bumblebees is worse than the hill. I will say Averitt will have spongie brakes for the rest of the day.
Why did he not use the jake brakes??? Why did he not take that hill in a lower gear??? How in the hell do you smoke your brakes on a 6% grade??? These things perplexes me....😒 😒
Brakes could have been dragging a bit to begin with, they were old and worn, or the driver has a heavy foot and constantly drags the brakes (their fault, from keeping their foot on the brake).
Thats monteagle, i-24 eastbound, bout an hour west of Chattanooga. That amazes me because averitt has a terminal in Nashville. They shouldnt have any problems with this.
I live in Tennessee and my grandad drove a kenworth he lost his life on monteagle in 2004 he had complete brake failure and went into the trees going around a corner
Looks like he ran out of air due to too much application of the brakes, or the air system was not working properly, or the air line to the trailer had a leak, or a combination of all of the above. Not brake 'failure' but brake application that resulted in locking the rear axle wheels
Nope, if he ran out of air the tractor protection valve would have popped the button for the trailer in cab and the trailer would have skidded the tires...definitely was using the spike and only applying the trailer brakes...
Went on a school trip in 1960 London to Austria by coach it was a General Motors Bedford with drum brakes. One of the day trips while staying there was up the Grossglockner mountain for which a local coach had to be hired in. Coaches had to have secondary braking, IE an engine brake. Our driver hadn't even heard about them but Mercedes Benz were fitting them on coaches way back then, don't know about trucks. He was fascinated with it and sat up front the whole trip.
Select proper gear and stay in that gear till you know you have safely made the trip down and use Jake brakes if you have them.Don,t ride your brakes to the very bottom specially when the steep grade is coming to an end and grade is leveling out like in this video.Keep the fire extinguish ready Averitt
Also, if your brakes start smoking, and you know they aren't dragging, it's better to coast and let them cool off with natural air flow instead of stopping to let them cool. That is, if you can do this in a safe manner. Fire extinguishers don't usually work on overheating brakes because there is too much thermal mass that you need to cool. The fire will simply reignite. Rubber tire fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish.
Engine brakes are nearly useless at lower rpm's. I downshift and let my engine tach 1800-2000 rpm's. Works very well. I have to use minimal brake application. Engine does an excellent job of holding truck back. Companies don't like for their drivers to "over rev" the engine.
Same theory but it's why I like the old Pete's with a big cam 400 and a 13spd with progressive jakes. I could cut 2 cylinder or 4 or all 6. Was a nice thing to have
This got me to thinking, in the 20 years I was OTR, I only smoked the brakes twice. And it was completely my own arrogance and inexperience. Respect the hill, because the hill wont respect you. Incidentally those two hills were the grapevine, and the 26 mile grade from flag to the sticker patch.
I stopped many times on top and wound up my brakes with a 9/16 wrench back when you rarely saw self adjust brakes, On this and Saluda grade. Start off in granny low and ease on down.
Back in 88, coming back from LA fair, on top of the Sikyues summit. looked out window, and saw red glow. Tapped the brake, got brighter. Knew the brakes were lit. Told my other driver behind me, Hook on behind. Hold My speed down. Made it all the way down, real slow. Was ale to drive the rest of the way home. Hate to think what would have happened, had`t noticed the problem.
Main reason my brakes are smoking. Is if you pay attention most drivers ignore the speed limit and go down it to fast. Speeds on all down grades are there for a reason Only smoked my brakes once in 39 yrs of driving Now. Drop 2 gears. Turn on jake brake. Never. Touch my brakes
@@gregorycraighead6302 hey moron. Don't you think I know about that. I drove a truck without a jake brake. I guess you must smoke your brakes alot. Why would I lie about smoking my brakes only once. Oh I know. You must be one of those drivers that is better then everyone else and no one can do it better then you. Have a nice day
I've come down that several times pushing 80k doing 55 and never got the brakes hot. Those freight haulers aren't carrying more than 35k. Lower gear, full Jake, and stab brake. It worked 50 years ago on lesser trucks, it sure as will work on the new ones.
@@simpleman283 yeah. They were already leaning on steady pressure when I got my CDL 20 years ago. It's the same amount of energy being put into the shoes and drums either way.
@@simpleman283 Yeah, you won't hear stab brake these days. Wish they'd teach the young-uns this today, as it might help them grab a lower gear if they'd misjudged things at the top.
A little smoke never hurt anything new linings will smoke the guys today wouldn't know what to do in the old days before we had Jake's,I drove a truck for Walmart from the factory the Jake wouldn't work they had it in the shop a bunch trying to fix it I didn't mind not having it nobody would drive it on my days off it stayed clean.
If you see a truck in this situation again stay behind him in the center lane so if he comes up on a slower vehicle he can get over and not rear end something, be a blocker for him he’s not gonna be able to slow down with that much heat, hopefully he will remember and not get in that situation again
Its kinda funny in a way to watch n read the comments, no disrespect to anyone, we all gotta start some where, somtimes we learn the hard way. I first ran Mont Eagle in a gas powered Ford. Jake brake? None. Then I ran out west, Vail, Colorado, Rebuilt '47 Peterbuilt with a 335 Cummins, no jake. You went down the hill 1 gear lower than up hill. When I.ld get west of Grand Junction, Co, by Mack, Co I.ld go north thru Vernal, Utah to get to Green River, Wyo. I.ld get to the Wyo.state line by the sign that read " Limited snow plowing, 8am-4pm Mon-Fri I.ld go thru there Saturday night Winter time was "fun"
Smoked the trailer brakes not the tractor brakes. Is this still the fault of the driver? Well it could be because you are supposed to check how much pads you have left before heading out.. but with OTR we never check.
Here is a Viloation on one of the trucks for Averitt express. not goo BRAKES OUT OF SERVICE: The number of defective brakes is equal to or greater than 20 percent of the service brakes on the vehicle or combination
Im not making excuses. But he was in a volvo. The last volvo i ran would not give me jake brakes in 9th gear at 45 mph. 45mph zone On i68 in maryland with 45000 lbs in the box. Computer kept telling me i was overspeeding the motor. I smoked them real good. Damn Volvo. Id rather drive an L10 cummins with a jake and 8LL in a L9000 ford 16ft triaxle dump truck 80000 Lb gross. Than to drive a Volvo. anywhere.
Monteagle is not a bad hill for those whose driven more than a year. It is a long stretch but its not the bad. Drop 2 gears jakes on high and let her ride.
🙄 I’ve been down Monteagle twice as a rookie driver. It’s not that serious. Driving a semi involves a lot of common sense, which apparently some people just don’t have.
Automatic shit gearbox or wrong shift to down; in my city every day have trucks seated in the only brake lane, by week at least two truck turn over by over-speed; its hard to be truck driver in my country, most of the hi-way have mountain passages, north is for experts; newby drivers go to south; the first trip to north alwaiys in the left seat to learn and know the road dangers, how not over-hot all in the truck (include to see and know the feared desert hot-rear wind when climbing) that over hot and destroy the engines in minutes.
Monteagle, is one of easiest Downgrades in the country... and there's no reason for brakes to get hot.. I used to go down that, with no Jacob brakes, in a Coe.. and never had brakes get hot... an experienced driver, like me, will put the truck, in the rite gear, depending on the weight, just use the Jacob, and go down without, touching the brakes... not in no big hurry.. to be stupid.. less wear and tear on you, and the equipment..
A little smoke doesn't hurt a thing brand new lining will smoke a little till they brake in you all should have drove back when we didn't have Jakes most people today would have killed themselves