Brakes, what's too hot?

[Blacktank]

Brad you can inspect them,it's a job on the rears but a burnt glazed over pad/shoe is not hard to spot,the rotor/drum will have that heated up discolored look to,or get them inspected

[tx2sturgis]

There's nothing wrong with his damn brakes. Yet. He's simply overheating them.
The problem is 100% driver education.

And all transmissions have a governor- that device prevents engine overspeeed.

Seriously, they provided low and second selections for the driver so they would destroy major components?
Float the valves? Stop scaring him.
They didn't provide 'Component Self Destruct' controls for the driver.

First part is true, second and third part, not so much.

On some of these trucks, the transmission can be forced to downshift to the point of overspeeding the engine, and with 14 thousand pounds pushing him down the steep grade, the transmission 'governor' can become irrelevant. 

When an engine overspeeds, valves can and do float, sometimes causing severe damage. That's exactly why there is a 'redline' marked on the tach.

[MN C Van]

LoL- Yes, his engine will explode.
stay away from the scary lever

[tx2sturgis]

LoL- Yes, his engine will explode.
stay away from the scary lever

All I'm saying is, downshift at a reasonable speed, and let compression braking keep the vehicle speed under control on the descent.

And yes, some modern electronically controlled transmissions will not downshift until the engine RPM is compatible. But I don't know if that is what he has.

He probably does not want to force a downshift to 2nd at 50+ mph just to find out.

[tx2sturgis]

i've seen small drums inside the main drum with it's own shoes and mounted to the trans system,just thought i would mention that if your pedal goes to the floor you have a cable operated system to fall back on

Even with that separate parking brake on the transmission, its doubtful it would be able to slow the vehicle much in an actual 'emergency'...

Most hydraulic braking systems have built in redundancy, but...smoking hot brakes are bad. I have actually had to use a fire extinguisher a few times to help suppress the flames on burning brakes on trucks that had been abused on steep grades, (not by me!) and on trucks that had brakes that were not releasing, causing a brake fire after only a few miles.

Ironically, I had just posted a truck brake fire a few days ago on my youtube channel. I was inside having breakfast and when we saw the trailer on fire, we all ran outside to help and you know...GAWK!

But my truck dashcam was on and captured the whole thing.

[Motrukdriver]

I only smoked my brakes once and it was.. ummm.. exciting. Leaving Beckley WV heading east on I-64 with 44k pounds of roll paper. I knew I was too fast at the top of Sandstone and couldn't slow down enough to downshift. Probably should have been in 4th gear and full jakes but nope. 13th and sweating. I did the stab braking and kept em cool enough not to fail but they were smoking white. When I saw the bottom of Sandstone Mountain at the New River I just let it go. Pegged the speedo and kept it coasting back uphill till I could downshift enough to pull that grind. Never again!!! Had I balled it up there would have been debris scattered for miles. Don't ya just love big truck war stories?

[BradKW]

LoL- Yes, his engine will explode.
stay away from the scary lever

All I'm saying is, downshift at a reasonable speed, and let compression braking keep the vehicle speed under control on the descent.

And yes, some modern electronically controlled transmissions will not downshift until the engine RPM is compatible. But I don't know if that is what he has.

He probably does not want to force a downshift to 2nd at 50+ mph just to find out.

That makes sense...it's an '02 7.3l diesel but I don't know what the tranny is.
I took the tires off to inspect rear brakes last week and they appeared ok...it's all disk brakes, no drums...and I can't figure out how to inspect the inside pads and rotor without removal. But the rotor I can see looks ok and plenty of meat on the pad.
I just read something above about how braking pressure is distributed, and since my front brakes never seem to heat up maybe there's a balancing issue I need to address.

So would you say this would be a fair way to determine what speed is "safe" to drop to #2: determine how fast I can go in #2 on a slight upgrade, then use that as the top speed I can drop back into it?

[tx2sturgis]

That makes sense...it's an '02 7.3l diesel but I don't know what the tranny is.

Oh hell, no wonder you are having issues. I had assumed it was a gas engine....my bad. If your diesel has no engine or exhaust brake, and it sounds like it doesn't, then you really DO need to slow down on the downhill sections. Turbo charged diesel engines have very little 'compression braking' UNLESS they have an engine or exhaust brake.

Ok....you are fighting gravity on every down hill run, so we cant chalk this up to inexperience or driver error...if that makes you feel any better.

If it's in the budget, you might want to save up for an exhaust brake. It may save your life if you regularly travel thru mountainous areas.

[sternwake]

Shoot the fronts and rears with an Infra red temperature gun.
Collect data. Good tool to have anyway.
Perhaps fronts not doing much braking at all.

Can you force it out of overdrive?

My overdrive will coast, with no engine braking until i slow below where od is not allowed. Engine braking on my gasser considerable in third.
Assume a diesel would be more so.

[tx2sturgis]

 Engine braking on my gasser considerable in third.
Assume a diesel would be more so.

Turbo charged diesels do not have much, if any, inherent compression braking. 

The air intake does not 'close off' when you release the throttle, so air is free to flow thru the cylinders and out the exhaust. 

On large OTR trucks, we have an engine brake, often called a Jake-Brake, but that is only a brand name. 

It is a compression release braking system, but, mid size to lighter duty diesels that pull trailers will often have an exhaust brake....PacBrake is one brand.

Both of these solutions address the fact that turbo diesels have very little compression braking on trailing throttle.

Just FYI, the reason I keep saying turbo diesels is because a normally aspirated diesel DOES have some compression braking.