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Retarder Braking
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Doesn’t your dash lights indicate when the brake lights are activated? All of my coaches have had a warning light to let me know when the brake lights were on.
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This is an interesting discussion. I am going to try out my exhaust brake, now that I know how to turn it on.
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Colt, I think you have a Jake compression brake not an exhaust brake.
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Today, we made it to Odessa, TX, and now I wonder why I even move the stalk (unless I’m absolutely not going to touch the brakes).
With the retarder switched on at the steering wheel and with the stalk set at the ‘0’ position, the little symbol on the dash readout told me the number the retarder was in to help me brake. So, when I hit the brakes, it went to 4 then to 6 helping me stop/slow down without moving the stalk. Cool!
(I remember Jon mentioning this capibility)
MM.
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Mark,
You are using it the way I use it. It supplements my braking. No retarding force is applied if you just lift from the throttle. However I do use the stalk to help slow down such as slowing for an exit or rest area prior to brake application. I always use it to avoid the use of brakes when descending a hill.
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Sorry for the ill-informed question, but what is a “stalk”. Thanks, I feel so dumb as a beginnner.
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Michael,
It’s the lever that actuates the retarder. It’s on the right side of the steering wheel and kind of looks like a turn signal lever.
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Tom beat me to the answer but I would like to add that there is an on/off switch on the right side of the steering wheel with the choice of ‘1’ or ‘2’. The OFF button is in between the two numbers. If you don’t hit anything when you start the coach, it stays in the off mode. 🙂
Mark
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Thank you that is now clear. I would expect when you got your Coaches the first time you practiced and examined the position of the Jake or Retard position based on the down grade and the speed you wanted to achieve. Or, is there a graph that says 6% down grade and your weight of the Coach is X and the speed you want to maintain is X and you set both the Retarder, or Jake and the Gear to what is needed to achieve the desirabled controllable speed you want to achieve? Thanks I am learning a lot and enjoying all the posts.
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Michael,
You know, I’ve never heard or seen a chart that says anything about maintaining a certain speed, etc., going down a steep grade.
Our previous coach had the engine brake (or jake, not sure what they called it) with a low and high switch.
You will quickly get the feel of how they work once you use it for stopping, etc. Whatever type of engine brake or retarder a coach has, they work quite well and you will get the hang of it going down your first long grade.
Safe travels,
Mark
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Michael:
I started my Prevost driving experience in the summer of 2013 with a 1989 Prevost Country Coach that I rented in Kaukauna (WI). A friend of the owner walked me through it, and took me for a ride out of the subdivision, onto a town road, then down state highway and back into the subdivision. The training flight lasted all of 15 or 20 minutes, it was dark, on a cloudy night. Then I drove from Kaukauna down US 41 to West Bend and over to Grafton and backed the bus into our driveway … in the dark. The next day I hooked the 24′ race trailer on the bus and headed for Gingerman Raceway near Grand Rapids, M. We drove right throught downtown Chicago.
That is the extent of my bus driving training. I never drove our Prevost until after buying it and having Jeff Rowe zero it out at his shop in TN (it was stored 18 miles from his shop). Jeff explained to me what I needed to know to get going and off we went. I think I figured out the retarder by playing with it.
When you find your coach I’d be more than happy to help you get started since you’re only 90 minutes away. Good luck with your search!
PS: One of the most interest things I’ve discovered about driving a Prevost is how far the orange barrels fly when you hit them with the right front bumper. The plastic mark from the barrel on the stainless steel is easily rubbed off!
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I am kind of anal retentive when it comes to safty. Drives my wife crazy when I do 2 over the speed limit. Safety for me is in my bones from the years working in Paper Mills and being around very large and dangerous equipment. One false move and you were either hurt very badly or dead. Driving a big Coach is a huge responsibility from an owners point of view. A great deal of money is involved and I want to be as informed as I possibly can. Thanks to all for sharing their experiences and insight to all of us with little or no first hand experience with a big Coach. You are never to old to learn. I can not tell you how much I am learning from those that have gone before me. I hope I find the right Coach for us and embrace the lifestyle like so many others have done. Thanks again.
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Mark is telling about the retarder switch for his coach. Not all converters will use the same dash layout and different vintages may use a simple on-off switch. The operation remains the same however.
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Michael, good approach. I know two things that took a while to sink in. First, I really had to get to know the coach so I knew what noises were telling me. That sounds silly, but the noises have ranged from the toilet seat dropping down because we forgot before I started driving, to a door or drawer banging open and shut because a latch failed, to the clang of a sway bar whose bushings had failed, etc. The reason knowing noises is you need to know if the bus needs to be stropped instantly, or if the problem can be dealt with in a safe place. It also helps to be able to differentiate between the normal sound of things and how it sounds when something is not quite right for the same reason.
The second thing I finally came to realize is everything will break. So when it does break I need a plan in place. Some methods of dealing with issues is to do nothing. Take care of it when we get home. Other things require immediate attention. Still others we ignore because we have some redundancy. Trying to think of how I would deal with every issue I could think of has actually been comforting because where I could I added redundancy, or figured out how to use the redundancy we already have built in. Other things I have resolved by adding backups, such as my water pump. And other things I am just going to ignore until I am home or at least in a place where it makes sense to address the issue, such as a failed AC.
The problem is I didn’t know what I didn’t know until we got our first coach, and now 25 years and 3 coaches later we are still finding stuff we don’t know.
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Hey Michael, it’s been a very long time, but I was a member of United Papermakers International, Local 66 up in Northern Wisconsin. You’re not kidding about the opportunities for mayhem inside a pulp and paper mill. My experience driving a 10 wheel dump truck during that job did come in handy when I got my first bus though, and I think the mill work experience in general contributed to the conservative way I now drive it.
p.s.: The retarder lever for my bus is not on the steering column, but is on the switch panel to the left of the driver’s seat, shown just aft of the cup holder to the left of the wheel in this photo. I think many buses have that placement.
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