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Transmission retarder & Jake Brakes
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Per, your logic is on the right track, but keep in mind where you are driving and how you drive comes into play.
I used my cruise control almost 100% of the time. One coach with Jakes, two with retarder.
On all three coaches the Jake or retarder main switch could be on and unless in the case of the retarder I was in any other than the 0 stalk position, the retarder would not engage when no gas was applied. On the jake equipped coach it was the same except the cruise disabled the Jake. If I started accelerating down a hill on the jake equipped coach I had to turn off the cruise control to engage the jake. If however as you describe if the cruise control does not disengage the jake every time the cruise control was coasting, the jake would engage. That is a case of picking your poison. Do you want to turn on the jake manually every time the coach picks up excessive speed, or do you want to kick off the cruise to engage the jake if the cruise disables it.
Because of the safety, I would want the jake to engage only when cruise is disengaged, such as if I have to hit the brakes while in cruise, I want the jake already on it highest setting.
If I am in hilly country I leave my retarder stalk in the #2 position to keep the speeds closer to the set point or I manually engage it if a downhill is in my path. No matter what we have we have some responsibility for manually controlling the coach.
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wow – I think my coach with it’s non-syncro 6 speed manual transmission and no Jake might actually be less frustrating to drive than an (Allison / Jake / Retarder) combo the way you guys make it sound.
I recently test drove a 2016 Honda Accord with a 6 speed manual. The car locks up the brakes each time you start so it won’t roll backwards. All it ended up doing was smoking the clutch and the brake pads at the same time. Annoying! I think most people who would buy a car with a manual transmission (in this day and age) probably know how to heal and toe…..maybe I’m wrong.
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Jon,
On my Bus, traveling down to Dallas today, my Jake engaged while on cruise control while we were going down the Arbuckle mountains of Oklahoma. On my sliverleaf tablet, the Jake engaged at 33%, then 67%, then 100%, before we leveled out at the base of the mountains and then the Jake disengaged automatically.
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That’s the way mine works as well Tim, you don’t have to do anything, the cruise and Jake work in harmony.
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Is that Jake programming unique to Marathon conversions or do other conversions work that way as well?
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Tom all the coaches I have had worked the same way toooo
Also most of the big trucks we have are the same way, some of the trans you can have them set for a soft cruise which means if you are on cruise you can have the jake come on two mph over or five over or ten over the set cruise speed the cat motors and Meritor trans where great for it
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Jon,
I don’t know if our transmission works that way. On the Affinity, I had to apply the service brake to make Jake come on with the cruise engaged. I will have to try it when we get the coach back–although not many real hills between Fr Worth and home. We did have one semi-panic slowdown on the way up. Jake on, cruise off, and slam on the brakes–whoa! those discs make a big difference! Also got to try out the performance mode–didn’t realize until you all mentioned it that normal mode is economy. I guess the letters “perf” above the mode button should have given me a clue–duh! Anyway, feel like I liberated about 100HP–big difference. We’re inside the Prevost garage right now getting new air bags, shocks, bushing and tie rods for startes, so someones college will be funded shortly.
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Per, I feel your pain. Report back because we await the first report ever of someone actually fixing all the air leaks.
To those who have not yet experienced the frustration of chasing leaks, in the overall scheme of things they range from merely a small annoyance to a very serious safety problem and everything in between. Leaks found during a pre-trip brake check are the ones we take seriously. Leaks that make our aux air compressor kick on every 24 hours are almost meaningless. When the compressor is kicking on every hour or less they become an issue.
For Per…………You are going to Prevost. I will assume you have determined the leaks are on the Prevost side and that you are not having Prevost look at the Marathon side leaks. If so, you might want to cancel your appointment.
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Jon, you and Di must be at FQRV as you are now expounding on central time. Geo.
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Jon,
When we finish here, we are going down to Marathon, which is three miles down the road. We’ll see how the air leaks are after they finsh here. Carl, the manager here related Prevost standards for air leaks are 20 pounds loss in eight hours on the aux sys. If I can get close to that, I’ll be happy. Marathon still have a number of issues to fix, so we plan on leaving the coach there and go home to give them time to finish. -
Next week we are in NO. The time shown on the post was when I posted. I was late this morning because I just did a 2.5 day, 2000 mile round trip to the Boston area and finally got a good night sleep in my own bed. Drove the pickup and rented a trailer to bring a car.home.
A 1928 Model A Phaeton. (4 door convertible)
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Very nice Jon looks great sweet car
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It goes perfect with my rotary dial flip phone.
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Jon,
What a fun car to have! I like the trunk….. a true suitcase!
I would imagine that it has the ‘spark’ lever on the steering wheel?
Safe travels!
Mark
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It does.
I had two 1929 Model A’s previously, but they were Tudor models. This is a 4 door convertible.
Interesting you mention the “retarder”. The owner apparently was not mechanically inclined so he had someone else set the timing and they messed up so when I have an opportunity I am going to reset it correctly. Right now it has to be started with it advanced, and to move the lever really advances it too far so I’ll set it so there is a retarded position.
I believe Tom and this car are the same age.
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