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Stop and go traffic is when I leave it on all the time. I have instant braking, and I can feather the throttle as necessary. I haven’t had a coach with a retarder, but I would have been OK with it. I hear they have a bit more braking power than a Jake, although the Jakes I’ve had on our previous coach and this one work quite well if you use them right. However, very few Marathons come with retarders–I’ve only seen one so far, although I imagine there may be more. I would not be concerned about the stress on the driveline, Jake braking has less HP/torque than driving HP/torque.