Why can't truck drivers anticipate their stops???

plowjockey · #41 09/06/13, 06:04 PM

FWIW jake brakes are safety devices, designed to slow a truck down. not to stop it. They will not activate (usually) on a level road

On even a slight downhill grade, a truck will start to pick up speed - on it's won - just by virtue of weight, gravity and momentum. The driver will have to compensate - sometimes severely, by applying the brakes just to slow back down. This places more wear on the brakes and can be a brake safety (failure) issue, on very steep downhill grades.

Most drivers just leave them on, unless (but not always) a "no engine brake" sign is in effect.

If your road is on a downhill grade, that might be why you hear them. Otherwise they could just be straight exhaust pipes, making the noise.

You could always try to petition the county or state, to see if a noise ordinance can be enforced, whereas they can put up a sign.

oregon woodsmok · #42 09/06/13, 06:14 PM

OP, you are going to open a cafe. Put in a huge parking lot and serve good pie and you will start thinking the jake brake sound is pure money in your pocket.

Seriously, you are new to the house. You will get to where you tune that sound out.

Double glazed windows make a huge difference, so if you are redecorating, change out the windows.

Wis Bang 2 · #43 09/06/13, 07:38 PM

try reflective 'burma shave' signs!

There are a lot of poorly trained drivers using the jake all the time as a quicker way to shift.

watcher · #44 09/06/13, 08:02 PM

Another solution. Follow them home one time then about 2 a.m. drive by their house with the muffler removed from your car

BTW my wife drives a tractor trailer and when she hears a Jake, most of the time she shakes her head and mumbles "Idiot. . ."

wally · #45 09/06/13, 08:15 PM

I drive OTR and all of the drivers that have have loud brakes are alot of cowboys who are all hat and no horse

Wayne02 · #46 09/06/13, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hercsmama

It turns out it is owned by my husbands second cousin.....needless to say, the issue should be resolved completely as of now.

And there you go, the power of the good-old-boy network in action.

DEKE01 · #47 09/06/13, 10:06 PM

For those of you who expect truckers to forgo the jake brakes, load your car to the max with family and then get up to speed on a country road you're not familiar with. Rules are, you can only tap your brakes about 1 second in 5 until you get below 20 MPH.

Waiting....

So, scary huh? Now try it with 60K lbs pushing you thru the intersection. I'm not saying truckers can't be more considerate when they know jake noise is a problem, but you are taking away a LOT of stopping power.

simi-steading · #48 09/06/13, 10:46 PM

Does loud pipes save lives have an argument in this fight?

(just trying to lighten the atmosphere)

hercsmama · #49 09/06/13, 11:03 PM

Semi, love the song, thanks.

Just so it's all out there, dh and I ride, we met on our Harley's. I have an '06 Heritage Softtail, with Hooker Headers, so the idea of following someone home, did come up, you want loud pipes?
But, two wrongs do not a right make, even if it would have been fun. I also totally get the point of stopping power, but as I said, it's been dealt with, and a little common courtesy is all I was after....

simi-steading · #50 09/06/13, 11:37 PM

We ride with a lot of HD guys.. We ride a Roadstar.. All the HD guys make us ride in back because the pipes on our bike put theirs to shame, and hurt their ears... I give them such a hard time over that

MichaelZ · #51 09/07/13, 12:11 AM

Unless you can get a law/sign up, it will continue. So perhaps come up with some sort of white noise (like a large fan) to cover it up. And remember that these guys do this to make a living, even if a few are not too nice on the road. A friend of mine is driving to make some money for his family and it is a great sacrifice for him, but it was his only option, so I always think of that whenever I am about to rant about truckers that I must share the road with.

HappyYooper · #52 09/07/13, 07:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by farmerj

Please don't take me wrong.

I love the sound of a nice set of pipes. But there's a reason the are sold for off-road use only.

Nothing is more annoying that a truck grabbing a gear in front of your house or a Harley barreling out of town at 6 am on Sunday.

I get it.

But address the issue, not the annoyance.

If it's one company, complain to the DOT about unmuffled trucks.

I agree. My husband drives log truck and brings it home. We live on a back road with a few homes in the area. He is a very conscientious driver...he usually leaves for work at 1:30 a.m. and is very quiet. We talked to the neighbors about it and nobody even knew when he left.
There a a few truckers in the area with exhausts so loud they would put a Harley to shame & I don't understand why they don't get ticketed. A poorly maintained exhaust will also be loud...I hope after you open up that this will lessen the problem for you & good luck

with your business!!

farmerj · #53 09/07/13, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hercsmama

Semi, love the song, thanks.

Just so it's all out there, dh and I ride, we met on our Harley's. I have an '06 Heritage Softtail, with Hooker Headers, so the idea of following someone home, did come up, you want loud pipes?
But, two wrongs do not a right make, even if it would have been fun. I also totally get the point of stopping power, but as I said, it's been dealt with, and a little common courtesy is all I was after....

So it's ok for you and your bike to be inconsiderate, but not a truck.

Stay classy

karenp · #54 09/07/13, 01:50 PM

You said the residents have been using the place for free grass and hunting, maybe they're not too happy with losing that and this is their way of showing you.

ErinP · #55 09/07/13, 02:34 PM

They're shipping cattle at 3AM?? On a regular basis??
Are any of those "ranches" actually feedlots?

I know a lot of cattle haulers. I guarantee they're simply not thinking about it as an issue. That's why they're waving.

They LIKE the sound of their jake, I promise you.

They like the sound of other trucks' jakes. No one realizes it's a problem.
And, if no one has lived in that place for years and years, it's going to take a while for everyone to remember that someone does when they're doing all those weird load-outs in the middle of the night.

To the problem: I would suggest simply flagging guys down when they go past and ask for a big favor, "Could you maybe not flip your jake when you come to this corner? It makes me jump every time!"

Danaus29 · #56 09/07/13, 02:43 PM

Not a trucker but I do like the sound of jake brakes. I would much rather hear those than the boom boom boomboom of some idiots stereo.

And yes, I know what it sounds like at 3:00 am when you don't need to be awake until 5:00 am.

Shrubs along the road in the problem area(s) and maybe a sign showing or advising of the sharp turn ahead.

Don't make any long wordy signs. They are too hard to read when you are blowing by them at 50 mph.

Michael W. Smith · #57 09/07/13, 03:22 PM

If the highway department won't put up a sign, then make one yourself. (More specifically - have someone make one or two for you.)

I have chickens and at one time they were free ranging chickens. So, I measured a regular road sign, and I work for a manufacturing plant that uses steel - so they cut out two signs for me - same size and diameter as the real stree signs. (They drilled two holes in each size so it could be hung up.)

I then had a local guy who paints, paint a "Chicken Crossing sign" with a painting of a chicken in the middle of the sign. He used the standard yellow background - black wording, black paint for the chicken for the sign.

I spent maybe $150.00. I then bolted them to trees coming either way towards our house. (You could easily use either steel posts or cement in wooden posts.)

Of course, with my signs, every one knows the state didn't put them up, but with your signs - they could be painted exactly to look like the real highway signs.

Truck drivers will THINK, they are real and will abide by the new "rule". No one needs to know any different.

am1too · #58 09/07/13, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hercsmama

Minor rant here.
We recently (7 months ago), bought a property that had been empty and for sale for about 10 years.
It's on the highway in the middle of nowhere Nebraska, in the middle of big cattle country.
There is a minimum maintenance road on the opposite side just north of us. There are alot of cattle trucks and grain trucks that use this highwa to get where their going. No problem with that. They also use the MM road quite a bit, as there are three massive ranches back there, also no biggie.
But for pete's sake! Why must they use their jake breaks every flipping time they go by my house? At 3 am there just is nothing like being thrown out of bed by that noise. It's not like they don't know we are here. When we bought this place it was such a big deal there was a story about it in the local paper.
We bought what used to be the local gas station/grocery store/ coffee shop. It had been in business for about 100 years as a grocery store out here.
Anyway, seriously, you'd think they could anticipate that they need to slow down for that turn long before they get right in front of the house, which is about 50 ft. from it.
I told dh to get me one of those nail guns, so I can hide in the bushes and shoot out their tires, he said no.

These jackwagons will wave as they go by if I'm outside working, so they know someone lives here. It just seems to me a little courtesy wouldn't hurt.

A jake break is a great sound to a truck driver anytime. But then I guess respect could go both ways. If you only knew what drivers put up with.

farmerj · #59 09/07/13, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelZ

Unless you can get a law/sign up, it will continue. So perhaps come up with some sort of white noise (like a large fan) to cover it up. And remember that these guys do this to make a living, even if a few are not too nice on the road. A friend of mine is driving to make some money for his family and it is a great sacrifice for him, but it was his only option, so I always think of that whenever I am about to rant about truckers that I must share the road with.

Law or sign for what?

The jake brake isn't the issue.

The issue is a truck with straight pipes and no muffler. Something the OP claims she rides her motorcycle with hickman headers. Sounds rather hypocritical to me.

There needs to be across the board enforcement of CURRENT regulations involving vehicle noise ordinances. Not prohibiting a safety device on a vehicle.

A jake brake functions by turning the engine into a giant air compressor. At the top of the compression stroke, it dumps all the built up air pressure into the exhaust. The ONLY time it will operate, 3 things HAVE to happen: above 1000 RPM, the clutch released and the foot off the throttle pedal.

am1too · #60 09/07/13, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by simi-steading

On top of jakes being cheaper than shoes, time is money, and the longer you can stay on the gas, the less time you lose... It's not about they don't know the turn isn't there, it's about making time and saving money...

Naw the less fuel you use the better your bottom line is. I had a conversation with a fellow trucker about that. He spent $35,000 more on fuel than I did. I told em I had a better use for $35,000. BTW I was awarded a $300 leather jacket for my fuel saving. I usually pulled into the truck stop right behind the driver doing 10 MPH faster.