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As I have mentioned earlier, I
use my BD exhaust brakes when travelling in hilly terrain, or in traffic.
I neglected to mention that I will often engage the brakes when on wet road
too. No more - BAD IDEA.
Yesterday, while returning to
Houston, we hit off and on rain, and so, I was travelling with the brakes
on. Near Lufkin, Texas, while proceeding downhill around a turn, we hit
standing water. My speed at the time was about 55 mph. I took my
foot off the pedal, intending to roll through the water. What happened was
that the truck went immediately into a skid, heading for the rail. What I
think happened, was that in effect, the exhaust brakes halted the rear wheels,
but without affecting either the front, or the trailer wheels, so that I had the
trailer pushing the rear of the truck in toward the rails.
We escaped unhurt and undamaged
because of three things. God obviously was with us! Also, there was
not any traffic in the lane beside us. This was fortunate, because I fully
used both lanes going back and forth across them about four times trying to
control the skid, until my speed dropped enough that I could use the accelerator
so as to straighten out. Finally, my instincts took over, and anti-skid
tactics on ice that I had learned while growing up in Canada had me steering
into the skid and otherwise doing what I had to do to get through the
trouble. In retrospect, I should have cut the exhaust brakes off and have
hit the brake controller to activate the trailer brakes, but this did not occur
to me at the time, and I don't know that I had time to do so, because everything
happened so fast.
While all this was going on, the
trailer was whipping around behind the truck, and I think that I can be thankful
that I have as much truck and as little trailer as I have, because a larger
trailer, or a smaller truck would have made the situation completely
unmanageable. When I did open the trailer, we found that the mattresses
and box springs, as well as the contents of the refrigerator had been somewhat
rearranged, which speaks for the violence of the swinging around of the
trailer.
I learned a lesson from all of this,
and will no longer be using the exhaust brakes while on wet, or slippery
pavement, at least while pulling the trailer. With the truck alone, I
don't think there would be a problem.
I pass this information on to the
rest of you who could be in this situation with your exhaust brakes and
trailers.
-Tom
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