Brake retarders may not be used in this town

Right before entering that town, you must pull over and remove the brakes from your truck! That way you'll run over all the retards in that town. :)

jake brake uses the engine as a brake. residents dont like them they are very noisey.

Political correctness is Brake Disabilitator.

Wow. It's almost like I posted the question. And from Pennsylvania too!

And Bob, your answer covered everything also.

I did look up brake retarder, but I didn' tfind the part where it was noisy.

Brake retarder is also known as an engine brake or "Jake Brake" as it was developed by the Jacobs Engineering company.

Some communities forbid their use because they think it is more important to be quiet than safe. The brake works by changing the valve opening and closing during deceleration and it makes for a noisy exhaust.Using the engine brakes saves the regular brakes and keeps them from fading on a long hill. I've seen more and more of those signs popping up nd I guess it will continue until there is a bad accident from a truck losing its brakes.

That is illegal all over the populated places. Ever drove diesel engine big trucks? Or used engine brake driving cars with manual shift? Then you'd know. It makes loud noise when applied the retarder.

Spring Grove.

Glatfelter. The name is all over town, and the original Glatfelter mansion is still there. I think it's still a private house.

"A global supplier of specialty papers and engineered products, Glatfelter delivers more than quality paper products. Offering over a century of experience, technical expertise and world-class service, Glatfelter provides custom solutions to meet your specific needs. "

Other more enlightened towns have an "engine brakes must be muffled" sign. IOW, engine brakes can be muffled jes like regular engine exhaust. Truckers don't need these brakes in town, but get lazy and use 'em for slowing to take the wear/tear off their main braking systems, which are expensive to replace.

nb

Harry explains why they should be used

A "brake retarder" AKA "JakeBrake" is a device in a diesel engine that uses engine compression to slow down the truck and makes one HELL of a racket.

heh heh.....

I bought the album for that one lone song. ;)

nb

The company I worked for had the real Jacobs setup on the newer trucks and Blue Ox, which was just a plate restricting the exhaust on the older trucks. The actuating cylinder on my truck failed. The shop mechanic asked which way I was going and I said 'East.' "You won't need it back East so we'll fix it when you get back." That's when I found some of the grades in West Virginia are like driving off a cliff. They may not be long, but they're steep and I missed the Ox.

Some of the big fleets save money by not installing the jakes. I17 from Flagstaff to Camp Verde is a long grade and a guy was starting to lose his brakes. I talked him down it, advising him to save what he had left for some of the sharper curves. The road is straight north of Camp Verde so I told him to just let it roll. The road goes back uphill after the town so while you might be doing 90 at the bottom you'll be back down to

I80 coming down the west side of Donner has a number of advisory signs that are similar, when to gear down, when you're coming to a flat so you can let it roll and so forth.

But they are noisy and the sleeping townies don't like 'Duh-dh-duh-duh' at 3AM. Truthfully, there are few populated areas where you really need the assist and it's just a courtesy to flip the switch off.

I imagine any driver in trouble stopping is going to use them anyway. better a fine than a crash.

There are some mountain roads in North Carolina that have run away stops similar to that. Lots of soft dirt (sand) off the road.

Per Oren:

I have seen something like that in Penna - around Jim Thorpe.

Those also included an up-grade as in: