Mountain Driving with 1995 42', 42,000 lb. Blue Bird

[brad barton]

Ron,
One more ramble and I'll quit.
Marty is right about heat. A dragging brake on a tour bus evacuating nursing
home patients from Hurricane Rita in Houston, blew out one time on I-45. The
driver didn't understand English, so he continued on after the tire was changed.
The brake heated up again even in stop and go traffic. The wheel became red hot
and caught the rear of the bus on fire. The driver failed to notice until
portable oxygen tanks used by the patients began exploding. The bus turned into
a crematorium for 24 of those patients. I'll never forget watching the bus
burning up live on TV. Also, I left my magnetic retarder on by mistake in
Flagstaff and nearly caught my 84 Bird on fire. I burned through the air line
that operated the driver's seat slide. Imagine smoke coming from under your
coach and you're struggling to get to the extinguisher with your seat next to
the doghouse. Fire on a motorcoach is almost as serious as fire on board an
airplane. Brad Barton 00LXiDFW bbartonwx@...


To: WanderlodgeForum@...: martingregg598@...: Tue, 26
Jun 2007 00:32:18 +0000Subject: [WanderlodgeForum] Re: Mountain Driving with
1995 42', 42,000 lb. Blue Bird




Ron, if you have a Allison HT-755 five speed with a retarder, I have know
advice, if you have a 1995-42' you should have a Allison HD-4060 and a DD series
60 with a 3 position Jacobs engine brake. Jacobs's brakes close the valves and
turn the cylinder into a compressor creating braking horsepower, each position
adds more cylinders. I haven't driven a 95 in the mountains but I have driven
over a lot of the passes in the Cascades, Montana, Idaho and so on, but I can't
imagine that if your in the right gear at the right RPM that the engine brake
won't hold it back. For me with a less effective Pac Brake, it is 4th gear at 50
mph at about 2400 rpm's on a 6% or so, on a steeper grade it's 3 gear at 35-40
mph and I almost never have to use my air brakes. If I am in 4th and it starts
to run away, faster that I like, I use the brakes to get the coach down to the
speed that I can select the next lower gear. If the Jacobs brake doesn't hold
you back, maybe there is something wrong with the Jacobs brake? As for the "Drum
type" air brakes, if you have been on the road for a time and the ambient temp.
is hot, and If you ride the brakes for a long period of time the drum can expand
away from the shoe and you lose your brakes. With some real bad luck you could
heat the wheel up so hot that it heats the tire up and blowout.Marty95 BMC
37Kennewick Wa


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