Running a bus at the Bonneville Salt Flats

[Amskeptic]

"We" was me and Melissa.

She's a keeper. She kept you.

I did tap them, a firm 1, 2, 3 count but the grade would redeliver all the speed within a few buslengths. I thought about stomping them, but didn't for whatever reason.

That is old-school. back when we all had pretty awful drum brakes. I still do. I would have been exactly in your predicament with Chloe, trying to stay ahead of the heat generation, yet trying to slow down, and with Chloe, as the drums got hot, they would have expanded and my pedal would have started getting closer to the floor. But back to you, step on them! They can handle it. I have seen my front rotors glowing orange through the wheel slots in the Road Warrior . . . still worked fine, but I had to keep them just a little cooler than surrounding grease ignition temperature.

For the record, there has been debate after debate about how to apply *drum* brakes on a long grade. Some say cycle "give them time to cool in between applications", others say steady. I say "you must calculate." If you gain too much speed in between applications (like right back up to your initial speed) then you must keep them on and GET SLOW NOW, go ahead and build up the punishing heat NOW before all the surrounding parts also get hot. Get down to homeostatic heat dissipation/braking needs. The rule for older drum brake VWs is go down at the same speed it is capable of going up. That is exactly what I did with Chloe going into Stovepipe Wells at 121* ambient, 3rd gear at 40, easy dabs o'brake excellent engine compression with the early 1600s, hub caps were 182* at the bottom.

If it is a gradual grade and you are not cooking, then I do about fifteen seconds of light braking to get 5 or 10 mph below my target, then see if I get another fifteen seconds of cooling.

Actually, my thought about revving it up and dumping it into 4th was that the deceleration would be so much and so abrupt as to put my face into the windshield, and bring the tail around.

no Plan B.

I guarantee you this Rule Of Physics . . . the faster you go, the more energy required to do anything like slowing or turning. You wouldn't even feel it, no pitch through the windshield for you! but you wouldn't feel the rear end let go either if you were abrupt with the clutch. This is a case where a damn close to perfect double-clutch downshift is required.

This is what screws up neophytes in their driving *all the time*. The faster you go *the more work is occurring*! You get to right to the vehicle's limits without even knowing it.

Ex: In a parking lot at 15 mph, you can saw the steering wheel violently. All you get from the car is rocking and barely any tire protest. You can stomp the brakes and get cussed out by your passengers, too.
Now you KNOW what I am going to say next. "Try that at 60 mph." You know better. At that velocity, the tires would have to perfom something like eight times the work to maintain traction. Stomp the brakes at 60. You do NOT pitch into the windshield, they and the tires don't have the ability to actually retard your momentum that quickly.
Now try it at 180 mph. That is suicide. At 180 mph, you MUST do all actions very carefully, even a twitch of the steering wheel or a dab of brakes can throw you into a skid, because there is tremendous work occurring to maintain a 3,700 lb car just in a straight line.
This applies to all of our driving, that is why I am blabbing away here. The faster you go, the more gentle you have to be with every action. So many people swerve to avoid the deer at 60 mph the exact same way they would avoid it at 20 mph . . . can't do that.


By the way, I AM Mr. No Plan B all too often. I won't even tell you about the over-cooked sweeper downhill right in the Road Warrior where I was trying so hard to be 28 year-old Mr. KnowItAll with my clueless passengers when I realized that that the stupid big steering thingy, you know, that big wheel you're supposed to turn with the road . . . wasn't really doing any such thing. Well I couldn't stop blabbering . . . they would have known something was wrong. I managed to chat right through some hideous understeering, but my ashen face foretold a complete deflation of my pompous ass hat lecture.

I am very glad you survived your thrilling ride.
Colin

[glasseye]

So after the wiggles at the top I put it in neutral and just let it fall.

Holy Crap. I can smell the brake linings from here. That is a grade not to be trifled with - going up or going down. Not to mention those whoop-de-do's near the bottom.

Good thing you didn't freak out and do something bad. My favourite takeaway from Chris Hadfield's book was "There's no problem so bad, you can't make it worse."

[Amskeptic]

That is a grade not to be trifled with - going up or going down. Not to mention those whoop-de-do's near the bottom.

I remember whoop-de-do's all over . . .