what is this?

Question

okay we were driving down a back road when we came up to this town and there was a traffic sign posted up that said "no engine breaking".
what the hell is "engine breaking"?

Answer 1

WOW! none of you are right! the Jake brake is a lever of button operated engine brake designed to save the service brakes. you can turn it on in different levels depending on how much braking is needed. the exhaust doesn't CLOSE! it is held slightly open so compression cannot be built up, therefore the engine cannot make power. this is why it is generally called a compression brake or as cummins would refer to it as a C-brake. it can sound like a dull roar or an F-ing .50 BMG machine gun. the sound wave that is given off by the sound and the motion of the truck can actually cause a shock wave and cause the ground to vibrate so much it could damage whatever structure the truck is riding on.

Answer 2

You can't even spell BRAKING, can you?

Engine braking basically is using the compression of the engine, combined with a lower gear, to slow the car down instead of hitting the brakes. As constantly hitting the brakes in a long downhill and overheat the brakes, leaving you with NO BRAKES, engine braking downhill by shifting into lower gear is necessary.

The town's ordinance is directed at big rig drivers, whose rigs are equipped with what's known as "Jake Brakes". Jake brake basically forces the engines to misfire, thus slowing the engine down, which in turn slows the vehicle down. But as you can guess, the misfire also causes backfire in the exhaust, and can be quite noisy, and some towns basically ordered the big rigs to NOT use jake brakes while within city / town limits.

Answer 3

Engine breaking is usually used on trucks. The exhaust is closed which forces the engine to slow down. This also forces the wheels to slow down (manual transmission only) without using the brakes. This also creates a lot of noise from the exhaust. You probably have heard this on the highway from trucks.

Answer 4

It refers to what is called a ''Jake Brake''. You may have heard it's thunderous roar coming from a tractor/trailer as it goes down a hill. It uses the engines compression to slow the vehicle instead of the brake shoes saving the truck wear and tear. It also disturbs the peace for miles around, but that's not something most truckers worry about.

Answer 5

Contary to popular belif, Jake brake does not cause the engine to mis-fire, if it did that then we would have tons of stranded truckers. What it does instead is cut the fuel supply pulse at the diesel injectors and it causes the engine to turn into one big massive compression brake. (Think about an bicycle pump with your thumb on the hose, its pretty hard to pump with it on there) The reason they are not allowed in most city or towns, is because it is really noisy and it can cause backfiring in rare cases.

Answer 6

you would only know this if you drive a stick it is when you down shift to slow the vehicle down instead of using the breaks. the reason for the sign it because it is loud so they are trying to cut down on the noise

Answer 7

its for diesel trucks like 18 wheelers....its so they can slow down without burning their trucks brakes out. An engine brake or Jake brake is pretty loud, so it can be considered disturbing the peace.

Answer 8

It is for Semi trucks. When they downshift or "Engine break" it is really loud and they try to limit that in certain area near houses.

Answer 9

When big trucks downshift to slow their trucks down. Makes a god awful noise.

Coach