Jake Brake

[cmillsap]

Let’s talk about the Jake Brake. Do you leave your Jake on all the time? Does the fact that it activates each time you lift the accelerator (unless you can learn to feather it) effect your fuel mileage? I turn it on in traffic and tend to forget it’s on. I don’t have any data to back it up but it would seem to me that if left on all the time, it would lower the fuel mileage. I say this because it immediately starts to slow the coach more so than if it were off thereby causing the need for more fuel to be used to accelerate back to your traveling speed. Less wheel coast speed is what I’m referring to.

I’ve never owned a coach with a transmission retarder. Does a retarder (when turned on) act the same way or do they only work when the lever is manually operated?