From: Fred Martin (mung@in-touch.net)
Date: Mon May 19 2003 - 08:21:57 PDT
Joe...after reading your post I got to thinking about this...some
motorhomes have air brakes. As they don't have commercial plates...they
probably don't fall in the air brake endorsement bit. Can you shed some
light on this? Fred Martin
GOTAM35 wrote:
> I have resisted as long as I can. I must open my big mouth.
>
> I have a CDL with an air brake endorsement. I have the health card to go
> with it. I have driven or operated a vast number of different civilian
> trucks. Let me share a few facts about the CDL and air brakes.
>
> As a side note, I have forgotten many things, made up a few and misquoted a
> couple. None intentionally.
>
> The M35 and other 2 1/2 ton trucks with the same chassis do not have air
> brakes. Period. They have hydraulic brakes with an air powered booster.
> Your foot has the ability to increase the braking ability of the truck with
> the increase in pressure you provide the brake peddle. The air aids with
> this. You push brake fluid (dot 5 hopefully) to each wheel. With air
> brakes your foot increases the amount of air that goes to air chambers at
> each wheel. No air, NO-NO-NO brakes. Most modern vehicles have springs
> brakes but they provide very little braking ability when compared to the
> rest of the brake system. If you don't keep your slack adjuster tight, you
> don't have brakes. Of course when you do your daily inspection of these
> things you would catch that. The air chamber usually rotates a "S" cam to
> move the brake shoes. Once the camber has moved to the extreme you have all
> the brakes your going to get.
>
> You need a CDL, with the air brake endorsement, to drive a vehicle with air
> brakes. I am told that is a national standard. That is the whole point of
> the CDL, to make all commercial truck drivers abide by the same standard of
> safety.
>
> You do NOT need a CDL to operate a M35. It can't haul enough weight by the
> manufactures rating and it does not have air brakes. I hesitate to bring it
> up, but with the troop seats, it may be classed to haul enough people to
> require a CDL. Let's don't go there.
>
> If you are in doubt, go to your local DOT office an get a copy of the
> commercial drivers license hand book. Don't take a crack pot on the email
> list at his word. People are wrong sometimes, myself included.
>
> You have to keep all the original safety equipment that came on your truck.
> Age is irrelevant.
> If your truck came with an air buzzer, you must have one. If it didn't have
> a warning light, you don't have to have one. Some states may have more
> strict standard, I suppose that is possible, but a state can't water down
> the federal standard.
>
> Flame away, I don't care. I just don't want any of you guys getting
> yourself or any one else hurt. A truck the size of a deuce has a lot of
> kinetic energy.
>
> Joe Trapp
>
>
>
> ===Mil-Veh is a member-supported mailing list===
> To unsubscribe, send e-mail to: <mil-veh-off@mil-veh.org>
> To switch to the DIGEST mode, send e-mail to <mil-veh-digest@mil-veh.org>
> To reach a human, contact <ack@mil-veh.org>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat May 07 2005 - 20:20:31 PDT