JAKE CALLING This is Jake! The letter published in Commercial
Page 29
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Motor. December 27, entitled Who's Jake? from A Reddin of Aberdeen was typical of all drivers who use a Jake Brake.
Your response is accurate, but for one small yet important point, to which I feel compelled to respond. Your comment that the "single biggest disadvantage of the Jake Brake is the cost". "typically £1,500 installed" does require some justification.
Compared with some electromagnetic or hydraulic retarders costing around E4,500, the "Jake Brake" starts to look good, Like all items of high quality, the "Jake Brake" is at the very top of its league.
Suspecting that you are comparing it with a "potato up the exhaust pipe" type of device, it should be said that the development of the Jake Brake costs around El. 5m for each engine type, is developed in conjunction with the engine manufacturers over a period of years (the Cummins L10 Jake Brake started development in 1978) and is designed to last for several engines.
Like all "proper" vehicle retarders, it takes care of around 65% of all braking requirements, saving real money in brake costs, tyre costs, downtime and engine costs, whilst at the same time it provides a safety to the vehicle and the driver previously not experienced.
Whilst the Jake Brake is 25 years old in other countries, it has only been available here since 1979, it recently won a top award in the USA as a major engineering contribution to the nation (the Saturn rocket was a previous winner) and 25% of all UK registered trucks with a suitable engine use the Jake Brake.
At EL 500 we think it is underpriced, often paying for itself in under 18 months of use, netting thousands of pounds savings in the whole vehicle life.
1 look forward to the day when Commercial Motor has a chance to test the Jake Brake for itself in a road test. That is probably not far away because ERF now fits it as standard on its "top of the range" vehicle 'and other British manufacturers offer it as a factory option.
That's Jake!
W A Hiscock (MD)
Norde Retarding Systems Ltd Worksop, Notts.