Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 11, 2025 ...

Air brake testing

July 22, 2017, 10:34:52 am

The most important aspect of our preventative maintenance and operational safety of our motorhomes is the air braking system.  In talking with other owners, I have found that many do not understand how the braking system works and more importantly, they do not perform any kind of testing prior to going out on the road.
 I spent 30 years (various roles) on the San Diego Fire Dept.  EVERY morning after relieving the previous crew, the engineer (driver/operator) was required to perform and document an air system/brake test, which I think would be helpful in understanding how the air system works and keeping us safe (chock your tires before doing this):

How To Perform An Air Brake Test | FireFighterToolBox

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Re: Air brake testing

Reply #1 – July 22, 2017, 10:57:08 am

Sven,

We pulled all the apparatus out on the ramp and then cleaned the floor. We did monitor the air pressure before we started up. We didn't have air dryers on any of the rigs but drained all tanks each morning. Quite a bit of water out of the wet tank as Santa Barbara City FD is close to the Ocean.

The city was too tight to order Jakes on the Detroits. We paid for that a couple of times.

Did you know Shawn Rohrbach on the SD department? The son of a good friend and fellow firefighter. We both went on March 1, 1967.

Pierce

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Re: Air brake testing

Reply #2 – July 22, 2017, 11:03:10 am

I don't recognize the name, Pierce.  I came on in 1982.  With regard to a department not providing all available braking, regardless of cost, that is really short sighted, especially when you consider legal liability.

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Re: Air brake testing

Reply #3 – July 22, 2017, 05:56:18 pm

Thank you for the list.  Some of the items are very easy to check such as cut in and cut out pressures, and leak down with pedal pressed.

Remember Foretravels were built with a more stringent air leak down rate than the acceptable DOT rate.

According to Appendix G of the Foretravel manual, the acceptable leak down rate is 6 PSI in one hour.  That's 1 PSI every 10 minutes!

The DOT standard is a 4 PSI in a two (2) minute period.  That's a drop of 120 PSI per hour!!!

Chris

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