Air Brakes

[federicotak]

Hello all,

I have air brake simulation enabled in options and notice that whenever I brake for a period of time and come to a stop the warning light flashes and a short alarm sounds.

Now, I have no knowledge of how trucks work in real life, but in the game is there anything I have to do to restore air brakes? Also, if I do then try and brake while hazard light is on will braking efficacy be impaired ?

[Nimir-Raj]

Rev the engine in neutral to rebuild your air pressure. If your air pressure drops too low the safety system will lock your truck and trailer brakes on until you have enough pressure to safely disengage them again.

Remember you're a truck driver, don't ride the brakes all the time. Use the retarder if you have one or the jake brake. Let that slow you down as you approach a junction/traffic light, then use the foot brake when needed to come to a full stop.

If you screw up your trailer parking, then you of course run the risk of draining that air pressure, but at least in those cases you are off the road and not causing a traffic jam.

[Birckablock]

Braking with the hazards on, no the effieciency will not be impaired. In reality it is 2 different systems, electrical, and pneumatic (Fancy for air IIRC).

[Ivellios]

If you really want to know about Air Brakes, I recommend either going to the local DPS, library, or downloading the Airbrakes book portion to get a CDL. Yes, Air Brakes has thier own seperate test when going for a CDL, that also must be passed to get one.

In Texas, you would need to pass: Permit, Combination, Air Brakes, General Knowledge, Pre-Trip, then the Driving Test itself. With 3 of those being required to get your learner's permit.

If you had this knowledge, you'd know when the alarms are supposed to be going off, and at what pressure the trailer brakes should lock, and what pressure the truck brakes should lock as well. Obviously there's more to it than this, but that's about all you'd need for ingame.

Yeah, Engine/Jake brake to slow down. Use of the service brake, is to go to a complete stop, after slowing down, and emergencies.

[Stoneslinger76]

Originally posted by federicotak:

Hello all,

I have air brake simulation enabled in options and notice that whenever I brake for a period of time and come to a stop the warning light flashes and a short alarm sounds.

Now, I have no knowledge of how trucks work in real life, but in the game is there anything I have to do to restore air brakes? Also, if I do then try and brake while hazard light is on will braking efficacy be impaired ?

in short
When you step on the brake pedal (treadle valve) you apply air to the brakes.
The harder you push the more air is applied to the brakes, leaving less in the air tank (storage/resovoir)
Eventually with lots of brake applications you run out of air.
The alarm buzzer (ATS in cab bell ding ding) sounds at about 60 PSI, the "spring brakes" apply, locking the brakes.
You can not unlock the spring brakes (parking brake) if air is below 55-60 PSI, so rev the engine up (1200 max suggest) until the air reaches a safe level to contiue. Shut the parking brake or spring brake OFF... continue on your journey

[Crazytrain334]

this is a really old thread but maybe some one can advice me on simulation air breaks i use a controller and automatic shifting so could i use this for immerison sake or no ? since i cant actually shift into nutural and rev the engine ?

[MirkoC407]

It is not easy to exhaust the brakes with an analogue input device. So if you have ministicks on your controller, you should not worry too much. For digital input devices, on a game controller that means hat switch or the + shaped quadkey, it is recommended to deactivate air simulation altogether.

[Crazytrain334]

i have a xbox elite controller with a bunch of bumpers but not sure i can map those for some reason

[🦊 Hermit]

Are you on simple auto or real auto? On real auto you can shift into neutral, so if you can find just a couple of buttons for 'gear up' and 'gear down' you could try that. Perhaps even have those extra buttons on your keyboard and just tap them when needed?

[Crazytrain334]

well i dont like doing that and its on simple auto and i cant map my other buttons which is stupid 200 dollar damn controller and cant even use half the buttons

[kat55]

The air brake system as modelled in the game is far too weak. Your best option is to go to Options > Gameplay and turn it off.

[Crazytrain334]

o iv got mods to make it sound better ;) thats why i was wondering if i do automatic does it use the airbreak so i have that immersion atlest while driving

[Supernovae]

Originally posted by Crazytrain334:

well i dont like doing that and its on simple auto and i cant map my other buttons which is stupid 200 dollar damn controller and cant even use half the buttons

You may need to set up your controller[support.xbox.com] in the Xbox Accessories App to make the most of your controller on PC. You may also need to download/update/enable the Xbox Extended Feature Support Driver on Steam. Mapping buttons in ATS can get a bit messy if you have both Steam Input and native input enabled so test which works better for you. Also note that in update 1.49 (currently in beta, full release should be by the end of the month) the UX in the game supports mapping macros to functions.
It sounds like your issue of only being able to map all the buttons is because without dedicated drivers the Elite controller will emulate a generic Xbox style controller with the additional paddles mapped to the face buttons by default.