I am also very glad to hear it wasn't more serious and that everybody came out okay!
All this makes me wonder about braking in diesels and so I wanna ask a bunch of dumb questions. I know nothing about diesels, as I never owned one. I never even took a good look at a diesel engine.
What happens when you shift to the lowest gear? Would it help much to slow down a diesel?
Comment:
In todays diesels shifting down will slow you BUT it will only shift down to the lowest gear that will not damage things. If you touch the brake and shift down it should engage the exhaust brake, either the classic Jacobs or the newer butterfly in the exhaust path and shift down as the engine speed reduces below the next shift point.
Also, what happens when the engine is shut down (like when the ignition is turned off in a gasoline engine). Does it just turn off the fuel pump or what does it do? There's no ignition to turn off, right? It seems there should be a way to use all that compression to help slow things down.
Comment:
I have thought about what I would do (but with gasoline engine rigs), in the case of lost brakes. And I have had to use it once, but only to help, by shifting into the lowest gear. But I didn't totally lose all the brakes, I had a brake line burst open for the rear brakes as I was braking down a deep hill. It was scary, pedal goes down to near the floor, but I was able to slow enough to stop and avoid any damage. Fortunately, most of the braking power is in the front and with the help of the tranny in low, as well as using the parking brake, I was able to come to an almost normal stop in an almost normal stopping distance.
I have heard of one other person who totally lost brakes but was able to stop by shifting his automatic tranny into REVERSE. It damaged the tranny, but it did stop. What would happen in a diesel if it were forced into reverse?
Comment:
In the newer diesels the transmission will not shift into an unsafe gear so you would have to be either stopped or nearly so to have the transmission shift into reverse.
Computers are smarter than people.
-Don- SSF, CA