Thanks Franglais.
The Jake takes a lot of explaining and getting your head around, very clever design.
I had one on a 14 litre ■■■■■■■ in the early 80’s, even though it only worked on 4 cylinders at the time (the work around for the extra 2 cyls hadn’t yet been designed) the retardation was amazing, and it encouraged a whole different approach to driving, you took a great pleasure and some foolish pride in almost never having to use the main brakes.
Something i have tried to pursue since and one cannot stress the safety aspect enough of utilising such systems as much as possible, leaving those all important main service brakes cool for those thankfully rare moments they are really needed.
The only engine brake i’ve used since that came close to ■■■■■■ effort was the 3 stage brake on a Volvo FM.
Have requested a retarder (, won’t be a Jake but a system over and above the standard exhauster) on the next vehicle, currently on order, whether it arrives so equipped is another thing entirely 