I was always told that if I needed to use my brakes at all to control my speed on a hill, I was in the wrong gear. I have stuck to that advise and have never had any problems with brake fade. I drive a 360 DAF 85 at 38 tons all over Europe and have not yet found a hill that I needed to touch my brakes on once I had found the right gear and applied the Exhaust brake. and believe me there are some very big hills in Europe.
alix your wrong me old china… i had a p-reg fh12 380 when it was new and it only had the one position on the switch ie on or off. i was doing mainly germany in it and regularly came down a hill known as the black cat. its on the a3. approx 4 km at 30 kmh limit. as long as i was down the box far enough it would hold with an occasional dab at the brakes. sorry to be a pedant! jon. (nsh- i know that one over pamplona too- good view but slowly down it!)
had a brake on a trailer slip a cam a few years back.
the first i knew was lots of smoke coming from the back and that horrid burning smell.
i pulled over thinking the worst (no extinguisher)
but it was good news. as the brake got hotter it melted the dayglo pointers on the nuts and it was these that were smoking.
had these not been fitted then perhaps i might have gone on a bit longer and then had to deal with a wheel fire.
i bet they never thought of that when they invented them pointers.
oh right i thought the 2 satges were standard the m reg i had had a 2 stage thats why i thought they were standard
no problem we had a 420 xl on demo with the two stage and it was excellent . it should be made obligatory on all trucks! prevent more accidents than limiters ever will 
I reckon the Katzbach on the A3 is a good test of a retarder or exhaust brake.
40km for 3ks down hill with polizei sat in their gantry with cameras.
The other retarders which are worth their weight are the Jacobs Engine Brake, Jake Brake!
In Spain and Italy some of the trailers have an axle & diff with drive shafts and electronic retarders. They are heavy though
anybody ever tried the zorst brake on the fl10 
dosent matter what gear you are in or how the revs all it does is make a noise 
i agree totally about these new brakeing systems, but we dont all drive recent kit there are still a lot of the old motors out there with the button onthe floor.
at my old place we had a fleet of fl wendy houses and 1 l reg fh with the 2 stage retarder thingywhatnot and at 40t on the 2nd stage it used to stand on its nose.
chris
caveman:
anybody ever tried the zorst brake on the fl10
dosent matter what gear you are in or how the revs all it does is make a noise
i agree totally about these new brakeing systems, but we dont all drive recent kit there are still a lot of the old motors out there with the button onthe floor.
at my old place we had a fleet of fl wendy houses and 1 l reg fh with the 2 stage retarder thingywhatnot and at 40t on the 2nd stage it used to stand on its nose.
chris
zorst,let me see is not that swedish for brake■■?