A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Hello, Northeast Michigan! It is great to be here! I am a Michigan native, but lived in Texas and Florida for 44 years before retiring here to enjoy four seasons and Michigan outdoors.

My family homesteaded near Kalkaska in the mid-19th century. My dad moved to Detroit in the 1930s after retiring as a professional bicycle racer, and most of my family remains in that area. I started writing articles as therapy after a deep personal tragedy in 1978. People enjoyed them and I continue to this day. I enjoy writing about things that bother me, things that most likely bother you, too. Follow along for a couple weeks and see! Don’t be afraid to let me know either: Robert@singingturkeys com.

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The economy in this area has depended on several cement plants, as well as timber, for well over 100 years.

All day every day, heavy trucks come and go from those industries, creating a thriving economy for the area.

People living along the major highways listen to those behemoth trucks as they lumber toward their destinations 24 hours a day. That is a fact of life that they must live with.

But the incredibly loud and irritating compression release engine brakes from Jacob’s Vehicle Systems — also known as Jake Brakes — need not be!

Many truck drivers in the area use their Jake Brakes — an engine retarder that, when activated, slows the vehicle dramatically, putting less strain on the brakes — unnecessarily.

The primary use of those systems is for descending mountains and steep grades, where the brakes would heat to an unsafe level if used all the way to the bottom of the grade.

They also create an incredibly loud and obnoxious noise as the engine exhaust is forced back through the engine’s exhaust valves.

Most large trucking companies muffle that sound. However, a large percentage of independent operators and small fleet owners remove the ability to muffle the sound, as that creates even more braking power and noise, and that noise is the problem that residents living on or near major highways around the nation have had to deal with for decades.

Truck driving is a solitary job, and it takes a certain type of person to handle the loneliness and long hours. Many truckers have limited higher education and are “rednecks” or “rough around the edges” to a lot of people. Urine-filled soda bottles tossed recklessly along highway right-of-ways or dropped in parking lots do little to convince non-truckers that that perception is wrong. Add the late-night trumpeting of an unmuffled Jake Brakes to those annoyances, and the “18-wheeler versus four-wheeler war” is primed!

Oftentimes, long-haul drivers begin to feel the road is their possession, and smaller vehicles like cars, pickups, and motorcycles are a time-consuming nuisance in front of them.

Rather than use the Jake Brake to slow on a grade (since there are none here), they use them to intimidate “slow” drivers or drivers who pull out in front of them far enough ahead to be safe but close enough that the trucker must slow down slightly.

Several people living on U.S.-23 have complained of that excruciating noise at 3 or 4 in the morning!

“Maybe there was a deer” may come to mind. However, a Jake Brake takes a full second to engage and is not effective in a panic-stop situation.

Using Jake brakes on the Alpena-area flatlands is wrong! It is a form of bullying, “road rage,” or just plain being rude and inconsiderate.

If those drivers were not taught by their parents as children to be considerate of others, it is up to our county and municipalities to do so by passing ordinances prohibiting Jake Brake use and enforcing the ordinances! Signs that say “JAKE BRAKE USE PROHIBITED” placed at city, township, and county limits is an inexpensive way to stop about 70% of the abuse. The rest is up to law enforcement.

America’s highways are getting more and more crowded. When this author first started to drive big rigs on Michigan’s roads, there were 203 million U.S. residents and 8.6 million Michigan residents. Today, there are 336 million U.S. residents and more than 10 million Michigan residents. Most of those people drive on highways that are not much larger today than in 1970.

Patience, skill, tolerance, and consideration are needed, not hostility, intimidation, and road rage.

We all own the roadways equally. No one person, trucker, taxi driver, or commuter has more right to the road than another driver.

To hear a Jake brake ANYWHERE in this area is to hear a trucker being rude and inconsiderate. Our geography does NOT require the use of those otherwise helpful driving tools. The use of Jake Brakes as a form of “punishment” for perceived slights on the road has to stop!

Really, isn’t that what horns, are for?

You can get the ball rolling by contacting your city, county, or township representatives or local and state law enforcement.

And, if you can get the name of the offending trucking company, truck or trailer number, date and time, responsible fleet owners will take action.

However, the best solution is to pass ordinances to prohibit Jake Brake usage in Alpena County. A sign costs around $20, $100 to install.

That is not much to pay and we all will sleep better!

Robert Earl is a jack-of-all-trades with very diverse work experiences from the Canadian Northwest Territories to the Everglades to the Chihuahuan desert, mostly as a truck driver. His hobbies are home construction and renovation, winemaking, and writing, particularly writing about things that are irritating to us all. He and his wife have retired here in Alpena. Reach him at Robert@singingturkeys com.