Does anyone here drive a bus?

tigerstyle

tigerstyle

tigerstyle

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Preferably a large city bus, something like the picture below.

I think I'm right in saying they all have air operated/assisted brakes? Now, do air brakes always have to always give the most uncomfortable and jerky ride to passengers or is it just the driver driving like a pleb? Can they be eased on smoothly and allow the bus to come to a gentle stop the same as a car? Or is it like wrestling a sprungloaded crocodile jack-in the box everytime you try and brake?

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Well I guess they do, seeing as they always go


tsssshhhhhhhhhh when they break

No idea what the functionality on how they work exactly are, but your right, its abit jerky.
 
brakes wear out fast on buses due to the miles they do. Every bus they drive will be different and take getting used to, they don't have there own bus like a lot of my mates think, every day is a different bus. But if the driver is doing all day long id say he is acting like a pleb.
 
I'm sure there must be a way of not upsetting the passengers when braking as I've been on buses where the driver has managed to come to a stop reasonably. However I've got my strong suspicions that a fair number of bus drivers treat being a bit of a git to passengers as one of the few perks of the job - it's annoying but somewhat understandable, I'd probably look on passengers with equal disdain if I had to deal with them every day.
 
i used to drive buses, its a bit of both, they are air brakes and are completely different feel than normal car brakes.
however every different model of bus has a different feel to them, some models in my experience for example volovos stand out at having very twitchy brakes, so it may take a few minutes to familiarise yourself with the feel of the brakes, but the same principles apply with any bus you are driving so its no excuse for poor braking all journey long.
 
You will find that the jerkiness you feel on some buses is not always to do with the brakes but because the downshift on the automatic gearbox is sometimes quite sudden and creates engine braking that the retarder is slow to respond to. Also the air suspension contributes to the feel when a bus slows and stops. Some buses are better than others.

The brakes are air operated, which means that air pushes the brake pad away from the disc and when you depress the brake pedal it releases air so that the brakes engage, hence no air pressure the brakes will not disengage. This system is not as smooth as hydraulic brakes in cars which push onto the discs.


The driver is rarely at fault.
 
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Castiel said:
You will find that the jerkiness you feel on some buses is not always to do with the brakes but because the downshift on the automatic gearbox is sometimes quite sudden and creates engine braking that the retarder is slow to respond to. Also the air suspension contributes to the feel when a bus slows and stops. Some buses are better than others.

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Aha cool, the buses here are all manuals, so can take that out of the equation. Will pay attention to the suspension next then :)
 
as stated bit of brakes bit of rubbish auto boxes

but probably mainly down to the driver being a bit of a muppet,

then my entire experience of driving busses boils down to shunting a few leopards and olympians
 
Biohazard said:
My dad stole a bus once...
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has to be said, Cool Story, Bro.

and for the OP they raise and lower the actual height of the bus, to make it as smooth as possible i think. and they can manually decrease of increase air to each wheel part of the bus to try and keep it as level a possible (I seem to think).

Use wikipedia, should tell you :)
 
The driver is probably a pleb, also, he probably does not drain the condensation from his air tanks, which, if left over time, causes the brakes to grab violently.

Poor driving imo, I can brake smoothly (and am penalised if I don't) it matters little if at all what vehicle.

It could be a 57Reg 400kmile Volvo, a new Scania, or much abused DAF XF - its down to the driver how harsh his braking is. (imo) ;)
 
DefiantAsh said:
has to be said, Cool Story, Bro.

and for the OP they raise and lower the actual height of the bus, to make it as smooth as possible i think. and they can manually decrease of increase air to each wheel part of the bus to try and keep it as level a possible (I seem to think).

Use wikipedia, should tell you :)
Click to expand...

You can raise and lower the suspension to allow low floor buses to be easier to board and alight. The driver cannot manually set the air levels of each suspension corner, he can in some buses reset it to its original position but that is it.
 
R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
The driver is probably a pleb, also, he probably does not drain the condensation from his air tanks, which, if left over time, causes the brakes to grab violently.

Poor driving imo, I can brake smoothly (and am penalised if I don't) it matters little if at all what vehicle.

It could be a 57Reg 400kmile Volvo, a new Scania, or much abused DAF XF - its down to the driver how harsh his braking is. (imo) ;)
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It's a bus, not a HGV. The driver cannot drain the air tanks. The two vehicles are completely different to drive hence the different classification.

Most buses are fitted with RIBAS which reports erratic driving and the majority of complaints revolving around this issue is the public thinking a bus acts like a car, which it does not.
 
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