This SAE Recommended Practice provides the test procedure and instructions for air braked single unit trucks, buses, and combination vehicles. It also provides recommendations for: Instrumentation and equipment, Vehicle preparation, and calculating distribution of brake force.

This procedure provides a method to determine the brake force distribution and threshold pressures for trucks and buses with a GVWR greater than 4536 kg (10 000 lb).

Other equipment and procedures could be used to determine approximate relative work or energy being absorbed by a vehicle's brakes. A. "performance based brake tester" can determine low pressure/low speed torques of different brakes. A "temperature/thermal balance" can show relative temperatures of brakes, thus indicating approximate energy absorbed.