InutilisVisEst:
Our versions of the AAA are
AA Automobile Association
RAC Royal Automobile Club
Russell
RussellM:
Cool, thanx. I moonlight as a locksmith for AAA, and have unlocked cars from Australia, NZ, Japan, UK, Greece (I think) and, of course, lots from Canada. Other than Canada’s CAA, though, I’d forgotten all the organization names and am too lazy to look 'em up.
Alas, I just didn’t think to ask what all those foreign drivers thought about the use of cable-actuated supplementary rear-wheel braking devices. What a tragic missed opportunity.
The only problem with your otherwise splendid term is that we need another to describe front wheel drive cars as the brake operates on the driven wheels and not always the rear.
A quick yahoo turned up http://www.saabnet.com/tsn/archive/files/faq/ebrake.html
which confirms the front brakedness, but which confuses the issue by using the old fashioned ‘emergency brake’ terminology.
Russell
A couple of months ago, I had my car in for brake service. It turned out that the caliper pins (part of the hinge that holds the calipers together, IIRC) was rusted. My mechanic told me to always use the parking brake when I parked the car, to prevent this from happening (I didn’t entirely understand why).
I asked him about the “freezing in the engaged position” problem, and he said that it’s not true. I think it gets colder in Pittsburgh than in Tahoe, CA in the winter (although I’m not sure where Tahoe is, so I could be wrong).
Of course, my mechanic could be wrong, too.
Being flatlanders, we didn’t always remember to set the parking brake on our Acura Integra, which we owned for 10 years. Maybe 10% of the time we neglected to set it.
We had recurring problems with the brakes dragging as we drove. (The worst time, smoke was coming from the wheels, and the wheels were very hot to the touch.) It was the only real problem we had with the car, but we took it to 3 different places and the problem would recur after a year or so.
The last mechanic told us that the problem may be due to not being consistent about setting the parking brake; always set it or never. (which is OK, because there are practically no hills for hundreds of miles)
So, we stopped setting the parking brake after that. We told that to the guy who bought the car; I don’t know if he set the parking brake, but I know he continued to have the same problem with dragging brakes.
We don’t set the parking brake on our current car either, which is now 3 years old, with no problems.
CatInHat, Tahoe is in the mountains. It might get colder there, but we definitely get more snow! 
I don’t doubt that your mechanic has more knowledge of the automobile than I do… however, it has happened to me. The freezing of the brake, that is. The only thing I could do was drive it slowly until the brake heated up enough to disengage. So I choose not to set it in the winter. At least not if it’s going to be set for a long enough period for freezing to occur.
The most rewarding part was when I got my money!
-Dr. Nick Riviera
Also some cars use the cable brake to ajust the rear brakes. This is if you have rear drums and not all use this method.
when the e/p brake is applied c cable in the brake drum basically pulls a lever that tightens a ‘star’ wheel. if there is slack, the wheel moves and pushes the brakes out further. other cars ajust by appliing the normal brake when the car is going backward. others don’t have any automatic ajustment. 4 wheel disk is another animal
A few loose notes:
- Brake maufacturers are the one who care if you refer to them as emergency brakes. An emergency brake
would be too expensive to make for all convievable uses. - They are working on brake systems that will allow you to have a brake applied while the engine is running. It will be expensive, so will more than likely be used only on schools buses, delivery trucks, semis, ect.
- Use it as an emergency brake if you MUST. Any port in a storm is a good one.
- Laws requiring two means of stopping the car in an emergeny are cover by the separation of the front and rear brakes.
- I have worked for the manufacterers, they are not stupid people, they know how people abuse the hell out of cars and some of them are the worst of the lot. Take a ride with a brake engineer on a test track if you ever get the chance. Better than the baddest rollercoaster, I guarentee.
i like this guy.
Let’s keep him.
Re #4 (laws requiring…) :
I don’t dispute that you are correct here, but the local police would not allow me to register my out of state car until I replaced the brake cable. So it is enforced (here anyway) as “2 methods of applying brakes”.
RussellM:
Hmmm… Didn’t even think about cable brake always locking the drive wheels, but it makes the most sense. I wonder if my AWD Forester hand brake locks all 4…
InutilisVisEst:
Empirical evidence suggests not. Applying the handbrake in a safe and controlled manner locks up the rear wheels of my AWD Impreza.
This may not be the most conclusive test in the world, but it was fun.
Russell
Some AWDs, at least the Lexus described here, definitely only apply the handbrake to the rear wheels.
http://www.4wdonline.com/Toyota/Lexus/LX470.html
Russell
I don’t believe I have ever heard of a passenger car or small truck that had the hand brake(cable actuated) operate anything but the rear wheels.
FixedBack
“When learned men begin to use their reason, then I generally discover that they haven’t got any.”~~*G.K.Chesterton 1908 *
FixedBack:
Are you saying that you have not read the previous page of this thread, or that you did not believe me when I said
or do you not believe the SaabNet information ?
Russell
RussellM:
So there’s your answer to the OP: “Yes, but not always quite the way the engineers might have intended…”
Maybe the new term needs to incorporate “controlled wheel-lockinduced fishtailing,” although that’s gonna make finding a cool acronym difficult.
Revised OP:
“Manually-activated cable-actuated supplementary braking and controlled wheel-lock induced fishtailing devices (MACASBCWLIFDs) on cars: Do you use yours?”
How about CWL (pronounced “cool”) fishtailing?
Along with “progressive braking and strategically placed hard steering to one side”, its called a J-turn!
Sweet, although the whole thing probably gives underwriters hives.
Sweet, although the whole thing probably gives underwriters hives.
I always thought that was a “bootlegger 180”.
A J-turn (doNOTtrythisathome) is:
- reverse to speed (speed needed depends on vehicle)
- simultaneous clutch in, snap steering to full-lock (left), and hard braking
- center steering while front wheels are off the ground.
- shift to first and dump the clutch