Anyway. . . I have a *friend who insists on engaging the parking brake when parking a tow. So far as I know he doesn’t engage it in most other circumstances, other than in an ususual sort of case like parking on an incline.
While I can’t see that engaging the parking brake doesn’t do anything harmful, I’ve always wondered is it really doing any benefit? His only comment on it was his father had always done it, so he does it, too. So. . . Does it really gain you anything in most cases?
One issue with older automatics was that if you parked on a hill without using the parking brake, the weight of the car pushing on the parking pawl would sometimes make it really hard to get it back out of park. I could maybe see how adding the weight of a trailer could make that worse. Certain older Ford products also had a nasty tendency to just pop out of park in that situation, so you’d definitely want the parking brake on there!
While I can’t see that it is a serious problem when using “P” in a flat area,
its a good habit to use park brake always.
If you drive some other vehicle you may then have a problem because its manual, or its “P” isn’t working for that purpose.
Its testing the park brake is available for hill starts. Sure you live on a continent full of deserts. There are mountains around.
With front wheel drive (or 4wd capable with front wheel normally engaged) then only the fronts are holding, and it adds more grip to engage park brake, which works off the rears.
On vehicles with drum brakes on the rear wheels, applying the park brake operates the adjustment to allow for wear on the pads. If you never use it, the brakes will lose efficiency over time.
If you are on an up slope, a trailer will take you backwards before the drive can engage. Holding it with the park brake is a good idea.
Well, simple answer, on an automatic, we were never taught to engage the parking brake on a level parking surface. Not as far as I remember. We were never taught it as being necessary. Why is it necessary? I can’t think of anyone who does so with regularity on an automatic–only in inclined situations. I do it out of habit now if I find myself in an automatic transmission vehicle since I’ve been driving manuals as my main car for the last fifteen years or so, but it drives my wife nuts when I leave her automatic with the parking brake engaged.
I was taught to always use the parking brake. Both by my dad and driver’s training at school. And I have know people who were marked down on their behind the wheel driving test for not setting the brake when the finished the test.
One would be hard pressed to explain why anyone would be better off trying to decide and determine in all parking situations to apply the parking brake or not, when…
…creating a habit of always applying the parking brake is sitting out there as an option – one established through habit, so that the brake is most likely always applied and never forgotten.
Create the habit of always applying the brake, so that you never have to depend on your stupid brain and never be concerned with evaluating when it is and isn’t needed.
I don’t doubt that. In Illinois, though, the only time I could find the parking brake mentioned in online tests or rules of the road is on hill parking. When I was taking driver’s education here in the 90s, we were not taught to use the parking brake on an automatic transmission as a matter of course. So that’s why people around here don’t use it. Seriously, I’m the only person I know who regularly uses the parking brake, but that’s because I drive a stick.
Another reason to occasionally use the parking brake is because normally, with an automatic transmission at least, they almost ***never ***get used. Consequently the cable and spring mechanism it operates will rust badly from disuse and if you then someday do use it it will seize in the ‘on’ position and not release (i.e. your rear wheels will stay locked up). Fixing this involves removing the wheel, drum, and manually freeing up the mechanism (all of which is not a minor job even if you work on your own cars).
Having said that, with every automatic tranny car I’ve owned I still almost never use it. There’s just never a time when you need to leave a car with an automatic transmission in Neutral (held by the parking brake) rather than Park. With a manual if you need to get out of the car without shutting it off the parking brake is your only choice. And I’m not a Ford guy and have never owned one.
It’s usually both Park and parking brake in an automatic, not neutral and parking brake. The parking brake is an additional layer of safety when parking on an incline (in addition to turning your wheels). Whenever I hear about using parking brake in an automatic, it’s always in conjunction with putting it in park.
The main reason not to use the parking break seems to be the fact that, unlike other things, you can actually start to drive without disengaging it.
Heck, we’re fairly hilly here in the Ozarks, but even then, I grew up hearing it called the “emergency brake,” which implies people don’t use it regularly.
Brake adjusters on drum brake cars adjust when brakes are applied in reverse, not when the parking brake is used. This is true of most vehicles with self-adjusting brakes.
Interestingly, electric trailer brakes can be had with rearward adjusting, forward adjusting or manual only adjusting.
