E-brake and brake lights

[mjendrejcak]

A friend of got a ticket for having 'no working brake lights'. He got the ticket while useing the E-brake. He now has to go visit the inspection station. Any ideas on how to wire E-brake to turn on brake lights? vechile is a '99 furd 350.

 

[Mschevey]

I think he should just explain that he was using engine 'braking' to slow the truck. I have never seen any trucks with the e-brake or jake brakes (on bigger trucks) tied to the brake lights.



Send a Private message to Evan A. Beck. I think he is a mechanic on big trucks just to confirm what I said.



Mike

 

[Ray Torresdal]

brake lights

How could they give him a ticket, if when stepping on the peddle, the brake lights come on??? There is no way I would have accepted a brake light ticket, if they did in fact work.



Ray

 

[Joe G.]

I think this question was raised some time ago. If I recall that thread correctly, it's not legal to wire the brake lights to come on with an engine or exhaust brake. Service brakes only. Is this correct or not?

 

[Dean Upson]

There is either more to this story or I am missing something. The ebrake slows you down, it does not stop you. This guy didn't have someone right on his tail and let off the pedal and then get rear ended, did he?



Dean

 

[Joe G.]

I searched the online California vehicle code and found this:



(f) Stoplamps shall be activated upon application of the service (foot) brake and the hand control head for air, vacuum, or electric brakes. In addition, all stoplamps may be activated by a mechanical device designed to function only upon sudden release of the accelerator while the vehicle is in motion. Stoplamps on vehicles equipped with a manual transmission may be manually activated by a mechanical device when the vehicle is downshifted if the device is automatically rendered inoperative while the vehicle is accelerating.



So, at least in CA, it's legal to wire up the exhaust brake to the stop lights. That should be pretty easy with a relay. I will give it a try because I'm getting tired of people running up close when I slow down with the Pacbrake.



No idea what other states think about this.

 

[klenger]

Stoplamps on vehicles equipped with a manual transmission may be manually activated

Note the word is "may", not have to.

 

[Joe G.]

Yep, the way I read that is that I can, if I want, rig the stop lights to my Pacbrake. And if I don't want to, it's ok. If CT has a law like this one the ticket for mjendrejcak's friend is a bumm rap.

 

[mjendrejcak]

Thanks for the replies. I forgot to mention this was getting off an exit ramp with a 5th to 3 rd downshift. Police officer was following. Officer said truck was slowing down to quickly without signaling action. then wrote up the 'no working brake lights' tickets.



Agree it is not right and a tap of the brake pedal will so they work at DMV inspection.



My brother is a big rig mechanic and holds CDL A. He said he has never seen or heard of this as well.





But I'm still curious if anything can be done to wire in the brake lights to E-brake to prevent future issues.

 

[Dean Upson]

mjendrejcak,



If your friend did a 5th to 3rd shift on a downramp with a gasser the same thing would have happened. I would worry more about wiring into my ebrake than having something like this ever happen, figure the odds. Pretty sure if he goes to court he will beat the rap.



Dean

 

[Joe G.]

mjendrejcak,



You might try to tap the wire to the e-brake valve. Use the signal to work a relay that will put 12 volts on the brake lights. Check out the wireing diagram to make sure you are not accidently supplying 12 volts to something you don't want when you do that. The brake valve should still work because the relay signal coil only draws about 1/10 amp. I'm going to try it when I get some time and see what happens.

 

[klenger]

Easy fix, ... put your foot on the brake.



You can get into the same problem by manually engaging the electric brakes on a trailer without stepping on the brake peddle.

 

[mjendrejcak]

Originally posted by klenger

Easy fix, ... put your foot on the brake.



You can get into the same problem by manually engaging the electric brakes on a trailer without stepping on the brake peddle.

True, and if the cop is having a bad day then ya'll get a ticket for something else.



QUOTE]Originally posted by Joe G.

mjendrejcak,



You might try to tap the wire to the e-brake valve. Use the signal to work a relay that will put 12 volts on the brake lights. Check out the wireing diagram to make sure you are not accidently supplying 12 volts to something you don't want when you do that. The brake valve should still work because the relay signal coil only draws about 1/10 amp. I'm going to try it when I get some time and see what happens. [/QUOTE]







Thanks I'll try that this weekend.

 

[WestTN]

brake lights with e-brake

If the brakelight switch supplies 12v power to the lights you can hook a 5 or 10 amp diode from the e-brake solenoid power lead to the light side of the brakelight switch and they will work when the e-brake activates.



Pressing the manual brake lever on most trailer brake controllers WILL activate the stop lights.



I am thinking about tapping the Vehicle Speed Sensor signal and creating an electronic circuit to de-activate the e-brake when the vehicle is not moving. Then I can just leave it on all the time. As anyone with a manual transmission knows, the brake normally stays on at a stop when activated.

 

[klenger]

Pressing the manual brake lever on most trailer brake controllers WILL activate the stop lights.

The Jordan brake controller that many of us use is not connected to the brake light circuit, and does not light the brake lights.



Although I have never actually looked, I assume the trailer doesn't turn on it's brake lights from the brake controller wire either, but uses the brake light circuit from the truck. I'll have to check sometime to verify.

 

[Texas Diesel]

https://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=69455