Parking Brake Popping Off

[CROW]

My truck is a 2005 6 speed manual and I use it to tow a boat. Sometimes I am by myself or with someone who can't drive the boat or the truck and I apply the parking brake and then use a chock under the left front wheel when the engine is running on a boat ramp or on an incline. On the really steep ramps I will turn the engine off. Several years ago, maybe as long as five to six or so, there was a thread started by a fella with a manual transmission who was loading a boat or watercraft, had the truck on a boat ramp, put on the parking brake and went to get the boat to drive it on the trailer and the parking brake popped off causing the truck to go in the water. He posted a picture of the truck under a foot or so of water with the clearance lights still on. There was then a discussion from other guys that had had parking brakes pop off. I would like to have that picture to show to show to a couple of guys who appear to think I'm just telling internet stories. My intent is certainly not to cause any embarrasment to the fella who had the incident because it could happen to any of us, but I would love to have the picture. I have had two instances where a parking brake popped off on vehicles other than my current Dodge/ Cummins; fortunately, no damage was done either time. Not really sure where to post this but will try it in here. Thanks for any responses.

 

[jelag]

Parking brakes are not effective on steep inclines, especially when sitting down hill backwards.....

The design of a modern parking brake requires the shoes to be adjusted correctly... . Most trucks don't back up enough to ratchet up the parking brake... . The design requires that one shoe force the other shoe against the drum to function correctly..... It's important that the e-brake pedal go less than a 1/3 of its travel to bring the parking brake tight... .

When it tries to roll forward the back shoe forces the front shoe into the drum, when the truck tries to roll backwards the opposite is true...

The last point is that the two cables need to be balance and adjusted so that when one brake comes tight, both are tight... . its not uncommon to have the shoes in adjustment but for some reason one cable is a little out of adjustment so one wheel comes to say 80% and the other wheel is at 40%... ...

Modern machinery use whats called a micro lock, where the operator applies the brakes and flips a switch... with the brakes tight from hyd press the flip of the switch locks the hyd pressure to the wheels and uses no mechanical connection... .

Common air brakes on trucks have a huge spring that applies the e-brake so that it takes air pressure to turn them off... the loss of air means the brakes come on and stop the truck... .

All of these other options either cost a lot more money or are not consumer usable for the average fool driving a car..... As an example I know a great guy who is retired and drives a motor home with air brakes, he has no clue how they work or why he pulls that button to set the parking brake. Its a very fail safe product but expensive for small vehicles...