Which wheels are braked with e-brake on?

It can, but it is not what you'd call easy. Once was an attempt while in a parking garage, so smooth concrete..cheating??? maybe. The other was completely accidental after a rainstorm at a stoplight and I just felt like a jackass. I always drive with ECT on and trac/vsc/whatever off

 

They used to be a couple of front wheel drive cars that use the front brakes and then there were a few they put the emergency brake on a disc on the drive shaft. I don't think they make any of those anymore.

 

Only then?

 

Let me clarify. I added it to the list of times I've felt like a jackass

 

Take my word for it, the older you get the more often that happens.

 

It locks up the 5th wheel...the spare.

 

But the big question is....does that 5th wheel have TPMS?

 

I think most medium-duty and larger trucks still use a disc or drum brake mounted to the Driveshaft. Basically anything which uses Air Brakes from what I’ve seen. You’re right though, I can’t think of a non-commercial vehicle which doesn’t use the ‘standard’ rear brake E-brake.

 

I could be wrong here, but I thought air brakes just dumped all the pressure and functioned as parking brakes?

 

Yes I think youre right. Air brakes clamp down when unpowered. The big yellow button simply depressurizes the system.

 

You’re right, I mis-spoke. I was thinking of medium duty trucks which don’t have Air brakes. I used to drive a Kodiak truck for work which didn’t have air brakes but used an E brake mounted to the driveshaft. My current work truck is a ‘17 F-550 (without air brakes) and it uses a ‘conventional’ rear E-brake set-up. The next time I’m at my office I’ll walk around the yard and see what some our larger trucks are using.

 

Range Rovers up to 2001 had a parking brake drum on the rear transfer case output. Other Land Rover models might have been the same but I haven't owned one to know for sure.

 

I have zero experience other than U-Hauls and a general fascination.

Just because I never really see them like I can on the rear axles, I asked a friend who used to drive for a living if semis had front brakes.

 

I remember a couple of vehicles with "Mico Locks" on them. They had an electrically activate valve in the hydraulic brake line to lock the rear brakes. They still make them, but I don't know who still uses them.

If anyone remembers chain drive trucks, I think they use the differential as the brake. A guy who worked for my dad was old enough to have driven them. As he told it, if you lost the chains, you lost your brakes. The old trucks had no front brakes at all.

 

hmm i feel like theres a 3rd gen torque joke in here somewhere.

 

The current gen Mustang has (had?) a line lock feature on the front brakes for burnouts.

The non-OR / non-Pro MTs have a line lock on the rear brakes for Hill Assist. I believe it is activated in the ABS pump somehow. Only works when the key is on.


I remember seeing chain drive trucks, but mainly in parades.

 

There were still a few around when I was a kid. Mostly Mack "C Cabs" as I recall. Then again, I remember when most trucks and some cars had "snow chains" on during the winter. Actually well into the 2000s our ambulances had the RotoGrip automatic chains on them. No one used them for the most part. The jangling of the chains when not deployed drove one of my partners nuts so he'd climb under the truck at the start of the shift and tape them up with surgical chains. My other partner and I developed a talent for finding noises that drove him nuts!

 

I had asked a person who was a bus driver about the AutoChains. They had no clue. For a while, I had thought they might have just been noise makers to alert folks who might be walking or standing by. Definitely thinking too much into those.

Cool concept except that they don't work well if you're already stuck.


Practical jokes like that would be fun.

 

The Tacoma World "Friday Thread" appears to be a phenomenon whereby an OP asks a question at some point during a Friday (and it has to be on a Friday to be a true Friday Thread) and the question gets answered (sometimes over and over and over...). Whereupon, the thread then tends to digress from the originally asked question and can take some interesting directions. Occasionally, Friday Threads have been known to start earlier in the week, but these are not truly Friday Threads. Friday Threads are usually fun to follow for a day or two.