Truck parking brake hold while on the boat ramp?

[jmo]

Hey Guys,

Just curious if a properly working parking brake should be about to hold my truck and ski boat on a reasonable paved ramp? Lately I have noticed after I set it the parking brake the truck still rolls back a bit, before I assume the parking prawl on the transmission catches? I tightened up the cable as my truck has 100k on it, could it be a sign my rear drum brakes are not working?

Thanks,

JMO

[AirTool]

Fords should hold. Chevy's generally don't. Don't know about Dodge's.

Generally, the problem is that your rear drum breaks need to be adjusted either with the manual adjusters or automatic adjusters (varies by vehicle). (New shoes do help.) Once you've done that, if it still doesn't hold, you need to adjust the brake cable.

For some gm vehicles, the procedure to adjust is to back up hard and slam on the brakes and the adjuster will click. Some vehicles you pump the emergency brake pedal. You need to find the procedure for your vehicle and try it. Often it doesn't work and you have to pull the drum and adjust them manually.

[jmo]

Thanks Airtool, its a Toyota Tundra, in past I think it has worked better, I already tried tightening up the cable figuring after 7 years it had stretched... The rear drums have never been replaced.

[AirTool]

Thanks Airtool, its a Toyota Tundra, ......

Oops...forgot about those.

Also, the back brakes set the pressure/resistance for the regular brake pedal if that makes sense. (In other words, the regular brake pedal cannot feel pressure resistance until the back brakes engage...then the fronts come on - although the fronts dominate after that point.) If you're system is properly bled (which it is) and your regular brake pedal goes all the way to the floor or farther down than normal, the back brakes need adjusting. They may also need replacing but even a very thin shoe liner can: stop the vehicle, provide a "good pedal", and set the parking brake. Often unadjusted shoes need replacing sooner than adjusted ones because the liner is only rubbing on the cylinder end and not the adjuster end. If you look at your shoes and see the liner is not a fairly consistent thickness along the entire shoe, that means they operated for a long time without proper adjustment.

Besides the rear differential, (and maybe automatic transmission), rear brakes are the most neglected mechanical claptrap on a vehicle.

[jmo]

I actually change the rear diff (front & transfer case as well) and tranny fluid regularly as I plan on getting 250,000 miles out of it, it's at 101k now and still drives like it was new. The rear brakes I've never had to replace, in this case it turned out to be the pivots in the ebrake linkage that were rusted frozen and hence it won't engage.

[Zach@n3]

Drum brakes don't work as well when rolling backwards as they do forwards. Drums are designed so that the brakes wedge themselves into the drum as pressure is applied. If you want to test this set the parking brake, try to drive forward in gear, (probably won't move), try to back up in gear, (probably will move).

My 10 ram will roll back just a little (disk rear brakes). If you park it on a hill with no trailer in just park it takes a lot of effort to remove it from park but with the brake on the ramp its easy to get out of park so I figure it helps quite a bit to have it on.

[xrichard]

my experience with Toyota, including Tundra and Sequoia, is the parking brake does not do much. Confirmed by the dealer after I asked to have it adjusted and it still didn't do much...

[jbach]

my experience with Toyota, including Tundra and Sequoia, is the parking brake does not do much. Confirmed by the dealer after I asked to have it adjusted and it still didn't do much...

interesting. i have an 07 tundra and my wife an 06 sequoia. they will both hold the boat on the steepest of ramps in neutral with only the parking brake.

[jmo]

Now that it's fixed I definitely notice the difference, will report back once I launch the boat again.

[CCfan]

Be careful on little used ramps covered in algae. The ramps can become so slick that submerged rear wheels won't hold the vehicle on the ramp. In that case, only a foot on the brake will hold the front wheels. Almost learned this the hard way earlier this spring.

[surroundsound64]

Fords should hold. Chevy's generally don't. Don't know about Dodge's.

Both my Dodge's (2009 and 2012 2500s) hold well.

[AirTool]

My 99 tahoe doesn't hold - so at the steep ramp at Canyon,....I take chocks with me in case I need them.

My wife's old 99 navigator would hold but sometimes got pulled down w/the algae....mainly when launching.

On occasion, I had to leave my wife in the tahoe w/the truck idling in 4 low and the brake on.

[Yiger]

My '08 Tundra holds on the ramp... I imagine the level of use over the years would have an impact to some degree though.

[jmo]

Hey guys - launched yesterday - holding solid on the ramp now the frozen pivots are fixed.