Should my parking brake bea able to hold my truck on an incline with a boat behind it? I have rear drums, and I noticed last year that they did not, the only thing keeping it from rolling on back was the transmission being in park. I feel like this is very bad for the transmission.

I put it in neutral and with the brake on, I just rolled on back. Does fine when I kick in with the front brakes.


Does the parking brake just need to be adjusted? I need new rear brakes anyway because I drove with the parking brake on last year, so they will need to be replaced anyway. Not sure if they had been replaced before, so that could fix it too. What should I expect from my drum brakes?

 

I would say with it in park and the ebrake on it would be fine.

 

It should hold with the parking brake. However if the rear drums aren't adjusting, you A: loose rear braking ability and pedal feel and B: loose your parking brake.

If you drove with the parking brake on, I would imagine the shoes got smoked could use replacement. However you could get away with trying to adjust them

Read step #20 on that page. The first part of it tells you how to change the shoes if you're a DIYer

http://www.rangerpowersports.com/for...es-246015.html

 

I doubt it's supposed to be able to hold with a boat behind it... no truck I've ever had would have done it! lol

 

I've only launched a boat once with my truck, and I didn't use the parking brake because I had someone else helping me. I just backed in and pulled right on out. I'd say it would (and should) definitely hold though. I've used just the parking brake to hold my truck in place on much steeper inclines.

 

Mine will hold a 14' trailer with 2 mowers and a dirtbike on it (2100 lbs+whatver the trailer weighs) parked on a slight incline.

 

Here is how i do it.

keep truck in drive then apply the parking break it will roll back a little, i then put the truck in park.

i noticed when i do this it no longer feels like im about to break the gear shifter off trying to go from P to D

however the best way to do it is have someone else who can keep the truck in drive or reverse at all times and have thier foot on the brake.

my boat weighs 3200 LBS dry. and i don't trust the E-brake

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ace

Here is how i do it.

keep truck in drive then apply the parking break it will roll back a little, i then put the truck in park.

i noticed when i do this it no longer feels like im about to break the gear shifter off trying to go from P to D

however the best way to do it is have someone else who can keep the truck in drive or reverse at all times and have thier foot on the brake.

my boat weighs 3200 LBS dry. and i don't trust the E-brake

x2 on the break then putting it into park, tons less strain on the tranny and everything else.

I also unhook as much as i can, and have someone else unhook and hold the boat while i drive, ( i hardly go boating by myself )

 

If you drove with the brake on. Your shoes are toast.
Another good sign that the shoes are toast, is that the E-brake isn't working.
I would inspect them first. if they still look good then maybe you could try adjusting the self-adjuster out a bit more.
Has the brakes ever been completely submereged? because i've heard some stories where after someone launched their boat and they didn't dry out the rear drums, they rusted all the springs apart or something like that.

 

I Never trust my e-break when launching. In gear ftw. It does suck for manual's cuz I have to turn the truck off while getting everything ready to launch. Oh well, worth my truck not going in the lake. haha

P.S. My ebreak is shot to **** anyway. I don't trust it on anything less than a even street. I still Always looked shifty eyed at it when walking away. Crossing my fingers if for some reason I didn't put it in gear. (running)

 

your truck sounds exactly like mine right before i had my shoes replaced...it wouldnt hold my truck unless the pedal was against the floor

 

I do usually take someone with me, but I generally don't trust them either to back the truck the full length of the ramp, or to get my boat off the trailer.

It usually goes like, I back it most of the way down, put it in park, give them the wheel, and get in the boat. Then they just have to drop it down a few more yards so I can get it off.

I might end up just taking it to a shop to have the shoes replaced or I might attempt it myself. Not sure if they've ever been replaced, truck has 48k on it. This weekend I'm gonna go over to Josh's (josh40601) and we're going to take a look and get my parking brake cable adjusted and see what happens.

I'm taking the boat out a couple times next week, it's spring break. So we'll see what happens.

 

I don't think there is an adjusment on your cable. It's all in the brakes themselves.

 

If you are really woried about the stress on the trans in park then launch the boat in 4 low, then you only have half the force acting on the park lock but I agree about using the emergency brake before the trans lock.

I have found that with my truck the parking brake only holds well going forward, I can barely feel it backing up and this is with new shoes, drums and hardware. I would never trust the E-brake to hold a boat by itself, there are plenty of videos on youtube of trucks being pulled out of the water up a boat ramp.

 

I thought there was. there should be a small cable on the inside of the drums that when the E-brake is pulled, It pulls teh shoes out and moves the self adjuster.

 

That's not how it works. When you back up and hit the brakes the brake shoe pulls on that cable which moves the self adjuster. There is no E-Brake Cable adjustment.

 

I have my e brake disconnected because it would always stick. so I usually just put it in Low and shut it off since its manual.

 

Correct. The only reason the parkbrake pedal goes to the floor and has a hard time holding is due to the fact that the rear brakes are worn OR out of adjustment at the self adjusters. There is no cable adjustment anywhere, including the cable that moves turns the self adjusters.

 

mine dont hold. but it may be due to the fact that it is a 2001 on the original brakes with 147K+ miles on them. With boating season just around the corner they will be changed out soon. two summers ago it held just fine.

 

I was close.
Now that you guys mention it, I do recall being told by somebody how i thought they worked was a bit off.

FWIW, I can't believe you people are going so long without changing rear shoes.
I barely scrape by with 20-25k miles before i have to change rear shoes.

 

Just replaced mine with 90,000km on them... should have been done earlier though. lol

 

I made 87k on mine. I generally leave the parkbrake partially engaged once a month though. I rarely use the brakes, lot of coasting

 

i got 74K out of the original shoes on my truck