hydraulic hand brake instead of cable, is it advisable/safe? Asking for my street legal race car for context.
hydraulic hand brake instead of cable, is it advisable/safe? Asking for my street legal race car for context.
Not street legal in my province.
That said, I neverhad a problem with mine but there is potential for the system to bleed down and have no more parking brake.
Mine was on an old manual transmission equipped 4x4 so even if it leaked, it was still in gear. Mostly it was used for winching with the engine running.
It's not legal in a number of states either, AFAIK. The parking/emergency brake needs to be a separate mechanical system or something along that description.
I have a staging brake on my drag car I can use a bungee to engage. Other than on flat ground it is completely not trusted. Leave the car in gear and its never moving. Most of what you can/can’t do will be dictated by state inspection rules more than anything.
aren't a lot of cars using electric now?
That's an electrically actuated separate system, AFAIK. Not the same as depending on the hydraulics.
I ran a line lock on my old Toyota PU. Stomp the brake, hit the button, done.
But.... like others said, its not a separate system.
In reply to manladypig :
An old racing buddy of mine had the same question.
His answer was to convert the stock hand brake to hydraulic and install another cable operated brake that wasn't that easy to use but met laws. He was actually more concerned about safety than the law as he had a car run him over when the parking brake failed. So he was motivated.
There are several types of hand/parking brake solutions used in cars, cable and rear hat drum, mechanical actuator on the rear hydraulic caliper, and the new electric actuators.
You have to really engineer your solution.
Not recommended. Line locks are designed for very short-term engagement. They aren't a perfect seal. Leaving them on for a long time will allow them to bleed down and you might find your car across the street in a ditch.
Afaik hydraulic parking brakes aren't legal anywhere on the planet. A lot of places simply don't check though.
Having experienced two incidents of total brake hydraulic failure, one of which left me without an emergency brake in traffic, I am a bit over cautious about having a mechanical backup.
It takes a shockingly large amount of real estate to scrub off 30mph!
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