Hey folks, it's been a while since I've checked in and saw some changes. Had to start all over again in registering. Recently this last November, I bought me a 16' aluminum bass tracker and it seems I'm beginning to see that while at the ramp, the emergency brake may be getting weaker as the break seems to set further towards the floor now; instead of half way like before. Until then, I really haven't used the emergency break hardly at all in 2 yrs. Any Thoughts would be appreciated. My truck is still under warranty and what would you think needs done? Thanks guys, hope all are enjoying the weather. Danny

 

What kind of rear brakes do you have? Disc or drum? There's a fairly well known problem with the rear drums and had it happen to my '97. The self-adjusters don't work too well, so eventually, they need to be manually adjusted. That took care of the weak parking brake and made the truck easier to stop since the front discs were doing most of the work until the adjustment.

BTW, if you're worried about your truck rolling into the water, the safest thing you can do is to use a wheel chock on the rear wheel. Tie a line to it and the end to the bumper or hitch, or safety chain. In doing this, you won't have to remove the chock before you drive up the ramp. It will just drag behind you.

Also, in a pinch if you have an automatic tranny, just put the gear in "2" and the truck won't roll back. I don't think it's a good idea to do this regularly, but it does keep the truck from rolling back. Just make sure the parking brake works well enough to keep the truck from rolling forward once you launch.

 

Correct me if I am wrong, but I remeber that with the older model trucks, you could put it in reverse and speed back a little but and slam on the brakes to adjust the brakes. I know we have done this on my old '96 and my dads old '89 and it worked great.

I don't know of this works on the newer models or not, but it might be worth looking into.

 

My 98 doesn't self adjust either.