Kind of a stupid question, but how many of you use the Emergency Brake on your L's on a regular basis (i.e., when parked on a flat surface like your garage vs. when you park on a angle)? Are there any known problems that come along with setting the emergency brake on a regular basis?

Reason being that I just got my new L, and I've always made it a habit to engage the E-Brake on all my vehicles whenever I park them. I want to know if I should carry this 'habit' over to my Lightning.

Thanks for the Advice!

 

HI!... In 5 years that I have owned my truck I think I have used my E-BRAKE about 4 times. Usually to hold the rear wheels after I jack the truck up to loosen the lug nuts. When they wore out (not properly set-up from the factory and were always dragging) I removed the entie E-BRAKE assembly, shoes, cables and the pedal. No regrets here.

 

I think it is a matter of personal habbit. That's what the factory put it in there for. Emergency and parking. Help keep the load off the tranny if you set the brake and then go to park.

If you have always done it why change a good habit.
Personaly I don't use mine on a regular basis. I have caught myself leaving it on for a few blocks the few times I did.

These trucks have so much power you can do that easily.

 

I don`t think there is a problem with using the brake often. It`s when you don`t use it, the cables tend to seize up. I know people that never use the e-brake and the one time they decide to use it, the brakes won`t release cause the cables are siezed.

 

I use my perking brake everytime I park my truck. 60,000 miles later I haven't had any problems.

 

I use mine every day as my driveway is at a slight incline so this helps prevent strain against the park pawl - shift lever - cable.

Btw - Even if I never used mine I still would not take it off as this is illegal aswell its an "emergency" brake. I've seen mastercylinders take a crap and atleast if you still have your e-brake you and the people around you still have a chance.

 

Parking brake whats that

 

I've always used mine on all my vehicles including my L. No problems here. It's the way my pappi taught me.

 

brakes take a crap just do the good old downshift into 2nd then 1st 1st will let you crawl at 5mph at 700rpm ;-)

 

I always use mine as stated by jimkalfakis if you don’t use it often you stand a good chance that there could be mechanical problems with it down the road. I also use it to keep the strain off the transmission, now I don’t know one way or the other if it hurt’s the transmission using it like a parking brake (I feel that it does hurt it)

I actually had a vehicle a 69 Dodge Charger POS I owned as a kid and I actually had to use the “emergency” brake as it was designed for an actual EMERGENCY. Was driving down the freeway, go to use the brakes and NOTHING, ALL GONE, it just so happen the master cylinder crapped out(never let brothers who “think” they know about breaks work on breaks). So I held the emergency handle up and used the little emergency brake pedal like a regular brake.

Worked excellent…

 

Hey Killa, your old pal The Mart Man here. Long time no see. Here is the procedure you want to follow to minimize wear and tear.
1. Come to a compoete stop where you're going to park.
2. Put tranny in neutral.
3. Set parking brake.
4. Take foot off of brake pedal and let the L steady on the P brake
5. Now that all pressure is off tranny, shift into Park.
This is how the tranny tech at work said to do it to keep pressure off of the park paw like someone had stated earlier.

Hope your still enjoying the new L buddy.