At least, no one of them seemed to be able to explain this to me:

Why is it that the footbrakes often brake the front wheels and the handbrake brakes the rear wheels?

There must be a reason

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Last edited by Lira on May-02-2005 at 03:18

quote:

Originally posted by Lira At least, no one of them seemed to be able to explain this to me: Why is it that the footbrakes often brake the front wheels and the handbrake brakes the rear wheels? There must be a reason

mmm maybe the foot brake halts the drive wheels, and the hand brake halts the non drive wheels? also, when one uses the hand brake, the vehicle tends to fishtail, and this is not a good thing to do if you're just stopping at a light. braking the front wheels keeps control of the vehicle, and the braking the back ones stops the vehicle. just guesses, i dont know.

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footbrakes stop all four wheels, not just the front two. They appear to stop the fronts only because of weight transfer towards the front of the car under braking.

as to why the handbrake grabs only the rears? I'm ashamed to say that i have no clue...and i consider myself a car afficiando of the highest degree.

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quote:

Originally posted by teegee footbrakes stop all four wheels, not just the front two. They appear to stop the fronts only because of weight transfer towards the front of the car under braking.

thats pretty much spot on, but generally thats why the fronts brakes are bigger and bite harder

i know for one thing metal expands with heat and after a drive the front brakes take more of pounding than the rears...so if the handbrake was put on and the front brakes started to contract then you'll having no braking force, the handbrake just wouldn't be effective, this applies to disc brakes only.

I think also the handbrake is for the rear for emergency reasons like if the handbrake was applied to all the wheels or the front, then you can't steer the car...the car may fishtail with just the brakes applied at the back, but you can still steer

these are all assumptions...

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On a Land Rover the handbrake is connected to a drum on the rear driveline. So, if you pull it while driving attempting a sweet e-brake turn. Then you just made a multithousand dollar mistake. Say goodbye to your car's rear end


Essentially, the handbrake, e-brake or parking brake operates the rear wheels only because they aren't steering wheels.

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There is all kinds of info in this thread, the brake pedal modulates all four break wether they are disc or drum. The reason it feels like they only effect the fronts are for two reasons; weight transfer and brake bias (breaks are geared for more of the force to go to the front ie 80-20, it helps the car stay in a straight line when breaking.) In any car with awd yanking up on the ebrake with the car in gear will damage the rear diff, some cars (like the Subaru STi)disengage the rear diff when the handle is pulled.

Thanks

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quote:

Originally posted by getfoul Essentially, the handbrake, e-brake or parking brake operates the rear wheels only because they aren't steering wheels.

good point. makes sense to me.

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disk brakes are cheaper to manufacture also so companies try to use em, but they really suck compared to drum brakes.



thats teh only new bit o info I wanna add in. and I mirror the previous comments on they are not steering wheels.

quote:

Originally posted by Boomer187 disk brakes are cheaper to manufacture also so companies try to use em, but they really suck compared to drum brakes.

!!!!!!!?!?!!!

Disc brakes are far superior than drum brakes...where the hell are you getting this information?

If drums are better why does every single form of motorsports use disc, why do all high end cars come with disc?! WHY WHY WHY??!

quote:

Originally posted by GSXNIK !!!!!!!?!?!!! Disc brakes are far superior than drum brakes...where the hell are you getting this information? If drums are better why does every single form of motorsports use disc, why do all high end cars come with disc?! WHY WHY WHY??!

those are lighter vehicles and dont' need the extra brakin force allotted by drum brakes.



and I get all my info from old timer mechanics from detroit.

Boomer, thats utter crap!

disc brakes are far more effective than drum brakes.

its all to do with heat dissapation, dics will dissapate heat quicker than drums and are less susceptable to brake fade.

On drum set ups the heat builds quicker than it does with discs and under very heavy braking, the effectivness of drums gets less and less until they dont brake the car at all.

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