I have a little color back in my skin today from the ghost white I had after this happened.
Due to a soap opera in of itself I wind up driving a company Frightliner box 28' truck rather than towing a trailer with my Duramax to cover for someone's route.
Not sure the year but it is a floor shift auto with regular brakes. (electric motor runs with key off and brake pedal depressed. NOT air brakes.) Parking brake also on floor a metal handle you pull up to apply. Has a little over a million miles.
Ole 6.5 powered 'patch' without the ATT would have pulled a loaded trailer faster than this truck was able to go on hills! So the slow thing cost me a bunch of time on what was a short and in theory quick run.
Anyway I am wrestling with a pallet jack and notice we are suddenly moving. Somehow I was able to jump from the back and run to the door of the truck. My heart sank with a sudden acceleration of the truck as it rolled down the edge of leveling ramp in the storage unit isle while I was about to the door. I was somehow able to get in and dynamite the brakes before running anything over. Like the gate, crossing the road, and running into a big 18,000 gal or so propane tank. If you are gonna F up may as well be on the evening news... If it wasn't for the helper still in the back, well, I can't explain why I just acted vs. let it go and not possibly get run over by it.
Anyway the parking brake handle was somewhere in the down position. With the slope there was no way the truck would have sat still without the brake applied. However the handle was binding hard before it reached the full up position. I am not sure if I had the handle in the straight up position or if I stopped when the handle bound up before it reached the top. Old rickety trucks ones doesn't want to be rough with pushing or pulling things for fear of the "SNAP!" sound...
After applying the parking brake in a panic I either tore it up or the binding problem went away.
I am not familiar with the mechanical brake systems on larger trucks. I would like to know what would cause a binding in the parking brake being applied. Also why would a parking brake release on it's own? Perhaps heating/cooling would cause this binding and drop the handle when it cools off and the binding goes away? Just my curiosity as someone else will be fixing it.
I always use the parking brake on my pickups, that I know work properly, not just the automatic's park pawl when I am working in the trailer.
I used "merchandise" as expensive wheel chalks just in case this happened again to finish unloading. And I can't say I really trusted that.
Due to a soap opera in of itself I wind up driving a company Frightliner box 28' truck rather than towing a trailer with my Duramax to cover for someone's route.
Not sure the year but it is a floor shift auto with regular brakes. (electric motor runs with key off and brake pedal depressed. NOT air brakes.) Parking brake also on floor a metal handle you pull up to apply. Has a little over a million miles.
Ole 6.5 powered 'patch' without the ATT would have pulled a loaded trailer faster than this truck was able to go on hills! So the slow thing cost me a bunch of time on what was a short and in theory quick run.
Anyway I am wrestling with a pallet jack and notice we are suddenly moving. Somehow I was able to jump from the back and run to the door of the truck. My heart sank with a sudden acceleration of the truck as it rolled down the edge of leveling ramp in the storage unit isle while I was about to the door. I was somehow able to get in and dynamite the brakes before running anything over. Like the gate, crossing the road, and running into a big 18,000 gal or so propane tank. If you are gonna F up may as well be on the evening news... If it wasn't for the helper still in the back, well, I can't explain why I just acted vs. let it go and not possibly get run over by it.
Anyway the parking brake handle was somewhere in the down position. With the slope there was no way the truck would have sat still without the brake applied. However the handle was binding hard before it reached the full up position. I am not sure if I had the handle in the straight up position or if I stopped when the handle bound up before it reached the top. Old rickety trucks ones doesn't want to be rough with pushing or pulling things for fear of the "SNAP!" sound...
After applying the parking brake in a panic I either tore it up or the binding problem went away.
I am not familiar with the mechanical brake systems on larger trucks. I would like to know what would cause a binding in the parking brake being applied. Also why would a parking brake release on it's own? Perhaps heating/cooling would cause this binding and drop the handle when it cools off and the binding goes away? Just my curiosity as someone else will be fixing it.
I always use the parking brake on my pickups, that I know work properly, not just the automatic's park pawl when I am working in the trailer.
I used "merchandise" as expensive wheel chalks just in case this happened again to finish unloading. And I can't say I really trusted that.
