VincentW
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If you feel compelled to leave it running, at least put the parking brake on, scary stuff.
Had A pretty scary thing happen yesterday.
- Thread starter Skeet 028
- Start date
My dad was a mechanic, and he taught me to always use the parking brake every time I got out of a vehicle.
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Back in the late 70s, a buddy of mine drove a Ford sedan. He had it pulled up on some car ramps to get under it, left it running, (maybe to find an oil leak, can't remember exactly now) but it switched into reverse and came down the ramps. Fortunately, he was still young and quick enough to roll out from under it before getting run over. It was a pretty common problem for Ford back then. There was a lot of pressure for them to have a recall. They got away with sending everyone a sticker to put on the dash to remind them to apply the parking brake. Cheap fix for them.
Autonomous
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Let's say you park on a hill with snow & ice by the curb and bare pavement a couple feet away. Due to the way differentials work, if you only put it in park the vehicle could roll away 'till both tires got traction.
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SGT ROCK 11B
Member
We had a young trainee on his first Traffic Stop left the cruiser in “D” got out and the cruiser crashes into the violator’s car.
We let him go and he went to the School Police for the next 28 years. A safe Foot Beat is where he belonged.
Slight thread high-jacking here. This leads me to my pet peeve. It is almost impossible to find a new car that has a handbrake. Used to be every car with a manual tranny and bucket seats had a handbrake. Not any more. Virtually every new vehicle has an Electric parking brake, not an Emergency brake.
Out of curiosity, try using the electric parking brake as an emergency brake while you are still rolling (at a very low speed for your safety). They are not emergency brakes anymore.
My reason for missing handbrakes is I learned to drive in winter in Minneapolis when going away for school. If you are driving in slippery conditions on a curve and you loose traction on the front wheels (steering), the only way you are not going off the road into the ditch is by breaking the rear end loose and drifting it around the curve. Try doing that on a front-wheel drive car without a handbrake. Anti-lock brakes and traction control are not a cure-all.
Spent 20+ winters driving in Chicago (your sympathy is appreciated) when I was just starting out. At least three times, knowing how to use the handbrake kept me from even getting into a wreck. Most people, in the same situation, would have done a lot of damage to their car and probably other's as well.
I forced all my kids, during their first few winters of driving, to drive in snow-covered empty parking lots to learn how to handle loss of traction in both straight-line stopping, when turning, and on curves. I am quite sure it kept my insurance costs down while they were still on my auto insurance.
Out of curiosity, try using the electric parking brake as an emergency brake while you are still rolling (at a very low speed for your safety). They are not emergency brakes anymore.
My reason for missing handbrakes is I learned to drive in winter in Minneapolis when going away for school. If you are driving in slippery conditions on a curve and you loose traction on the front wheels (steering), the only way you are not going off the road into the ditch is by breaking the rear end loose and drifting it around the curve. Try doing that on a front-wheel drive car without a handbrake. Anti-lock brakes and traction control are not a cure-all.
Spent 20+ winters driving in Chicago (your sympathy is appreciated) when I was just starting out. At least three times, knowing how to use the handbrake kept me from even getting into a wreck. Most people, in the same situation, would have done a lot of damage to their car and probably other's as well.
I forced all my kids, during their first few winters of driving, to drive in snow-covered empty parking lots to learn how to handle loss of traction in both straight-line stopping, when turning, and on curves. I am quite sure it kept my insurance costs down while they were still on my auto insurance.
Glad your Ok...A hundred years ago, well only thirty or forty my uncle had had been working on his pride and joy for years, it was a '49 Mercury lead sled, original running gear. Chopped and shaved with a bull nosed hood...it was B A D bad to the bone. He had just got it back from the body/paint, it was done in a very oily black and was very nice. An older woman in his parking garage backed into him and it had to go back to body and paint on her dime but nonetheless, then there was an issue with the hood hinge, car seemed a little jinxed. His ex brother in law ran a local transmission shop and Rodg had asked him about adjusting the clutch, his BIL was a cool guy and told him to drop by early he'd get on it right away. Rodg got there real early, his Bro told him to grab a cup of coffee, as soon as they finish with a car on the lift they get to him next. He noticed the car up on the lift running at a pretty high idle, a younger guy was adjusting the transmission in some manner. He grabbed a cub of coffee, it was fairly cold outside the shop doors were closed. He told me he was just hanging out and he hears a squealing sound and the car on the lift goes into gear in reverse and drives off the lift, crashes on the ground through the shop doors and drives out into the parking lot and starts doing lazy circles, on every revolution it smacks the Merc BAM, around the circle BAM. The kid is running around the outside of the car trying to get in and finally figures out cutting if off at the pass on the inside and finally gets it stopped after it has smacked the Merc at least three or four times, turning it a good quarter turn. Roger is standing there with his cup of coffee in his hand, just shaking his head, I can see him. He ended up getting it sorted out, and put it up for auction at the next auto boat speed show. He never built another car, wait...thats another story.
