On parking brakes.

[Aaron]

Obviously this is geared more for cars.

Parking brakes (Or emergency brakes). Use them, every time you park. And make sure it's adjusted to the point where it doesn't drag when off, but is strong enough to hold the car, on its own, no matter the road angle. The law requires you to use your e-brake when parking by the way.

When we park a manual trans car, we should leave it in gear. Prior to releasing the clutch, we should engage the parking brake, stop the engine, then release the clutch. Parking the vehicle in gear without the e-brake does 2 things, both bad. First, it loads the entire driveline, which over time will create slack. Picture two meshing gears. We want the gears to engage each other tightly, other wise we introduce "shock loading" to the gears, which is like a slippery slope as slack causes more slack, and increases the likihood of a part breaking due to the non-progressive loading. Parking without the e-brake also challenges the clutch with holding the cars's entire weight from moving. Clutches are expensive, hard to rescue, and as we all know can and do slip.

The automatic trans adds another system that hates shocklading. To park place the vehicle in park with your foot on the brake, engage parking brake, shut off engine, and release brakes.

When leaving, start the engine, apply brakes, disengage e-brake, put vehicle in gear.

[sloridr]

I have one question. How does one hold the clutch and the brake, cuz your on a hill, then get there e brake on? I know cars have hand brakes, but trucks have foot brakes. Just an observation.

Edit you did say obviously this is geared towards cars. At the top of your post.

[One-ops]

On an auto put the brake on before putting it in park.

[Aaron]

I have one question. How does one hold the clutch and the brake, cuz your on a hill, then get there e brake on? I know cars have hand brakes, but trucks have foot brakes. Just an observation.

Edit you did say obviously this is geared towards cars. At the top of your post.

I hadn't thought of that, none of my cars have foot operated brakes. Stopping the car and engine in neutral, applying the e-brake, then putting it in gear would do the same thing. The only reason for leaving it in gear is as a backup in case the e-brake fails.

One-ops, that'd work too. The entire objective is to not let the vehicle move at all after it's been parked, otherwise that movement is torquing the driveline.

[Wrider]

On an auto put the brake on before putting it in park.

I disagree with this. Often the pawl that keeps the car stationary while in park isn't quite engaged until you let the car roll a little bit. Let that happen, then put the parking brake on.

[Aaron]

I disagree with this. Often the pawl that keeps the car stationary while in park isn't quite engaged until you let the car roll a little bit. Let that happen, then put the parking brake on.

The way I'm reading this, that's exactly what we don't want to happen. The parking brake should be your primary, and only method holding your car still. The way you have it worded, the e-brake is a backup to the transmission/driveline. You're putting all that load on the driveline, then putting the e-brake on so it sits and holds that load. No good. We want to put the e-brake on, then put it in park so the driveline doesn't have any load on it, but will still backup in the case of e-brake failure.

[One-ops]

This^
Rolling on to the pawl is not good. The shifts from park will get harder and harder.