On Tue, 2 Feb 2010, David Scheidt wrote:
> You've got a lot of faith in brakes. It's misplaced. You'll boil the
> fluid in thirty seconds.
I'm not a man of faith, so I tried it on my way home tonight. Reports
of the demise of brakes have been greatly exaggerated.
I was cruising at 55mph ( in my 5.4 F150, very similar in specification
to the recalled Tundras and Sequoias ), when I accelerated hard to 65mph.
Now, this wasn't WOT, but I'm still doubtful people are getting there.
99.99% of drivers would be scared stiff at WOT over 40mph even in a
perfectly-functioning vehicle. I've done that to people who were in the
passenger seat at driving schools, and that's a self-selected crowd near
the high end.
Anyway, I held the throttle partially open and when I hit 65, I nailed
the brakes with my left foot. Not foot-to-the-floor-OMG-we're-gonna-die
braking, but a good hard application. Everything in the truck not
bolted-on flew forward, and it did 65-10mph with absolutely no problems other
than a really unhappy transmission.
Now, admittedly, I didn't sit on the shoulder with both feet in for a
couple minutes to see if I could boil any fluid, but that's not really the
point, is it? I had plenty of time to shift, if it would shift, or shut
off the ignition. Hell, I probably could've set the e-brake and gotten
out, or crept it up against an immovable object and let it burn itself
out.
Afterward, I kicked myself for doing this test. Anyone who can
left-foot brake, or more precisely, anyone who taught themself to LFB via
trial-and-error, should've been able to confirm it from memory. If you
stomp the middle pedal with your normal clutch-foot action, you better
hold on. Doesn't matter if you've lifted yet or not. I also recall my
high school driver's ed teacher nearly breaking our necks with his
passenger-side brake controls when a girl in my class almost crossed the
center-line. And that was a 1980s Dodge Something-I-can't-recall.
Brakes have a lot of horsepower.
--
David Hillman
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