So yesterday, right after I paid the extortion fee to the tax collector that would allow me to legally make the 200 mile trek in my RV from Eagle Pass to Canyon Lake, I’m sorting through my mail in my car right outside the tax office. I’m usually gone from home several days at a time so the mail builds up. I had to install a rather large mail box as a result of this (about half the volume is junk mail...and I get A LOT of non-junk mail).
Low and behold I see the renewal notice on my Dodge truck (La Bestia Blanco). So I’m thinking, well I'll just pay it now, I’m right here….NOT!
That silly inspection hoop. Got to jump through that first.
So this morning, I unload the truck from all the gear I had loaded in Eagle Pass that’s being a result of my transition to a new job location, and I head back into Satler where the tax office is and there is conveniently a garage nearby that does inspections.
All does not go well this time.
The RV that I got inspected yesterday was a 1983 model. The Dodge is a 1997 (though it looks like hell, another story).
So this young kid comes to the waiting area and solemnly says “Come outside with me”. His demeanor made me think that I had perhaps committed some kind of serious crime.
It turns out that my parking break wasn’t operating to the required standards of the state.
Just so you know, this is a pretty subjective standard as far as I can see. The break has to be able to hold if you try to drive the vehicle forward, exerting a certain number of RPMs. I’m pretty certain that it would have failed this test when it was off the showroom floor, as the granny gear and the high torque of the Cummins diesel engine will overcome just about slope that I’ve run up against in the 17 years that I’ve owned the truck.
Another fault is that the brake pedal doesn’t stay down when you push it in. I don’t recall it ever staying down but I wasn’t going to argue with this kid. He had the authority of the state behind him and it’s my experience that arguing with these types is fruitless.
So we’re standing there, he shows me this break pedal fault, I’m outside the truck on the driver's side, and I pull the brake disengage handle and the truck starts rolling down hill (I had left it in gear but this Bozo doesn’t think to do that).
I quickly jumped in and re-applied the parking brake and put the truck in gear. It’s normal procedure for this vehicle. Obviously the break worked, on that slope at least.
But here’s my point. Never rely solely on the parking brake. The engine, especially on a high compression diesel engine is more than adequate to keep the vehicle from rolling. Could it get knocked out of gear? Well sure, just like the emergency brake handle could accidentally get pulled.
Further, a well educated drive will always turn his wheels when parked on a steep slope to insure that they will get chocked on the curb should such a calamity occur.
No one in there right mind would rely on the parking brake entirely. In my view, it’s more likely to fail than either of the other two precautions that I’ve described here.
The emergency brake is for all the knuckleheads that don’t follow these precautions, and the state is there to insure that the knuckleheads and surrounding public are protected from themselves.
The rest of us that conduct ourselves in a safe manner are penalized by having to jump through the Safety Inspection Hoop.