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On old drum brakes, if you’re going downhill, they would advise 2 seconds of braking, 2 seconds of rolling, if engine braking wasn’t enough (which it usually wasn’t on cars that old and huge).
But yeah, that WAS fixed over 50 years ago, and you’d have to find someone who specifically hasn’t changed the brakes to something non-suicidal.
Yep. And knowing how to do that actually saved my ass a couple times driving an old '68 Ford. Once when approaching an icy intersection in the winter, once when towing downhill on a loose gravel road. Either time, I would have wiped out badly if I’d just jammed on the brakes as hard as I could and held them. But pumping the brakes allowed me to retain control and slow down enough to be somewhat safe. ABS does exactly the same thing … just better and faster.
(Honestly, it’s actually kind of comforting, in a way. It means that in an “Oh shit, even when I brake as hard as I can, it’s not stopping!” scenario, you actually have something you can actively do about it, an action you can take toward resolving the situation … rather than just holding on for dear life and hoping for the best.)
Pumping the brakes is a relic from drum brakes and over heating.
On consumer cars, even those from the 70s on drums, this was solved a long time ago.
No it’s not. It’s a relic of pre-ABS cars where pumping the brakes in slippery conditions would be more effective then constant hard braking.
It’s both.
On old drum brakes, if you’re going downhill, they would advise 2 seconds of braking, 2 seconds of rolling, if engine braking wasn’t enough (which it usually wasn’t on cars that old and huge).
But yeah, that WAS fixed over 50 years ago, and you’d have to find someone who specifically hasn’t changed the brakes to something non-suicidal.
Yep. And knowing how to do that actually saved my ass a couple times driving an old '68 Ford. Once when approaching an icy intersection in the winter, once when towing downhill on a loose gravel road. Either time, I would have wiped out badly if I’d just jammed on the brakes as hard as I could and held them. But pumping the brakes allowed me to retain control and slow down enough to be somewhat safe. ABS does exactly the same thing … just better and faster.
(Honestly, it’s actually kind of comforting, in a way. It means that in an “Oh shit, even when I brake as hard as I can, it’s not stopping!” scenario, you actually have something you can actively do about it, an action you can take toward resolving the situation … rather than just holding on for dear life and hoping for the best.)