Did I do any damage?

[Lawrence Tarnoff]

Pleading age-related mental impairment is no excuse, but I drove my coach 2 feet in reverse and 4 feet forward with the parking break engaged before I had that OMG revelation that something was amiss.  Am I likely to have done any damage?

Larry

[Lee Welbanks]

Larry,
I would guess by the year of your coach and size you have full air brakes and your parking brakes are Maxi-Brakes in other words spring brakes. I doubt you did any damage what so ever moving the coach with the spring brakes applied, but it does mean that you might want to check your brake adjustment if it was that easy to move. I know with my 06 PT it has disc brakes and it is almost impossible to move with the parking brakes set.

[Jeremy Parrett]

Lawrence,
 I think you are OK.  Just check the holding power on a slight incline.   The coach should not move an inch .  Look for my entry a while back !!!!
   I managed to drive 20 miles up the road to Bryce Canyon with the parking brake set.
   Heating the grease ( not clay based grease) in the caliper   expanded  the caliper against one side of  the rotor  wearing the pad to bare metal as well as grooving the rotor beyond saving.  It also caused the differential oil to leak out of the hub seal.   Therefore I had only the driver side holding brake operating and the coach would move freely even on a very slight incline.
   Good luck.  Make sure your calipers are filled with Meritor Clay based grease.

[Gerald Farris]

Larry,
You did not cause any damage by moving your coach a total of 6 feet with the parking brake applied.

Gerald

[Joel Ashley]

Gerald, it's been some months since I had the coach up and running, so I'm not up on this, nor do I recall ever testing the theory - but I kinda had it in the back of my mind that the tranny was electronically locked out if the brake was set.  Is that the case on some rigs, or not the case at all?

Joel

[William Jordan]

Proper procedure in my commercial truck training was to do a brake check on startup ea day That involves air brake on in gear and slight throttle to check the brake holds If it doesn't the spring brakes will not stop you in a emergency and need adjustment. I can't imagine locking out the Trans. You wouldn't be able to check the air brake system properly.
As already said if you are able to move without a lot of throttle your spring brakes need adjustment Thats the real problem Lawrence discovered. Everyone should be testing those brakes before ea days drive..... Air brakes 101

[Gerald Farris]

Joel,
There is no transmission lockout if the parking brake is set on any Beaver coach from the factory. Such a feature would probably be illegal, but if not it would expose the manufacturer to a large liability issue.

Gerald