Air brake stabbing.

[Pogoil]

At the last campground 2 different MHs pulled in and set their parking brake. Then they started quick stabs at their brakes about 20 times.

What is the reason for this? I thought it was bad to brake on the pedal when the parking brake was set.

Our MH we just dump the air with a button.

Pogoil.

[pusherpilot]

yrusoslo wrote:
Does the lost of air, lower the MH. So now the leveling jacks dont have to go as high?

Yes, it does that. In some cases you want the MH as low as it'll go in order to keep the entry steps close to the ground. When you're very close to level when you stop, dumping may not be necessary. In that case I just deploy the slides and drop the jacks. If I'm leaving in the a/m I don't have to idle as long to air it up. I don't like idling in a CG waking everyone else up when I leave!!!
Ron

[bobcatcharlie]

It's something commercial drivers are supposed to do to ensure the parking brake is working properly. For my commercial bus driving road test, I needed to demonstrate this procedure. Not sure why it needs to be done if lowering jacks and dumping your air in a MH. With the jacks down, I don't think it is going anywhere.

[BigSkyBob]

Galvanizd wrote:

pusherpilot wrote:
They were airing down the system prior to leveling. The don't want to wait for the dump valves.
Ron

What he said.

Monacos, have an air dump, (mine) that is really slow. I let the air out with the air dump, then the last little bit I help along with the foot brake. . Some Monacos (mine) , you pull the slides out, dump the air, then drop the stabilizers. I don't call them levelers cause all they're supposed to do is stabilize.

Me too.

[Galvanizd]

pusherpilot wrote:
They were airing down the system prior to leveling. The don't want to wait for the dump valves.
Ron

What he said.

Monacos, have an air dump, (mine) that is really slow. I let the air out with the air dump, then the last little bit I help along with the foot brake. . Some Monacos (mine) , you pull the slides out, dump the air, then drop the stabilizers. I don't call them levelers cause all they're supposed to do is stabilize.

[pusherpilot]

They were airing down the system prior to leveling. The don't want to wait for the dump valves.
Ron

[yrusoslo]

Does the lost of air, lower the MH. So now the leveling jacks dont have to go as high?

[robatthelake]

Maybe they were testing the automatic deployment of their Parking Brake!

[wolfe10]

The reason to avoid HEAVY application of the brake pedal when the parking brake is engaged is called COMPOUNDING. Since the brakes are already applied (parking brake), hard application of the service brake "compounds" force on the rear brakes and can bend/break components.

Many coaches have anti-compounding valves that prevent this.

And like Lou, I suspect that he may be bleeding off air pressure so a child or pet can not disengage the parking brake (the brake is spring APPLIED and air pressure RELEASED).

[sailor_lou]

My guess would be to bleed down the air tanks in the event the brake knob was inadvertently released (perhaps by a child or animal) then the parking brake would still be on. Just a guess.

Lou
05 Travel Supreme Envoy

[Tom_N]

They must have learn this brake technique on the internet.....LOL.