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Date:         10 Nov 1994 09:21:42 U
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Norman Leong" <norman_leong@synoptics.com>
Subject:      Re- anybody know of problem

On Tue, 8 Nov 94 23:50:28 EST, Cetin inquired:

>braking and the EV braking -- I had noticed that the EV brakes felt a lot >tougher compared to the vanagon's, when I drove it the first time. I had >quickly found out that the EV brakes were nearly impossible to lock, even in >snow, so I had attributed the different feel to a 'feature' and not a 'bug'

To which Ric replied with:

>My brakes on the EV are fine. Cetin, do you have ABS like I do on >your EV? If thats the case, then there is no way they will lock.

If you have ABS as Ric mentioned, I wouldn't expect lockup.

Our experience with the EV's brakes has been one of adaptation; this is our first van/truck-like vehicle, and the first one over 2400 lbs, so needless to say, after nearly rear-ending a couple of cars the first few times out in the EV, I now leave a sizeable gap to the vehicle in front. In our "great" state (CA, btw), this invites a lot of drivers to cut you off, but that's just the way it goes...

Anyway, I also have ABS, and I've been trying for the past couple days to get the ABS to spew out the classic "ABS chatter" from the brake pedal (which the wife's GLI/GTX exhibits), but to no avail. The EV does stop straight though. I'm kinda wondering if the combo of disk/drum ABS versus disk/disk ABS might explain this lack of ABS chatter. There's also that LSB (load sensitive braking?) thing that's supposed to use a proportioning valve to keep the rear wheels from locking up.

Pedal feel has never been overly stiff, and has never gone anywhere near the floor, even during hard braking

As an aside to another thread (yes, I'm a digester, so I'm trying to get maximum mileage per post), this discussion of brakes, ABS and snow/ice ballet reminds me of 4 yrs ago while we were driving through Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, and CH. It was the first week of Nov. and we were going over Flexan (sp?) Pass between S Germany and N Austria in the middle of a snowstorm. Well, I'm here to tell you that ABS will not stop your vehicle in anything short of a football field, and you might as well forget about stopping if you're pointed down an 8%+ grade covered with snow/ice. We ended up doing a 10 mile descent in first and second gear (idle speed) with a foot covering the brake pedal the whole time. This was preceded by a near tumble down a 300 ft. drop into the appropriately named Lech River (someone told me it translates to "ice" or something like that). This was the same place where 26 years earlier my dad did a 360 in our family's first type 3 Variant! Had I been awake instead of sleeping in the back, I'm sure I would have added a few stains to the engine cover... Toonces the cat who could drive would definitely love this place. :-)

Note of caution: It is NOT a good idea to use the parking/emergency brake only to slow/stop an ABS-equipped car. The back end will lock (duh!) and want to trade places with the front end. Definitely not a good feeling when the road is barely wider than the length of the car...

Take care, all

Norman


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