Parking Brake Holding Weight of Truck on Inclines?

Hey All,

Got a checklist from the Rocky Mountain Toyota Roundup. It says parking brakes should hold the weight of vehicles on inclines. Mine will, but only on very mild inclines. It will roll slowly with the parking brake engaged in neutral on steeper inclines. Are your parking brakes able to hold the full weight of your trucks?

 

My parking brake is less than totally awesome.

 

2010 - and my parking break is also less than total awesome! I push it to the floor and it does *alright*.

 

Adjust it and tighten the cable. It should hold the vehicle on incline. Should take about 3 to 5 clicks to fully engage.

 

Mine is a 2020 Off Road KDSS w/ 50k so still fairly new. Makes me wonder if the p.brake was meant to hold.

 

I have the Chuck Norris of parking brakes. It will hold my 4runner on a 45 degree incline with a 4k pound trailer attached and two fat chicks in the back seat.

 

All my vehicles the parking brake can hold it.

I've never liked to have any part of the transmission holding the vehicle in park.

 

My 2016 parking brake was horrible from brand new. I fixed it to my amazement by adjusting the star nut within the drum. I did not follow the manual when it says to back off (I forget how many turns) and instead just backed off a tiny bit to where rotor would spin without drag. It’s works really well now.

 

Shitty parking brake has been a hallmark of 4Runners since around the turn of the century, only eclipsed by rusted out tailgate. You can adjust the shoes to hold a grade, but then the shoes will drag in normal driving and overheat.

 

I’ve got a 2021. Terrible parking brake when it was new. I had to adjust parking brake cable length under the center console, and then adjust the star wheel pretty aggressively. I checked on it for a bit to make sure it didn’t overheat. It will hold the vehicle stationary on an incline. It also holds it in drive with the engine rpm at around 1500 rpm.

 

How do I access this adjustment?

Just remove the center console?

The only way I've adjusted these in the past are the individual adjustments in the rear brake drums.

 

Good on Rocky Mountain T R............

The star wheel is easily adjusted and made world of difference in my case.

If you're in/out of truck often to eyeball terrain/wheel placement/right line, you'll appreciate the time you took to dial in the parking brake PDQ.

 

My parking brake will holds the car in place without issues.

 

The only way I would know my parking brake is left on is from the dash light when I pull away.

It has done next to nothing since the day it was born.

 

Mine is not great either, but I do not worry about it as I do not leave it in neutral lol

 

Mine has worked since new.

 

If you are going to launch a boat at a boat ramp how does one know how much to have a dealer adjust it?

Obviously that is the last place you want your truck and trailer to roll back into is the water particularly if someone is going to crank the winch to put a boat on a trailer

 

Here’s another couple good straightforward videos on making the adjustment. Looks like a combination of pedal cable adjustment and adjustment at the shoes. Dealer quoted me $230 to make the adjustment. I’ll be doing this myself now just remembering to just make slight adjustments and testing each time to avoid getting the rotor stuck.
https://youtu.be/6j2MVC_mFRE?si=4ELspVGUHA43Pdub

https://youtu.be/0FMPCIM0pLU?feature=shared

 

Report back on your results. I'm interested whether the adjustment at the wheel is sufficient, or if it also needs the cable adjusted.

Mine currently holds my 4R on a slight incline, and will take some throttle pedal to move when put into D going forward, but I would like it to engage a bit sooner.

 

From what I read in the video comments it’s a combination of both. The way I’m going to go about it is adjusting the parking brake pedal travel first. Someone quoted the Toyota repair manual with 5-7 clicks to engage the pedal. If that doesn’t improve things any I’ll move to adjusting the shoes. The guy in the pedal cable adjusting video says adjusting at the shoes really is meant for when you’re replacing shoes.

 

Its the same thing cable or wheel. All it does is tighten/loosen the travel.

I do it at the wheel because you can adjust both individually. If you do it only at the front can't guarantee both are holding about the same.

 

True.

 

You’re right. I’m just adjusting at the pedal so that I get some pretty good engagement at 5 clicks. (Found out you can do that adjustment just above the pedal easily avoiding pulling off the center console). Then I’ll move to the shoes so that it really bites down beyond 5 clicks. That’s the plan anyway.

 

Have you seen any writeups or videos detailing the adjustment at the pedal?

 

The second video, while detailing how to get to the adjustment nut/bolt, makes no mention of what adjustment looks like, as in, which way to turn the bolt to adjust for tighter or looser. It may be obvious once you get to that point, but it would have been nice for that to have been mentioned.

 

I'm going to guess tighten the nut to tighten the brake since it looks like it will pull on the cable.

 

Exactly this! I found it necessary to adjust both the travel of the pedal by adjusting under the console (or above the pedal as you stated), and aggressively setting the star wheel.
Star wheel alone was not enough, because the pedal had to be almost all the way down before all of the slack was out of the line.

One note of caution, make sure not to overtighten at the interior cables point, otherwise you might have to back off the star wheel again, or worse, cause it to stay locked if it pushes it outside the range of star wheel adjustment.

When I did it, I recall setting the star wheel about where it should be, then adjusting the interior cable until it had a tiny bit of slack in the cable with the parking brake off. The slack guarantees you the parking brakes are fully released.
Ultimately I adjusted under the console because it allowed me better access to see and feel what was happening as I adjusted. I absolutely hate trying to access things going up from the footwell due to the contortions required lol.

 

How come all the people who I need to help me live in another state...?

 

This is what I found. It’s for a 4th Gen. and I haven’t confirmed by going out to the garage just yet if it applies to a 5th but it’s what I’ll be looking for when I work on it Sunday.
https://youtu.be/6B1uthT9RLM?si=VZ2_as2IQXSduku0

 

I mean who wants to live in New Mexico lol.