Re: Working Safely around your Foretravel
Reply #3 –
Look at the air chamber attached to a wheel brake, If there is only one air hose it will not have parking brakes, this is usually the case on the front wheels. If there are 2 air hoses to the air chamber at a wheel it will have parking brakes on that wheel. Air must be applied to the parking brake to release it (override the spring that applies the brake). Air is released when the parking brake is set and why it stays set with no air pressure. If a spring is weak or broken you won't have much parking brake.
My coach has 3 air tanks, the one near the rear axle is the supply tank (wet) with a drain near the left rear wheel. there are 2 tanks near the front axle, one for the front brakes the other for the rear brakes, called a dual air brake system. FT may have built some vehicles with only a single service brake system. Don't know when the dual system came into use on trucks and buses.