Parking

[warrenpfo]

Quick question.

When I park I have got into the habit of leaving her in neutral and using the hand brake no matter what surface I am on. Just wondered if this is better/worse than using park and not using the handbrake and when one should use park.

The reason i do it this way is that wheni am on a hill and put her in park and then return to the car and mover her to drive there can be a loud cluncking/thump noise which i have been told is normal but cant be good so have got out the habit of using just park.

 

[Nuclear Chicken]

Tis the same in most autos. When the 'weight' of the motor is on the mechanical stop in the 'box, there'll be a bit of a thump when you release the load on it. No big deal. I'd sooner use P than rely on N any day.

 

[Andrew Prince]

Cruiser handbrakes are not good - it's a question of when, not if, your handbrake loses its bite... Why not put it in park anyway - if the handbrake is doing it's job, the vehicle/drivetrain weight shouldn't be on the locking pawl, so you shouldn't have the clunk when you shift out of P.
And you have the insurance in case your handbrake does what most of ours have done

 

[Paul]

The hand brake on my 80 is still good after 5000 miles including an overland trip and quite a few hundreds of km's off road.

Stripped and repace all wearing parts, lubed up anything that moves and adjusted when assembled and just gone through MOT with a comment about how good it is.