Set Auto Parking Brake for 100% of the time?

[wautard1]

The truck has a parking pawl which locks the rear motor and wheels from spinning. So you don’t need to set the parking brake unless you are on an incline. And even then it’s just to keep the pawl from binding up and make shifting out of park easier.
Most EVs don’t have a pawl and just use the parking brake. Ford added a parking pawl because it’s a proper truck and can do things like tow an 8k pound trailer and park on a hill in San Francisco with the trailer attached.

Sandy’s team covered this in the teardown of the motor.

Whatever a pawl is it isn’t good. This thing rocks so much when parked. Even on a flat surface. Gives a discouraging feeling as my driveway is a hill and has a flat spot at the top.

yes I have to get used to pulling the lever. Just an annoyance since it auto parking brakes on slight slopes anyway.

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[3121]

Whatever a pawl is it isn’t good. This thing rocks so much when parked. Even on a flat surface. Gives a discouraging feeling as my driveway is a hill and has a flat spot at the top.

yes I have to get used to pulling the lever. Just an annoyance since it auto parking brakes on slight slopes anyway.

a pawl is a metal pin or gear that drops into the motor gear to keep it from moving. It’s supposed to have some play in it so it can engage and disengage easily and smoothly. All automatic ICE cars have a pawl in the transmission and do the same slight rocking. The rocking is the wheels rolling forward until the pawl catches the gear.

Like you said, you have to manually engage the parking brake on level surfaces. You can also slowly ease your foot off the brake after putting the truck in park so it rolls slowly while the pawl engages. If you just drop your food off the brake that inertia will cause rocking sensation.

 

[Hank42]

I'd much rather have to manually set the pawl, as opposed the parking brake - flip that logic around! And again, that reaching down to engage/disengage the parking brake? Yeah, I know, F150's design philosophy "emulate an ICE as much as possible" but some things should have been better optimized.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I experienced an odd operation this morning.

Drove the Lightning from home to our favorite breakfast spot this morning, parked on a relatively flat surface, the parking brake didn't set as I expected it shouldn't.

Finished our visited, I unlocked the truck remotely, walked to the truck and just as I opened the drivers door, I heard the parking brakes servo activate, the truck spontaneously set the parking brakes, the dash cluster had a normal pop-up message that it was set.

The truck was not on remote start or departure timer either, when I pressed the start button, the parking brake indicator was illuminated, proceeded to disengage it and all is well for now.

Curious if others have seen this behavior?

 

[Ford Motor Company]

I experienced an odd operation this morning.

Drove the Lightning from home to our favorite breakfast spot this morning, parked on a relatively flat surface, the parking brake didn't set as I expected it shouldn't.

Finished our visited, I unlocked the truck remotely, walked to the truck and just as I opened the drivers door, I heard the parking brakes servo activate, the truck spontaneously set the parking brakes, the dash cluster had a normal pop-up message that it was set.

The truck was not on remote start or departure timer either, when I pressed the start button, the parking brake indicator was illuminated, proceeded to disengage it and all is well for now.

Curious if others have seen this behavior?

Hey, Noel! I can take a closer look into your auto braking concerns if you'd like. Can you send us a direct message with your VIN and the dealership name/location? To send a DM, just click on our username and select "Start Conversation".

 

[sparta]

I’ve discovered it only sets automatically for two reasons…

1. Your foot is not on the brake when you shift to park. So if you use 1PD this is easy to accomplish. This sets mine 100% of the times I tested it.

2. The vehicle senses your on a slope when you park.


This is referenced in the manual. See pic.

On a slope is the only one that works for me, accompanied by 500 dashboard notifications.

Would love to have this as a standard feature though.

 

[sparta]

The truck has a parking pawl which locks the rear motor and wheels from spinning. So you don’t need to set the parking brake unless you are on an incline. And even then it’s just to keep the pawl from binding up and make shifting out of park easier.
Most EVs don’t have a pawl and just use the parking brake. Ford added a parking pawl because it’s a proper truck and can do things like tow an 8k pound trailer and park on a hill in San Francisco with the trailer attached.

Sandy’s team covered this in the teardown of the motor.

This is fascinating, thank you for the context! There must be a lot of play in that mechanical stop though, because the truck bounces back and forth very noticably when in park without the parking brake set. I suppose it's more of an annoyance than anything now that I know the pawl is in play and it won't keep rolling away.

 

[Mark Fox]

Does anyone know how to enable the auto parking brake so it auto sets 100% of the time?
I’m noticing that it will only auto set on a slope. The manual makes no mention of this
Coming from a Ram 1500 which had auto parking brake I figured this truck would have it also.
Anyone have details about how it works?

Does anyone know if you can do this in forscan?

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