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Line Lock Safety Brake with Bill Johnston
Pork Barrel Engineering came up with a very versatile line lock system made especially for the Samurai. We have also installed the system in a Samurai that has dual batteries (shifting the mounting position slightly) and the installation was just as painless.
The installation took about two hours, but that included bleeding the brakes after everything was connected.
The instructions that are included are very straight forward and easy to follow. The photos show a suggested location for the switch mounting point. Our initial installation (shown on the right) shows this switch mounting point. This makes a very clean installation as you don’t have to route the wires very far from the fuse box where the connections are made. I found a problem with this (suggested) mounting position. When entering and exiting the vehicle, your knees come very close to this switch. I can be clumsy at times, and when exiting the vehicle one night my right knee found the switch at a very high rate of speed.
You know what happens when you hit your elbow the wrong way – whacking your ‘funny bone’ turns out to be very UN-funny. The knee has a similar point that can bring a grown man to tears. The impact actually shattered the switch at the same time*.
*note If the electrical system were to fail for any given reason, the solenoids default to ‘open’ so that the brakes are not effected by the electrical failure. This means you have normal brake capability, you just can’t lock them down.
I (very quickly) found an alternate mounting point that proved to be out of harms way AND very visible to the driver. The photo on the left shows the new mounting position. The wiring supplied in the kit has more than enough length for this location. This Samurai has a fold down windshield kit installed, so getting to the back of this panel was easy with the windshield down. Otherwise, installing this switch will be an adventure – but well worth it. Bottom line: This system holds the vehicle in place very well. Have you ever been in a tricky situation where you want to set the hand brake to keep your position on a rock while figuring out what to do next? Then you realize how inadequate the stock handbrake really is? This system stops all four tires cold and doesn’t let go until you want it to.
Source:
Pork Barrel Engineering P.O. Box 240 – 100 Main Street Calpine, CA. 96124 http://www.porkbarrelengineering.com
Check out the install!
08/11/10 14:54
