Texas Driving Safety Course Tip - Brakes

Texas Driving Safety Course Tip - Brakes

In Texas, motor vehicles, trailers, semitrailers, pole trailers, or any combination of those must be equipped with brakes. It's probably also a good idea for vehicles without motors to have brakes. Crashing into walls isn't the safest way to stop. Also, movie trailers should probably come with some kind of brake that halts the production and release of terrible movies. The world would have been saved the travesty that is Twilight with such a fantastic feature.

Texas trailers with a gross weight of 4,500 pounds or less are exempted from this law. They are not required to have brakes because it's speculated that a trailer that weighs 4,500 pounds or less is probably so gross that no one wants it to stop and, instead, get through wherever it's traveling as quickly as possible. However, trailers heavier than 4,500 pounds, but not heavier than 15,000 pounds, are not required to have brakes if they are drawn at a speed of less than 30 miles per hour. This information is covered in our Texas Driving Safety Course

A bus, truck, or truck-tractor that uses air to operate its brakes or the brakes of a towed vehicle shall be equipped with a warning signal, other than a pressure gauge, that is readily audible or visible to the vehicle operator. The signal should show when the air reservoir pressure is below 50 percent of the air compressor governor cutout pressure. Also a pressure gauge should be visible to the vehicle operator that shows in pounds per square inch of pressure available for braking.

If a vehicle required to be equipped with a warning device in Texas is equipped with air and vacuum power to operate its brakes, or the brakes on a towed vehicle, the warning devices required may be combined into a single device that is not a pressure or vacuum gauge. That's a blessing for Houston drivers since most of them are already handling multiple devices while driving their car.

A vehicle used to tow another vehicle equipped with air-controlled brakes shall be equipped with the following means, together or separate, for applying the trailer brakes in an emergency. An automatic device that applies the brakes to a fixed pressure from 20 to 45 pounds per square inch if the towing vehicle's air supply is reduced and a manual device to apply and release the brakes that is readily operable by a person seated in the operator's seat and arranged so that its emergency position or method of operation is clearly indicated and its use does not prevent operation of the automatic brakes.

Vehicle’s equipped with vacuum brakes shall be equipped with a second control device that is used to operate the brakes on a towed vehicle in an emergency, which is independent of brake air, hydraulic, or other pressure and independent of other controls, unless the braking system is arranged to automatically apply the towed vehicle's brakes if the pressure for the second control device on the towing vehicle fails and is not required to provide modulated braking. “Lemme s'plain. No, too much. Lemme sum up.” If you're towing a vehicle with vacuum brakes then even your brakes need brakes to act as brakes for the vehicle without brakes so you don't break anything due to lack of brakes.

A vehicle required to have brakes by the Texas Transportation Code, other than a motorcycle or motor-driven cycle, must be equipped with parking brakes adequate to hold the vehicle on any grade on which the vehicle is operated, under all loading conditions and on a surface free from snow, ice, or loose material.

Parking brakes must be designed to operate continuously as required once applied, despite a leakage or an exhaustion of power source and are activated by the vehicle operator's muscular effort, by spring action, or by equivalent means. Tighten your hoses, keep your batteries charged, and work those parking brake calves every morning before you leave for work!

The same brake drums, brake shoes and lining assemblies, brake shoe anchors, and mechanical brake shoe actuation mechanism normally associated with wheel brake assemblies may be used for the parking brakes and service brakes. Mechanically challenged people understand that statement in the same way kindergartners understand “Head, shoulders, knees, and toes.” or the Skeleton Bones song: The brake pads are pressed against the braaaaaake drum.

If you get a ticket for not having your lights on, you can always take our Texas Defensive Driving Course.