Wilwood Electric Parking Brake

Saw this at the recent PRI show. Thought a few here might find it a useful solution. I have a car i might try it on.
Nobody should for a minute consider it an "emergency brake"..
My application is an IRS, I'm pondering fabbing a Ti mini solid disc on the rear DS yoke and mounting the brake there.

We'll see.

And I have no connection with Wilwood other then what i have shared here.

i was pondering a pinion brake as well on the dana 60 in my "humpback" [ongoing] project, although a mechanical one.
any idea as to cost for the wilwood item ?

Actually don't know the price range, didn't ask, but should have. I did in jest ask the Wilwood rep at the show what pad compounds were available for it, he didn't have much of a sense of humor. May not even be released yet.

Dynapro Low-Profile Rear Electronic Parking Brake Kit
Prod #: 140-15842
Price: $1,819.94

Well, IMO, the bang for buck is just not there at that price point.

Nevermind.

Educate me please. Why?

Is there a reason the majority of new vehicles built in the last 5 years have them? I'm curious now, I'd really like to hear your OPINION

The ones on new cars are only actuated when the vehicle is placed in park, so it's actually a parking brake. The Wilwood brake would be able to be applied by a switch, and it's all or none. If you tried to use it as an emergency brake, it would lock the rear tires up immediately when you applied the switch. We had them on service bucket trucks at work, and when applied...the truck was locked down and you couldn't budge it! They were made by a company called Mico Brake, and there used to be both hydraulic and electric versions. The latest ones we had were electric. I'm pretty sure jcc meant that it should not be used for a brake in an emergency....like if your regular brakes went out, but only used as a parking brake. 2 totally different things.

I think "emergency" brake is a myth. They're parking brakes and that's it. In a life or death situation I suspect one might consider it an "emergency" brake but the reality is locking up the rears will probably make a bad situation worse. $2000 is a lot of money for a parking brake !!

The "why", all the above and the fact the parking brake disc pad is about the size of my thumbnail.

Emergency brake is a term used by those that do not understand the function of the parking brake.

Remember all the Mopars with the T handle under the dash to apply the parking brake? Not much braking force using your off hand there. Which is why you set the parking brake by first applying the service brakes fully, on Mopars with the parking bake in the rear drums, not at the trans. Not a very effective "emergency brake" when it locks the handle/pedal in place with each application. As mentioned, it'll likely worsen the situation in most cases when you panic, jam the brake on and lock up the rears.

A random look at an FSM, 70 Dodge in this case, calls it a parking brake and goes into how it function as one.

Had one on my CJ-7 trail rig. Worked great to hold me in place on hills if I got stuck, stalled, etc...especially with the manual trans.

Emergency brake is an old term that used to make sense when you had a hydraulic failure and the only way to stop the car was to stomp on the cable driven parking brake. The term doesn't make sense on some modern cars, especially if they have an electronic parking brake.

I have a master cylinder with a handle dedicated to a seperate caliper for an e-brake and you could adapt a locking pin to be a parking unit.

There are actually some production vehicles that now use the electronic parking brake caliper as a failsafe support when there is a failure of something like a brake line or a booster. Since it's basically just a motor that runs it they don't necessarily have to have it be a digital on or off.

I think at some point we will have some aftermarket kits for this based on OEM calipers since they are so common now days. Now the actual need for this is a real question for me.

With both the handle and foot operated parking brake you can control the amount of braking by keeping the handle turned or the release handle pulled so they don't lock. I have driven using the old emergency brakes with very little issue. Just didn't go fast or a long way. I'd be willing to bet I'm not the only one.

One other item I neglected to inquire about this solution when I first saw it, "does Willwood suggest they be used singly or as a pair?", and then the next question, what rear differential is complementary if used singly .

It has to be a pair. You will not get enough holding torque out of one.

So the $1400? price is for just one?