lazarus Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Hi my van is due for mot it is a swift kontiki 655 2004 every year since it's first mot it always fails on the handbrake last year it had new brakes all round and a new handbrake cable and the mot tester said it still didn't pass the rolling rd test so as every year he did a, on the road test and he passed it ,I spoke to a few people about this and a friend of mine told me that the vehicle had been designed to the enth degree but parking brake not upgraded for the weight, basically a design fault,has anyone else come across this problem? I'm looking to replace this van so this will be the last mot drama ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 .....a quick tip. The braking force required for the parking brake to pass the MOT is (AFAIK) 16% of the static weight of the vehicle. The static weight is that detected by the rolling road on which the brakes are tested. Delivering your van for the MOT at the lowest weight possible (low fuel, no water, no gas, contents removed) improves the likelihood of the actual braking force being delivered meeting the required 16% (since you are minimising the static weight). As I have my 'van separately serviced, MOT'd and damp tested for the warranty all within a few days of each other, I take the opportunity to totally empty it and do a "spring clean". The MOT station always gives me the brake test read out, which shows both all-up and axle-weights (useful evidence of "unladen weight" - see thread on this running in parallel), and the various tested brake forces and efficiencies (handbrake at 26% in my case). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 MOT Testing Guides can be downloaded from here http://www.motinfo.gov.uk/htdocs/ Information is provided on brake testing, including the required percentage efficiency figures for the parking brake. As Robinhood says, for a motorhome the lighter the vehicle is when tested the better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazarus Posted July 18, 2014 Author Share Posted July 18, 2014 Thanks for the info, I wondered how weight affected the test now I know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 .....at my current measured handbrake force (MOT two weeks ago) the difference between testing a fully loaded 'van as opposed to an empty one would result in a difference of around 5% in the efficiency figure. Not huge, but if you're marginal on the 16% in the first place, quite sufficient to turn a pass into a fail (or vice versa). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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