WHAT-OH, SHE SKIDS!

NZ Truth, Issue 1239, 29 August 1929, Page 19

WHAT- OH, SHE SKIDS!

Brakes arid A Big Problem With: wet roads come.. new problems for, many ,a car owner.; How•everi they are not 'nearly as difficult of solution -as' they > were v 10 years ago, before the era of brakes on all four wheels, but they are genuine problems, nevertheless. DVEN with four-wheel brakes the car on a road surface rendered slippery by rain can play some surprising and — I to the beginner — disconcerting pranks, especially — this is a very important point— if the treads of tyres are worn down smooth, either on front or rear wheels. - To correct a side-slip or skid, when one has room to manoeuvre, is riot very difficult, the, prime necessity, being to turn the front wheels towards the direction m .which the rear of the car has commenced to slide. This action, which must be nicely controlled and not overdone, soon becomes instinctive, whereupon the skid loses most of its .power to alarm. It has been said that a car fitted with four-wheel brakes will not skid. This is untrue. Four-wheel brakes have done much to reduce skidding, but they have not eliminated the risk of it altogether. When the braking pressure is equal on all wheels the tendency • for the car to slide sideways is very slight, but it is most important that the pressure shall be equal. Where the brakes are fully compensated the requirements should be automatically fulfilled, but even then the retarding effect i may be unequal, though the' pressures of shoes on 'drums may be identical. Where the brakes are not, -compensated,' the; owner should use the various adjustments to 'ensure 'that 'the' retarding effect is m fact equalised. For the novice the best advice that can he offered is that he take his car to a j first-class garage and- carefully watch -the -process of brake adjust- ■ ment by a competent man. It is not as easy as it looks, but it is not difficult provided it be tackled systematically.