AUTOMATIC BRAKE SLACK ADJUSTERS ON TRANSIT BUSES

The purpose of this report is to provide transit bus agencies with current information on automatic brake slack adjusters. Rather than a comprehensive statistical survey, this report is intended to provide an overview of the states of automatic slack adjusters in the transit industry. It documents an investigation of current transit experiences with automatic slack adjusters in order to establish the potential range of maintenance cost savings associated with this equipment. Brake slack adjusters are mechanical devices which operate automatically or manually and are used to control the distance the brake shoes must travel before the brake linings contact the brake drums. The scope of this report includes information on use, problems, benefits and costs of automatic slack adjusters have been sold to over 90 transit agencies across the United States and are currently in use on 15 percent of all U.S. transit buses. Of the 22 transit agencies contacted (each reported to have over 100 buses with automatic slack adjusters), one third reported that they had reduced their brake maintenance costs by using automatic slack adjusters. An outer bound estimate of cost saving based on manufacturer supplied data was calculated to be $440.00 per bus per year. This report indicates that the safety implications of automatic of automatic slack adjusters on transit buses may be a topic for further investigation and that another topic which may be of interest for future work would be the effect of automatic slack adjusters on brake lining, road calls and defect report.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Systems Center

  55 Broadway, Kendall Square
  Cambridge, MA  United States  02142

  Urban Mass Transportation Administration

  400 7th Street, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Dempkowski, C
• Publication Date: 1985-4

Media Info

• Pagination: 38 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Brakes; Buses; Cost control; Maintenance management; Safety; Supply; Vehicle design
• Identifier Terms: Urban Mass Transportation Act
• Uncontrolled Terms: Availability; Maintenance costs
• Old TRIS Terms: Brake systems; Bus design; Slack adjustment; Umta section 6
• Subject Areas: Design; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00455184
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: UMTA-MA-06-0120-85-1, DOT-TSC-UMTA-85-3
• Contract Numbers: MA-06-0120
• Files: TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: May 31 1986 12:00AM