Stops are sold in large numbers in stores and represent a kind of monolith that takes up a lot of space in the trunk. To save money and free up space for other items, you can make collapsible brake shoes.
Will need
This work can be done by any adult, except for welding... To make a homemade wheel chock, we will need the following materials and tools:
- steel strip 65 mm wide and 5 mm thick;
- overhead loops – 2 units;
- a can of aerosol paint;
- pendulum saw;
- semi-automatic arc welding, etc.
Brake shoe manufacturing process
Using a pendulum saw, we cut sequentially from the steel strip lengths of 2, 10, 20 and 30 cm. We clean them with a grinding wheel, sandpaper or on a grinder (whatever is available).
We weld vertically and across to the end of the longest segment, which will serve as a base or sole in our homemade shoe, the shortest one will serve as a limiter.
We press a 10-centimeter strip against the limiter from the inside at a certain angle. We lean a 20 cm strip against it so that behind it there remains a part of the base (“tongue”) sufficient to drive over the wheel and hold the stop.
The transverse line of contact of the 20-centimeter strip and the base will be the location of the axis of rotation of the loop. We weld one half of it to the base, and the other to the 20-centimeter strip.
Then we also weld the second loop and thereby hinge the 20 and 10 cm strips together.
After making sure that the assembly is done correctly, we reliably weld around the perimeter of the area where the hinges adjoin the strips. The quality of welding must be high, because each stop must withstand at least half the weight of the car.
We remove scale from the seams, strengthen them where necessary, and clean them. Once again we make sure that the stop folds and unfolds normally without jamming or distortion.
All that remains is to paint our homemade wheel chock on all sides in red, orange or yellow from an aerosol can. This is required by the Road Traffic Regulations (TRAF).
We are testing the brake shoe in action. We install it in the working position behind the wheel and carefully move it back. The wheel first runs over the “tongue” of the base and presses it against the road, and only then rests against the inclined element of the stop.
If all the dimensions of the shoe correspond to the diameter and width of a given wheel, then it is impossible to pull the shoe out from under it; to do this, the car must be moved forward.
