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Bus Discussion => Bus Topics ( click here for quick start! ) => Topic started by: Timkar on November 25, 2011, 07:53:43 AM
Going through paperwork about my bus and found that there were two BX-100A brake equalizers
installed by Oaklife Enterprises in Phoenix in 2000. Just wondering if anyone has info on these units?
After a search it would appear that the company no longer exists. All I have is a sales brochure, so
any other info would be appreciated.
Brake equalizers were usually installed on city buses. Highly skilled audio specialists would fine tune the equalizer so that the brake squeal was as piercing and painful as possible, but also able to wake dozing residents as the bus made it's late night early morning rounds. Occasionally they were installed on inter city buses, especially buses that made many late night stops in small towns, in this case the noise helped make small town residents feel they were like "dem big city folk" with squealing buses etc....
Sadly the growing deafness of the general population (due to excessive exposure to booming PA systems in even the smallest rooms) has led to the demise of the brake equalizer, a now mostly forgotten technology from a more sensitive age. ;)
I'm bumping this as my reply may not have been to helpful.
From reading the manufacturer's blurb I think it would have been lubricated with pure snake oil. Just how would a braking-system part "absorb shock waves produced by everyday driving on any road surface"? I'm guessing there may be a spring-loaded piston inside that acts as a buffer or damper to the brakes' air supply, sort of like a plumbing water hammer arrester, but why? Surely Bendix would have come out with their own version if it showed as much benefit as is touted?
I suppose the proof is whether one drives "with improved confidence and control", or not. (That sounds more like an adult incontinence product.)
John
Quote from: Iceni John on November 27, 2011, 05:50:25 PM
I suppose the proof is whether one drives "with improved confidence and control", or not. (That sounds more like an adult incontinence product.)
John
Anyone know how to get Vodka and OJ out of a keyboard