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Disable Auto Parking Brake

JimO

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Was Towing our Ram 1500 but unknown to me the Auto Parking Brake set. Result was rear tires self destructing with the flailing tire treads destroying both rear quarter panels, and the bumper. I would really like to disable this Auto Parking feature. Anyone know how?
 

Malodave

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There is a manual release in the Dash at the lower left of the steering column. A small panel needs to be popped out to access.

Malodave
 

TheLegend

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Was Towing our Ram 1500 but unknown to me the Auto Parking Brake set. Result was rear tires self destructing with the flailing tire treads destroying both rear quarter panels, and the bumper. I would really like to disable this Auto Parking feature. Anyone know how?
Yon should have a setting in your Infotainment system to turn it on/off
 

bigdodge

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Can you flat tow a Ram 4x4?​

Yes, you can flat tow a Ram 1500 only if it has a four-wheel-drive drivetrain, but you must take the necessary steps to get it ready to be flat towed. Although it's possible to flat-tow a Ram 1500, it's not recommended, as other alternatives such as flatbed towing and towing dollys are better options.

 

llando88

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Screenshot from 2023-04-05 20-03-33.png

Per the manual, looks like it's under Safety and Driving Assistance, then Brakes, as one of the Customer Programmable Features.

Screenshot from 2023-04-05 20-07-39.png
 

23RAM

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Was Towing our Ram 1500 but unknown to me the Auto Parking Brake set. Result was rear tires self destructing with the flailing tire treads destroying both rear quarter panels, and the bumper. I would really like to disable this Auto Parking feature. Anyone know how?
By default, the Automatic Parking Brake is off/disabled. You or someone else had to go into the settings to enable it.
 

Scram1500

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I have the auto brake disabled, but if the truck is off and the manual parking pawl lever pulled, it will engage the parking brake when going to ACC or RUN
 

JimO

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Here's a couple of pics...

It looks like you can disable the Auto Parking Brake when transmission is in Park. However I don't see an option to disable Auto Parking Brake when in Drive or Reverse gears.
 

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beetlespin

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I don't think you were towing it, it was more like dragging it.

Must have been a Ford-150 Ecoboost 3.5 you were dragging it with since you didn't notice the load.
 

Scram1500

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Ouch. Guess the parking pawl is fairly robust
 

Darksteel165

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Here's a couple of pics...

It looks like you can disable the Auto Parking Brake when transmission is in Park. However I don't see an option to disable Auto Parking Brake when in Drive or Reverse gears.
You left your truck on turned on when towing it?
Generally you would want to put it into neutral imo.

I believe putting the truck into tow\haul mode disables the auto park while in gear, at least it does for me. If I don't toggle it if my door is open it puts the truck into park from drive\reverse.
I will admit it is one of the more stupid and dangerous "safety features" of the truck.

Sounds like you have 2 differnet problems, transmission brake (park) and auto parking brake (parking brake) are 2 completely differnet things.

Looks like you had your truck thrown in "park" with the transmission brake. The parking break even on a new truck is unlikely to be able to hold the truck in motion (not 100% sure on these trucks)
 

dstevens

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I used to have my parking brake set to automatically apply when the transmission was put into park. I liked the feature and it worked well. Until one day it didn't.

I could do nothing to get the parking brake to release. I tried disconnecting the battery in an attempt to clear any 'stuff' - thinking it would be like a hard reboot of a PC. Nope. I tried the lever behind a panel in the dash - this is only for shifting the transmission out of park. Nope again.

I finally went into the menus of the infotainment system and did a system reset. That cleared the problem and I made sure that the auto park brake was no longer active. I'm a bit leary of the electric park brake in general now.

Note to engineers...just because you can do a thing doesn't make it a good idea.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk
 

JimO

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Just to clarify the scenario, I was towing the Ram behind a motorhome with 605 HP so the only reason I know the Ram is there is by looking at the motorhome's rear camera. I printed out the towing instructions from the owner's manual. On this occasion instead of setting the parking brake as instructed, I just kept my foot on the brake while I went through the steps to put the transfer case into neutral. Somewhere during the process of running through the checklist, the parking brake set itself and I failed to notice that. So, off went until I was flagged down by a passing motorist.
 

Darksteel165

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So it was still in neutral when you realizes what happened, or did it change to park also?
Makes me sad seeing your truck, still coupd of been worse, I've seen some trucks with half of their rim missing.
 

Jimmy07

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So it was still in neutral when you realizes what happened, or did it change to park also?
Makes me sad seeing your truck, still coupd of been worse, I've seen some trucks with half of their rim missing.
To flat tow any vehicle, it must be a 4x4, the transfer case must be in neutral, and the transmission must be in park (you can not flat tow any modern transmission vehicle with the transmission in neutral, therefore you cannot flat tow a 2 wheel drive).
Sounds like he had everything correct in the procedure for putting the transfer case in neutral…except for the second to last step of releasing the parking brake before turning the ignition off.
 

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