HI ...
the parking brake holds a little better with nose of van pointed
downhill I suspect.

what year van do you have ?
the early parking brake handles totally suck.
When all is working right ..
if you put it on as hard as you can ..it's no more than 'adequate' and
certainly not bomber.

When they ran out of those somewhere in 85 they put on one that's 3
times better..
The handle is longer..
you are pulling up more than back when you apply it, and it has a nice
fat handle.
Those are bomber,
if you don't have one, you want one. They go right in no problem at all.

Do check that your parking brake cables slide smoothy..
with the back of the van off the ground..
pull on each cable by hand under there...see if locks up it's wheel.
You can have stuck parking brake cables and it will 'feel' like they are
doing something ..
but they are not moving the shoes really.

I am a very big believer in inspecting in the rear brakes first  ...get
that all cleaned up and well adjusted ,
then adjust the single threaded rod under the van until parking brake
handleis right.

It's kinda cheating to tighten that first without seeing what's up with
the rear brakes..
you can ....but it's not as good as getting things right inside the rear
drums first.

scott

On 1/25/2013 9:41 AM, Tom Carchrae wrote:
> I just moved and our new driveway is a pretty steep hill.  I'm wondering if
> it matter which direction I park the van, ie, nose up/nose down?  Or is
> there nothing in it?  Surely for short parking it wouldn't matter a fart,
> but if the van sits for some time, then does this matter?
>
> I also need to fix the handbrake - I have some paranoia chocks under the
> wheels just in case.  I had thought that perhaps I could tighten the
> handbrake cable, but reading this makes me wonder if I need to check the
> rear brakes:
> http://www.vanagonauts.com/[46.11]Parking-Brake,-adjusting112.htm
>
> I guess I can answer my own question on which direction is best at the
> moment.... perpendicular to the slope!
>
> Tom
>