Rear Inboard Brakes

[prplefilipinoyam]

I'm part of both San Jose State's Formula and Hybrid Formula.

This year for Hybrid Formula we wanted to do rear inboard breaks. We are planning to go with no rear differential and are planning to drive the axles via electric motors.

My problem is I have never dealt with inboard brakes before and I understand some of the advantages and disadvantages of using inboard braking systems from the online reading and forums. But that's the extent of my knowledge.

So my question is, does anybody have any reading material, personal experience, personal opinions?

I understand people get excited and start posting and replying to posts. So please try not to stray to far away from the topic for my sake. It's like playing a bad game of telephone, all of a sudden the topic is referring to what kind of toothpaste to use.

Cheers,
Chris

[prplefilipinoyam]

I'm part of both San Jose State's Formula and Hybrid Formula.

This year for Hybrid Formula we wanted to do rear inboard breaks. We are planning to go with no rear differential and are planning to drive the axles via electric motors.

My problem is I have never dealt with inboard brakes before and I understand some of the advantages and disadvantages of using inboard braking systems from the online reading and forums. But that's the extent of my knowledge.

So my question is, does anybody have any reading material, personal experience, personal opinions?

I understand people get excited and start posting and replying to posts. So please try not to stray to far away from the topic for my sake. It's like playing a bad game of telephone, all of a sudden the topic is referring to what kind of toothpaste to use.

Cheers,
Chris

[Adambomb]

As an interesting sidenote, Humvees use inboard brakes all around, in combination with gear reduction hubs. We've used them in the rear diff-mounted in '04 and '05, and tripod-mounted from '06-present. Honestly, not a lot to report on them, they basically just worked as expected. As far as general advantages or disadvantages, off the top of my head:

Advantages:
-Reduced unsprung mass
-Simplified rear hubs and uprights
-Reduced need for floating rotors (upright flex not an issue, although rotor warpage is still possible)
-Reduced loading on uprights

Disadvantages:
-Any backlash in final drive transmitted through brakes (this is noticeable in Humvees)
-Final drive failure = loss of brakes

[jrickert]

we have run them for years and never had any problems.

[AndrewS]

If you are using electric motors to drive the rear, can't you just use them for regenerative braking? Or at least, most off the shelf motor controller have built in electric braking, by shorting out the motor if I remember correctly. You'd still have mechanical front brakes to make up for the lower stopping force of this setup in the rear.

But I'm not familiar with your rule set, so you may be required to run mechanical brakes on all four corners. In that case, disregard this.