Wow, You are very lucky. I hope your story will encourage more folks to not cut corners on brake system maintenance. Glad you are here to tell it.
I have lost brakes before, but not as dramatic, or should I say traumatic..
Last year on the trip back from CA in my "new" 61 F350 with Detroit Diesel we lost brakes at the intersection of 191 and I-70 in Utah.
I was slowing down to make the ramp for I-70 east, stepped on the pedal and no brakes at all. Rather than try to take the turn with no brakes, and then find a place to stop once on the interstate I coasted straight under the interstate, down shifting, and managed to stop just before I ran out of road. Down shifted all I could then pulled the fuel shutoff to kill the engine and finish stopping. It had no parking brake. Luckily I had pretty much learned to shift the unsynchronized Roadranger by that time, well enough I guess.
I plugged the rear line and managed to make it to a NAPA in Grand Junction CO where we found enough parts to get home on three brakes. In the NAPA parking lot we found the real problem was a cracked rear brake drum, completely separated from the center part and wobbling around loose.
Dual circuit brakes are great, and that truck has them now.
Grigg
