The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Read This -- Why do your brakes??

Gang,
Listen up! In going through the latest Gallery Submissions today, Peg and I got a very stark safety reminder. EVERYONE should pay heed.

When dealing with these old trucks, safety must be everyone's priority. I know we preach this a lot, but don't overlook your brakes. If you plan to drive the truck, the FIRST thing you should go over is the braking system.

Read This for a reminder.

Everybody -- Please check your brakes over the winter. Please!

Then do your steering.

We'll be checking with Jake to see what we can do to help.

Thanks,
John

p.s. -- While you're at it, how about rereading the Safety Article.

I am so glad he made it through the accident. That hospital bill seems unbelievable. My brakes went out on my property, but I did not have much of a hill, and was able to use the emergency brake. I backed up right away and got the wheels off shortly after that.
If Jake was living in Canada, his hospital bill would be covered. I hope that one day soon America will have that kind of medical coverage. America is too rich a country not to take care of this problem. What happens to Jake's bill now? There is on way a person could pay that. All the best to him and a steady recovery.

That's why we preach it in the forums! No go without the whoa, including the parking/emergency brakes! Glad he's still here to tell the story,
Scott

My adventure in braking wasn't as bad by any stretch, but it still got my attention.
The day I went to pick up 'Tater I checked it out, got the brakes functional, altho I had to remember NOT to retract the pedal all the way as the hydrovac was dead so it was relying on the residual pressure to keep it stoppable and the pedal didn't like to come back on it's own.
We got a fair ways down te road, tested the brakes & everything, and before I pased through the 1st town we pulled over so I could do a walk around and add some gas. when we got rolling again it was dragging on the brakes a bit, and without thinbking I pulled the pedal all the way up,...
So, I'm comin up to a major intersection, have a red light, and as I shift down I pressed the brakes, and they went to the floor and stayed there. Thankfully I was suck in low gear, managed to slam it into 2nd and by some miracle the right turn lane was open so I managed to swing it onto the shoulder without entering traffic and ramming the busload of kids that were in the intersection. The shaft brake worked real well considering it was pretty shot, may have been my pucker factor 12 helpin out tho. I pumped the brakes back up, limped her to a service station up the road, and called a tow.
It was my fault, I knew what not to do and I expereinced a bit of mental flatuence to go with my case of cranial rectumitis. One of the 1st systems that got a rebuild was the brakes. 90% new parts, the rest were rebuilt or deemed servicable. The old girl will stop in nothin flat, even with a load, thereby preventing me from carying my own load in my shorts.

Sorry to hear about Jake but he is still with us. I had the brakes go out on a 65 chevy 3/4 ton when about 17. I was extremely lucky a blind T intersection and no one was coming either way and I made the 90 degree right turn without turning over.

Sometimes you never know. I was driving a school bus that was under 3 years old one morning. I had been stopping and starting all morning picking up kids to take to school. Hydraulic brakes had been working all morning with no sign of trouble.

After my last stop before hitting the interstate to go into town, I had to slow down to make a turn to enter the ramp for the interstate. I put my foot down on the brake pedal and it hit the floor, tried pumping it a few times with absolutley nothing. Just kept hitting the floor. Luckily the road also went straight through and I had the right of way. Started gearing the beast down and using the hand brake to slow down.

I had another bus come out, took mine in and found the master cylinder was full of fluid, but no sign of a brakes. I had to install a new master cylinder to get brakes again. ( I was the fleet mechanic at the time for the school)

So you never know, even with the best of checkups and everything working, things can happen without any warning. I was lucky that morning that there wasn't any traffic to contend with, and I had an avenue to take the bus and safely slow down and stop. But quite a scary feeling when you know you have 25 kids on board and suddenly there are no brakes. This was a 1976 IH 48 passenger bus in 1979.

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

Jake...I'm glad your still with us.

I've been lucky NEVER to have experienced brake failure.
The first thing I ever bought for my 'bolt was a dual servo/dual circuit brake master.
Who cares about originality,when your life is at stake! The poky wee single circuit master just didn't cut it for me!
I'm just waiting for my new brake lines and flexis to arrive.
3 things.....Brakes,tires and steering, I NEVER skimp on.

I hope you are making good progress.

Good luck
Jock

John and Peg,

Thank you for the reminder. With most of us "Bolters" trying to squeeze in "truck time" between full time jobs, and family duties, safety can sometimes be overlooked.

There is something that I would like to ad. For the Dads and Moms out there that may be tempted to skimp on safety, remember that our kids our watching, (and learning from us). We need to practice what we preach.

I wish Jake the best, and speediest recovery possible.

John

My first experience with a total brake failure was at age 16 (LONG ago!) in a 47 Ford coupe, on a busy Nashville street. As I approached an intersection with a red light, the brake pedal hit the floor. I downshifted to second gear (no way to get it into 1st.) turned off the ignition, and coasted for almost two blocks before the thing stopped. Copmpression braking- - - - -what compression? It had a 1941 flathead V-8 truck engine in it with about 6.5:1! I blew through one more red light before I could get the old beast stopped!

The next time was in my 59 Burb with a SM-420 and a Dana type 60 rear end. This time, the brakes were good, but an unsecured steel brake line had rubbed against the center housing long enough to wear a hole in it. I was towing a 16 foor trailer with electric brakes, and I was on I-65 at about 70 MPH. The electric trailer brakes, and an unobstructed breakdown lane saved my bacon that time!

Anything else I drive will definitely have a working E-brake, and a dual line brake system! I've used up all my luck!

Jake, could you stand a visit from a fellow stovebolter? I'm not that far from Chattanooga!
Jerry

Jake may not be checking in often might want to pm him Hotrod lincoln. Looking at the pictures again if he had been properly belted in as well.(acknowledging lap belts only at the time that truck was manufactured) injuries likely would have been minimal. more than one lesson in this story.

When I was 16, I put my stepdad's '61 Chevy 1/2 ton nose first into a creek at about 15mph when a front brake line blew. My cousin riding with me had a bump on his head where he hit that steel dash. Had to walk back to the house, get a tractor and fish the pickup out of the creek.

Used to have a '72 brand F station wagon that would blow a master cylinder every payday. Eventually traded it in on a new Chevy Pickup.

Jake, Couldn't believe what I was reading when reviewing your post. Thank God you're alive. Please keep the updates of you're progress come'in.

Jake, I'm very sorry about what happened.

If anyone is reading, there are a few procedures one can follow to slow a vehicle when the brakes fail. I anyone has more, post them.

~~ Weave back and forth violently if there is no oncoming traffic. This will greatly slow your speed.
~~ Run off the road and sideswipe things to reduce speed.
~~ Drive off the road into a field. DO NOT drive into any trees larger than saplings.
~~ Use the emergency brake
~~ Downshift
~~ Turn the engine off unless the steering wheel locks when you do.

But no matter what you do chances are very good that it's going to b bad. The best you can hope for is to avoid catastrophic injury.

(BTW, IMO this should be in General Truck Talk)