The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Huck Brakes ?

What is it that almost everyone has against the Huck braking system? We have run grain trucks using them ,for years and never had any trouble with them. I dont understand the problem.

Hy iowa trucks
59, It's just that the huck brakes are not self-energizing thereby they require more presure from your foot to stop, bendix brakes are much more operator friendly.

Ok then the trouble isnt the brakes, its the lack of a hydo-vac. Our grain trucks all had the them. I guess maybe I could see its harder with a pick up.

I don't have a problem with them.

Well, except for finding rear drums for my 3/4 ton.

Aside from that...

Personally, I really can't tell a difference between my 50 1/2 ton and 51 1/2 ton. Other than it's a little more of a pain to adjust the 50's brakes.

Bob

iowa,
It's not the hydro-vac that makes the Bendix brakes self energizing it's the very slight rotation of the front shoe that pushes the rear shoe harder against the drum. It can do that because it's not anchored or pinned at the bottom like the Hucks....or something like that. There has been some other threads on here about that - and folks have converted their Hucks to Bendix-style brakes. I like Huck brakes myself.

I think the Bendix have more stopping power & are much easirer to service.

Servicing is the biggest factor in Bendix over Huck, I think. I'm still running Huck's though, and no real problems when there properly adjusted. Panic stops aren't fun with either in todays world.

Parts, namely drums! Otherwise I am happy with the Huck style.

Other than the fact you need to manually adjust them, I've never had any real gripes about them. Of coarse I rebuild every brake system on every truck I plan to drive, so there shouldn't be any problems,
Scott

Well the problem with them must be more in the smaller trucks. With the big ones you almost alway have a hydo to do the pushing, by the book, over 30% less effort. I've never found adjusting them to be any thing by easy. Just follow the instrutions in the manual and its a cinch. As far as fixing them, I beleive that I could do a set of hucks in about half the time of the bendix one, seems to be a lot less parts and things that move. The rear hucks are the best. I wish they would have put the ratchet wheel things on the front ones. I hate using the spooon tool to just the fronts.

Has any one ever tried to put the hydo on a smaller truck, like a 3/4 or tonner? Should be a fairly easy thing to do.

The 3/4 & 1 tons used to have a small hydro booster as an option but they were very sensetive.One off of a big truck would put you on the windshield. I would convert to a more modern power brake system.

Has anyone chanced to bendix on a 3/4 ton I have a 52 GMC I'm puting disc on the front and adding power brakes

At least one person has made the swap from huck to bendix. They did a write-up of the process.

Not sure what size truck they had.

Check out the tech tips.

I dont know about the GMC trucks, but it was my understanding that the Chevys all went to Bendix systems in 51. I would think that the GMC followed and your 52 should already have them.

I noticed in my truck manuals, that a lot of other companies used the bendix system long before Chevy did. I cant find any other maker that used the Hucks other than Chevy. This make me wonder if Huck was owned by GM, or if it went out of business, at the end of 1950.

My 52 3/4 ton GMC has Huck brakes so GMC changed some time after 52

1950 was the last year for Huck brakes on 1/2 tons. 1952 was the last year for Huck brakes on 3/4 ton and 1 ton trucks. This applied to both chevrolet and GMC.