The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Brake Conversion on a '69 C50

Are there any readily available (under $2K) ways to convert a C50 from Flintstone brakes to either boosted or Bendix brakes? Air maybe? What about Heavy duty discs for the front-end? I have dealt with replacing boosters before, but I've never worked on a larger truck brake system and am unaware if there are any major differences between it and any smaller 60's Chevy truck. For what it's worth I've driven this particular truck about 10 time and am inheriting it in a few months from a good friend. I did a search on this but didn't see anything in a close year/model to mine. Thanks in advance to any who may answer me,
-Bryan

A 50 series should have a hydrovac. If it is working like it should, you will have good brakes

I'll have to look at it when I get back home (currently deployed courtesy of the USAF) and see if it has that or not. I know that it's a bare master cylinder bolted onto the fire wall, as I'm the one who installed it,...

Hy Locust_Cutter, welcome, unfortunately the mid to late 60s were a time of change in braking systems for the larger trucks. Some were single systems with boosted masters mounted on the firewall, others were dual systems with two frame mounted hydrovacs, or single masters with a single hydrovac mounted on the frame. It can be very tricky trying to determine what is correct for a given brake system during this period. When you get back to the truck, have a good look at what equipment is on it, then you can tell us, and ask your questions with more information on what is on the truck now, hope that helps.

My dad bought a new 50 series truck in 67 for his log truck. He said until the day he died that it had the worst brakes of any truck he ever owned. When they moved the booster up to the firewall, he always thought that was when they got worse.
The older 64 -66 trucks had better brakes but with the 2 wheel cylinders per drum, they are a real pain to bleed.

I had heard of having 2 wheel cylinders per wheel, on some of the older ones. I could see that being a real pain to bleed, when it was time to service them. I'll take a hard look when I get back home, and try to call out what's there and see what my options are.
Thanks everyone!