jwstewar
Elite Member
geez, dont you guys have annual safety inspections ??
I've never heard of it, and in Holland no new vehicle gets allowed on the road unless it has a dual circuit brake system: Which is, two circuits divided into either front axle - rear axle, or LF+RR - RF+LR wheel.
So if a brake line would fail, you'd still have brakes on the other 2 wheels.
When installing air brake valves into Mercedes Sprinters, we allways needed to prove that the air brake valve acted on both hydraulic circuits by showing the layout of the vehicle manufacturer, before we could get an official type approval stamp on an air brake installation scheme.
Oh, one thing just popped my mind, i did hear if this failure once: a friend of some friends used to have a rotten old Fiat which he called a "collectors classic" This thing once failed its brakes so he rear ended someone at slow city speed (which caused it to crumple) The car was of late 60's, before dual circuit brakes became mandatory.
I've also been away with my brother, who had a Volvo 740 at that time. His brake pads were worn, and to make sure the steel backplates of the brake pads wouldnt mess up his brake rotors, he used the parking brake. It did make the surge brakes of the horse trailer engage, though the effect was not spectacular.
I'll ignore the political BS, but I'll address the two failures. One was an older truck that he used to own. We started the trip and his truck was fine. About halfway to 3/4 of the way there, the master cylinder started bypassing - yes this did have dual resevoirs/circuits. You pressed the pedal and it just went to the floor. Very little brakes to no brakes. Ironically this try had a hydraulic/electric brake controller. Very nice controller, but if the master cylinder won't build pressure it won't work either. He just used trailer brake lever and made it to the destination.
Second one was just a couple of years ago on his 2000 Silverado. Brake lines looked fine, no wet spots or anything, brake fluid looked fine. All of sudden when he pressed the brakes the pedal went to the floor and fluid was coming out from under the truck. Even with a dual circuit, you lose one and the other circuit is very weak - at least on every vehicle I've ever seen.
