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Old 08-13-2016, 07:24 AM   #1
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Loss of brakes

I have a 1998 fleetwood bounder 34f . I lost brakes on it and the placevi bought it from said there was air in the lines and that these brakes are mechanical and does not have a power booster so when applying brakes I would need to apply more pressure to pedal and there is a possibility that the pedal will need to go further to the floor than a car or trucks would to stop. IS THIS CORRECT???? are my brakes mechanical and does it take more pressure on pedal to stop mh?? is it right that there is no power booster for the brake system???
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Old 08-13-2016, 07:26 AM   #2
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Loss of brakes

Welcome to irv2. What chassis is your Bounder on ?

Cliff
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Old 08-13-2016, 07:50 AM   #3
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Your unit does have a booster. First thing you want to do is check the master cylinder to see if it's full, if it is full chances are the master cylinder went bad. that just happened to me a couple weeks ago.
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Old 08-13-2016, 08:24 AM   #4
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Your brakes are hydraulic, not mechanical. You have a booster, either driven by vacuum (like your car) or hydraulic (driven by the engine). You should have a brake inspection, brake fluid changed, and the brakes bled.
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Old 08-13-2016, 08:33 AM   #5
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The first thing I'd do is get your Bounder out of that shop and to a repair shop qualified to work on your MH. There haven't been mechanical brakes on vehicles since the 30's. If they mean brakes without power assist I believe the shop mechanics don't recognize a "Hydro Boost" power brake system. This system is commonly used on diesel pick up trucks and many 3/4 and 1 ton pickups. Instead of a vacuum brake booster the power assist is provided to a booster powered by the same fluid pump as the power steering assist.
If the shop is unaware of this or can't explain it any better than they have they shouldn't be attempting repairs on your brakes.
If you looked at the brake calipers and pads you might find they are the same as some 1 ton pickups yet you are trying to stop a vehicle 2 or 3 times heavier than a pick up truck. The pedal will push harder than a pick up. Without a power assist I don't think you could ever slow down or stop nearly 10 tons of rolling mass.
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Old 08-13-2016, 08:38 AM   #6
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The first thing I'd do is get your Bounder out of that shop and to a repair shop qualified to work on your MH. There haven't been mechanical brakes on vehicles since the 30's. If they mean brakes without power assist I believe the shop mechanics don't recognize a "Hydro Boost" power brake system. This system is commonly used on diesel pick up trucks and many 3/4 and 1 ton pickups. Instead of a vacuum brake booster the power assist is provided to a booster powered by the same fluid pump as the power steering assist.
If the shop is unaware of this or can't explain it any better than they have they shouldn't be attempting repairs on your brakes.
If you looked at the brake calipers and pads you might find they are the same as some 1 ton pickups yet you are trying to stop a vehicle 2 or 3 times heavier than a pick up truck. The pedal will push harder than a pick up. Without a power assist I don't think you could ever slow down or stop nearly 10 tons of rolling mass.
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Old 08-13-2016, 08:51 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by LETMGROW View Post
The first thing I'd do is get your Bounder out of that shop and to a repair shop qualified to work on your MH. There haven't been mechanical brakes on vehicles since the 30's. If they mean brakes without power assist I believe the shop mechanics don't recognize a "Hydro Boost" power brake system. This system is commonly used on diesel pick up trucks and many 3/4 and 1 ton pickups. Instead of a vacuum brake booster the power assist is provided to a booster powered by the same fluid pump as the power steering assist.
If the shop is unaware of this or can't explain it any better than they have they shouldn't be attempting repairs on your brakes.
If you looked at the brake calipers and pads you might find they are the same as some 1 ton pickups yet you are trying to stop a vehicle 2 or 3 times heavier than a pick up truck. The pedal will push harder than a pick up. Without a power assist I don't think you could ever slow down or stop nearly 10 tons of rolling mass.
Lynn
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Get it to brake shop that understands Hydroboost. On ours it was as simple as having a mobile mechanic come out a tighten the assembly to stop fluid from leaking and refill. I have a 1988 Holiday Rambler Class A on a P30 chassis.
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Old 08-13-2016, 08:51 AM   #8
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Get out of that shop even if you have to be towed out! Those morons might get you killed.

You certainly do have power-assisted brakes but that doesn't have anything to do with air in the lines.

You probably have one or more leaks that let fluid leak out and/or air enter, or your fluid reservoir went dry over the years and the master cylinder slurped air in. In any event, get the brake lines bled and as part of that process carefully check for leaks. If that fixes the brakes then proceed but carefully check for leaks or increasing pedal travel.

If the pedal still goes to the floor then you likely need to replace the master cylinder.

Brake pedal travel should be 1/4 to 1/3 of the way down before meeting strong resistance. Pedal resistance should be quite a bit more than a car.
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Old 08-13-2016, 11:39 AM   #9
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One way you can get air into the system is to have a brake dragging creating heat. This can result in the fluid actually boiling in the caliper. How it finds air I don't know but somehow it does.
This is a common problem in the Bendix single piston calipers many older motor homes used. The caliper is mounted to the knuckle assembly and there is a whole lot of caliper to steel contact where rust and corrosion can form and cause the caliper to seize to the knuckle support rather than float freely. This can be corrected by unbolting the lock bolt and removing the caliper and cleaning all the contact areas, applying a Moly brake lube sparingly to the contact areas and reinstalling the caliper. This should be done every year as these units often just sit and rust away for non use months.
Some of the newer designs aren't much better. We bead blast contact areas on caliper brackets on every brake job we do. Many of these designs have hardware which gets rusted and will seize the pads to the brackets. We clean the brackets and replace the slider hardware without fail.
After every brake job we road test the vehicle and use an infrared heat gun to check rotor temperature to be sure everything is working properly.
Lynn
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