Monday (five days ago) on my way home from work a jeep brakes hard in front of me to make a left turn at the last second. I slam on the brakes in my GMC 3/4 ton cargo van and the pedal goes to the floor, no brakes at all. Luckily there was a winter wheat field on the right, no utility poles, no ditches, no culverts. So I took a high-speed (about 40 mph) detour through the field to avoid the jeep and then back onto the road. Every tool I own bounced off the shelving system in the process. I dropped the transmission into low and hit the e-brake and finally got it stopped about 500 feet down the road.

I had it towed to the garage where they replaced a brake line.

Mechanics, help me out here. I thought with modern brake systems with the two-chamber master cylinder having total brake failure was not supposed to happen? That you should always have at least one set of brakes, front or rear?

This morning checking the line with my little Dodge Ram 50 I left one farm and noticed the truck was pulling to the left, it never did that before. I get down the long, steep hill on Dogwood Dr. with no issues and turn into a field to drive about a 1/2 mile back to a powerline. about halfway there I hit the brakes to stop and check a set in the pumpkin patch and the pedal goes to the floor, no brakes again!

I limped back to the road and parked it, have the garage on the way.

That truck also has a two-chambered master cylinder. What gives with the total brakes failure?

My wife ask me if someone was trying to kill me. I asked, "I don't know, are you?"

If you lose one chamber and have drums on the back that are not adjusted right, it will feel like you have zero brakes.

My Tacoma had the same problem. I went to stop on a steep hill at a busy intersection and brakes went to the floor board and didnt stop! Luckily no one was coming and I just went through the red light. Also had some brake fluid in the truck so I topped off the master cyl and was able to limp it home.

With the dual master system, when you lose brakes in one half of the system, you'll still have brakes in the other half, but just barely. And if the master gets full of air, it'll feel like nothing. It's better than absolutely nothing like you'd have with a single-circuit master, but it's not much.

That is basically what my mechanic said to me goose.

glad ya didn't get hurt or hurt anything.

did you try pressing said brake pedal through the floor,using the steering wheel as leverage??

Next time , or for anyone else reading this , yes you still have half a set of brakes , hopefully the fronts. The pedal will go to the floor due to major loss of pressure at the master cylinder. Pump them and you will feel something then , but only temporarily , kinda need to pump them a bit to maintain pressure to the half that is not leaking. I have driven cars a good distance this way as a last resort to get it somewhere to get it fixed. DO NOT do this if all possible , get the car stopped and towed. I can do this because I know how , and how much I can get away with because I've worked on cars for years. Not a good thing for the inexperienced. Stop the car , get it towed. I have also had to drive a stick shift car with a broken clutch pedal shifting gears without the pedal , experienced. Not normal operating procedures , last ditch.

i'm tryin to find somebody to float the river and beaver trap next week with me.with the son off a couple weeks i may at least have somebody to drop of the jeep.and yes-my 12 ft kayak fits IN my jeep.

even has dual skunk holders.

sorry,just tryin to chear ya up a little like you did me.

Lug nut, I used to own a 87 Dodge Ram 50 sport , swb 2.6L 5sp 2wd black/gold bought it new right off the showroom floor. Nice little Japanese truck , loved it.

Very few of them left on the road , what is yours like ?

nice,lawdog has its twin i believe.

would love to find a nice one.

87 was a new model year. I believe the 85&86 were still called the D50 . 87 and up were called the Ram 50.

Don't know about the transmissions with the 2 different models and 4wd & 2wd of course are different , mine was a stick 5sp , yours stick or auto ?
One thing that ticked me off was in 88 they went to stainless exhaust , changed mine 2X before I bit the bullet and had a custom system made in stainless. Wish mine came with the stainless.

Rear drums are worthless unless set really tight and have a load on them, one thing I have seen happen is the master cylinder can completely fail in both cambers when I’ve seen this is when you stomp on the brakes hard it can take both sets of seals and bypass.

I experienced something similar this summer.

I was backing a boat into the lake, hit the brakes hard to slide the boat off the trailer and the pedal sunk to the floor. I stomped on the emergency brake and nothing happened, I shifted into 1st and hit the gas and no luck. By that time the water was 2-3 inches below the windows so I just shut off the engine quick.

Brake line blew...no brakes.

On the plus side of things, the insurance company totaled the truck, paid me way more than it was worth and I'm driving a great new truck.

pictures or video??

That’s what friends do.

I'm glad you're ok

That's why they make emergency brakes.
Lack of mtc?

That’s exactly what happened. When I pumped there was a small amount of pressure that almost immediately went away. Also, the pedal was not returning to the up position very quickly.

Since I was bouncing through a field and having a “holy crap” moment I elected to drop the tranny in low and stomp on the e-brake then concentrate on keeping it somewhat under control until I could get it back on the road and stopped.