1. These old vehicles have a single hydraulic braking circuit. If anything
fails, anyplace in this circuit, you will have no brakes. Remember this.
One thing I do before leaving the yard is to step on the brakes as
hard as possible. Better to blow something in my yard as opposed to
out on the road someplace.
Another idea is to have a plan should you loose your brakes out on the
road. My plan is to reach over and engage the front axle than pull with
all my might on the parking brake. The parking brake is a one shot
deal. If you try to slow down with it, it will over heat and lose all
effectiveness instantly. Your only option is to lock the wheels as
fast as possible. By engaging the front axle, you gain more stopping
wheels and are more likely to prevent a skid.
2. Towing a vehicle with a tow bar is a dangerous proposition unless the
vehicle being towed weighs much less than the towing vehicle. This is
because the towed vehicle add nothing to the weight over the rear wheels
of the towing vehicle. I flat towed a CCKW chassis and cab one time with my
CCKW cargo truck. It towed quite well. When it came time to take a corner,
I found that as I applied more pressure on the brake pedal, I finally came
to the point of locking all 10 wheels on my truck. The truck behind me just
pushed me down the road. Because the towed truck added nothing to the
weight on my rear tires, but added more inertia to the combination, my
braking ability was greatly reduced. Most MV's don't have all that much
ground contact to begin with on normal roads. The same applies to a
trailer. Try to have it add downward pressure on your rear wheels.
Steve
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