Scary - and don't trust your dealer

Brake fluid is the last thing on people’s minds when they are buying their new to me Motorhome. The second hand market is littered with van with little or no service history. When I buy any vehicle second hand I look at the history to make sure it’s up to date. Buyer beware.
 
If they’ve just come down that road I’m pretty sure you aren’t allowed trailers purely for that reason. I was behind a Jeep cherokee towing a twin axle caravan down the furka pass (I think) and the brakes stunk (I was on the Harley). He was only half way down and he’d burnt his brakes out judging by the way he was trying to stop, smoke everywhere!,

my bad it’s the Gottard, that’ll teach me to just have a quick glance??
 
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Sometimes, I set the gear manually, and use the cruise control to limit.
 
Unfortunately brake fluid seems to be ignored far too often. They tell you to change it for very good reasons.
 
This story sound very similar to the exeriance that we had. We brought a second hand MH from a dealer in the west country and drove to Iificombe. On the way back we went down Porlark hill (steepest A road in England) Went down with engin braking but by the time we got to the first hairpin the brakes had failed. Very Scary decent down the rest of the hill in first gear and hand brake only.

Retruned the van to the dealer the next day who changed all the brakes and fluid etc. As with the original post the van was meant to have had a full service and MOT prior to picking it up and this happened about 100 miles in to ownership.

When we brought our second van it was not from this dealer.

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Ascending Porlock Hill (25% or a 1 in 4 gradient) is part of an all night vintage motorbike run in which I've participated for ten years, finishing at 7 a.m. (with luck!) at Lynmouth.

1955 Matchless route reader.JPG


Participants have come from all over Europe.

Karl and Rudi from Germany.JPG


There have been a few mishaps...……..

Mishap_on_Porlock_Hill,_Somerset_-_Geograph_-_1182035.jpg
 
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Probably unfair as I’m a retired mechanic so well aware of brake fluid being hydroscopic
( absorbing water). Before my trip to the high Alps I replaced all the brake discs with grooved and vented types and fitting heavy duty pads from a quality manufacturer with of course a complete change of brake fluid
To DOT5.1 specifically for ABS systems, Most garages should have a meter that you dip into the brake fluid that will tell you what percentage of water the fluid has absorbed, so a 2 minutes check would have stopped your brown trouser moment,
 
A few years ago I was driving because john wasn't well. I'd had some driving practice by then but was still fairly new to it.
We came out of San Bernadino tunnel and found to my absolute horror that there were roadworks all the way down leaving a very narrow road with steep concrete barriers either side. There was nowhere at all to pull off so I just had to drive down many miles it seemed.. Very very very scary.
 
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Chocy boy said:
Porlock hill is that the one with a tight left hander on the the way up.
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There are a couple of very steep tight bends. The event the 'Westward Ho!' starts at midnight near Oxford and rambles through country lanes and Exmoor for 180 miles. One year, incapacitated by a biking accident I went in my (automatic) m/h as a travelling marshal and the hill was so steep in some parts going up I couldn't see the road ahead at all. I did wonder that if I conked out on the way up there was no way I could hold it on the brakes, especially without the servo operating.
That year I set up the m/h at the finish car park at Lynmouth providing coffee and the inevitable bacon sarnies for the 68 tired riders (average age about 70). The caff at the car park also opened at 6 a.m. especially for us!
WWHo 2014.JPG


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No surprises there, when buying a S/H van when a dealer says I'll get a full service done, if you have any common you know at best all you will get is an oil change. Also often when a van is serviced at an independent they don't change the brake fluid unless you ask them too.
 
So, there lays the story of why having your van serviced according to the manufacturer’s recommendation is important, there is another thread on here about are you going to bother having your MoHo services for me it’s 100% important and as stated I always have my vehicles over servicedin terms of oil and fluid changed. I know it’s a bit of money but nothing compared to the investment most of us make.
 
Spriddler said:
I did wonder that if I conked out on the way up there was no way I could hold it on the brakes, especially without the servo operating.
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The servo does not provide better braking efficiency, it merely reduces the effort required to operate the brakes.
Its similar to power steering which doesn't make the steering better, just easier.
Theonlysue said:
Sometimes, I set the gear manually, and use the cruise control to limit.
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You must remember that your cruise control uses the brakes in exactly the same way as you do, the only difference being that the cruise control isn't aware that your on a steep hill.

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I've driven down multiple Alpine passes in a Ford Transit (4.1 tonnes)
The 'art' is to do the entire decent without touching the brakes if you can.

I had a English guy following me once, at the bottom of the pass there was the campsite, I used the breaks to slow down to the turn across the traffic into the entrance.

He came up to me and said he was going to tell me that both the brake lights had failed on my van, but then realised as I made the final turn there was noting wrong with them, I had just down a 30 hairpin decent without using the brakes, all on the engine and gears.

It probably helps that I learnt to drive in a Landrover, and up until about 5 years ago had had one Landie after another.
 
I don't normally buy secondhand vehicles at all, haven't done so for the last 20 years or more, but when I bought the motorhome back in February I took it straight to my local councils mot centre and had my own test done, then took it to the Iveco garage that services my company vans and had them do a full service and check everything over before taking the mot fail sheet, and the Iveco garage report sheet and list of repairs (all quite minor I have to say) back to the motorhome dealer.

An old friend told me years ago, if you buy secondhand your buying someone else's problems.

Which is fine as long as you can find them and fix them before they bite you in the arse.

But also don't feel safe when buying new, these plenty of hair raising stories out there
 
This is what happens when Ducato brakes are used hard.
I don't know how many times the ambulance in our village had a fire on the brakes on emergency drives.
This one was in Stoke on Trent recently.
Ambulance fire.jpg
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ambulancekidd said:
The servo does not provide better braking efficiency, it merely reduces the effort required to operate the brakes.
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Yes, I understand that, but I very much doubt that I would have been able to hold it stopped (VW T4 base -drum rear brakes), so I'd probably have broken the seat back pushing on it, or the steering wheel by pulling on it or dislocated my knee by the time I'd reversed half a mile downhill to a flatter spot. ;)
 
ambulancekidd said:
You must remember that your cruise control uses the brakes in exactly the same way as you do, the only difference being that the cruise control isn't aware that your on a steep hill.
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Unless you are in a top of the range BM or Merc car or better the cruise control only operates on the throttle no interlinking with the brakes.
 
I just wonder what their total train weight was and as someone else said was it a good idea to tow a heavy trailer down the pass. No mention of the trailer brakes I wonder if it had any looks like it might be pretty heavy and the MH looks quite low on its suspension in the picture.
 
We've been up and down a few hairy mountain roads in the Pyrenees and there is no way we could have driven down some of them without using the brakes. The roads are just too steep to use engine braking effectively in any gear, so, braking is the only option.
You just have to use them little and often to ensure they don’t overheat.
 
Lenny HB said:
Unless you are in a top of the range BM or Merc car or better the cruise control only operates on the throttle no interlinking with the brakes.
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Agreed,
 
Lenny HB said:
Unless you are in a top of the range BM or Merc car or better the cruise control only operates on the throttle no interlinking with the brakes.
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My Audi worked the brakes, even when towing. It was the base spec too.

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