Air over hydraulic brakes, How good are they ?

Hi all, just thought I'd ask how good are air over hydraulic brakes?
My Dodge D5N has them
When I first got the Dodge home ,my old truckie neighbour Paul came over for a look. When he noticed the the brake boosters he commented that if it was his truck he would replace the "air overs"with full air brakes.
I have been thinking about this, and as I might be putting the old girl on historic rego the club registrars may knock me back,as they are supposed to be "as manufactured " to qualify for club rego in NSW.
I also thought if she survived all those years as an interstate prime mover they cant be that bad !
Over to you all for your comments
Regards Harleigh

I'm no expert, but I always thought that if you lost an airline on an air over hydraulic system, then you lost all brakes. Whereas full air brakes are designed to come on if air is lost. I would also have thought that full air would have been an option for original equipment on these trucks. Just my two bobs worth

Dennis

Just a 'ps' does anyone know anyone who stocks parts/ overhauls these Lockheed boosters/Master cylinders?
Harleigh.

theres a place in melbourne street maitland where ive got stuff for my dodge ..i can find out the name tomorrow (theres two brake places in the same street ) ..

Thanks Kenny, my son is going to Tocal Ag college which is nice and close to Maitland, he can be the courier service! excellent, thanks Mate!
Harleigh.

Hi Harleigh,
Unless your whole brake system is rooted and completely needs replacing I'd been inclined to maintain/repair what you've got, particularly if the vehicle will now be semi-retired and won't be hauling around much of a load. Plenty of trucks had/have an air over hydraulic system. Of course if you had a simple choice you'd take a dual S-cam system.
Plenty of people are going to give you advice on what to do/change, find out what's involved first, some of these ideas are easier said than done. keep it original I say, it's part of the character of truck.
Cheers,
Joe (the boring wet blanket!)

Harleigh,

Air over hydraulic brakes are good as long as they are fairly well maintained, ie. brake fluid changed as per the workshop manual, air system checked for leaks, etc. The air is there only to provide actuation of the plungers in the master cylinders as a diesel engine cannot make it's own vacuum!

This is just my 2 bobs worth!

Joe Hupp

PS: I've been in many Isuzu trucks with air over hydraulic brakes - the stopping power is phenominal - and the truck won't stand on it's nose should you need to stop really quickly unlike full air brakes!

Hi Harleigh when i was doing local and country as a owner driver i had air over hyd brakes in my TK's and had no problems with them.

If you pump them enough thet will just lock up and that great if you are loading half way down a hill.

if god made them for your truck then leave them there. Dave

Thanks Joe , Joe and Dave,
I had been thinking I would leave them there, otherwise a full airbrake conversion could get messy not to mention expensive! also it probably would need an engineers certificate, it's getting scarier by the minute!
For what I'm going to do with it I'm sure they will be adequate ;)Regards Harleigh

JimmyDodge
GuddayM8
Jist my 2 cents worth of dribble
Tax free of cause
LOL
Air/Hydralic aint impossible to live with
Air mechanical 'S" cams would B easier to live with but a pain to convert over $$$$
looks like u got a split system
one for the front n one for the rear
so if one fails u still have other brakes
it duz look like the PBR type of Air over hydralic system th@ were used on trailers way back when
make sure u clean thourghly around the filler hole B 4 opening
any stuff getn into the brake fluid cam B murder on the system

Here B one V: of air/Hydralic
www.bendixvrc.com/itemDisplay.asp?documentID=2520

cya