I just purchased a 37 foot gooseneck trailer. When I move it in tight spots with lots of braking I notice I loose the brakes. As if I had pumped them & the abs stopped them working. It happened yesterday when backing into a tight spot. After hitting the brakes in rather a quick succession it appeared I had none & had to push REALLY hard on the pedal to stop. The truck is a 1996 RAM 2500 extended cab & long box. It has a 12 valve Cummins with 485,000KMs on it. It has rear wheel ABS. Any ideas?

 

Something similar happened to my 2000 3500. Mine did the same thing and later I had no brakes at all. The small tubes in the abs system had rusted out and were leaking. I was lucky to make it to a repair shop. It would have hard to do without the 6sp tranny and exhaust brake I had in that truck.

 

Thanks my brakes lines are ok. Not rusty they have been replaced.

 

The vacuum system in our 96s is not that good, alot of braking @ idle or low RPM will use more that the pump will handle. Its just the nature of the beast.

Floyd

 

Thanks that's what I was thinking last night. In the winter when I start it up & pull the parking brake off, I usually have to wait a minute for the brake light to go out as the vacuum has not built up enough. If I don't, same thing I push like hell to stop it. There must be a fix for this though? Pretty dangerous when backing up a trailer.

 

I could see that.

 

I have read that some people have added a vacuum canister to give it more reserve vacuum.

Floyd