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The ones I did have helped, Mine will skid right now without a heavy foot. just tap tap tap and brakes feel "crisp" and if on gravel, snow,ice, mud, you can tap-skid-release- tap-skid-release like antilocks, I would say more braking with a lighter foot. maybe not more braking power, but skidding the tire is about all any can do anyway, but just lighter input to brake hard. Mine nose dives good coming off of our CO mountains with a load when stab braking.
I guess hydro boost is not for me; last year so far, I spent a fresh belt (not sure why, maybe not tightened properly or maybe faulty) while towing a trailer, no belt=no power steering pump=no brake boost, I have lost a seal in the steering box and had to remove belt to get home on no pwr steering, hence reason for new belt, also causing a dangerous condition for brake power assist, and I have had a piece of debris plug the filter in the power steering pump. All of these things likely or certainly would have caused unsafe brake condition. Under none of these conditions did my vacuum connection ever become compromised in any way. I will probably never switch to hydroboost. In my eyes it relies on belts, engine running, oil reservoir, pressure, andall of these things can fail. Plus, if the engine dies, I have a fewstabs of power from the stored vacuum.
I'm probably going to try the hydroboost in the future, I just picked up a unit from a u-pull-it this week. I wanted to have the dual booster until I get all the pieces for the hydroboost together. There will come a day when these f-350 boosters aren't available at all. Best to get one now I guess.
It's almost funny. Two days before amazon cancelled my order, I also ordered everything I need to plumb it... 25' of brake line, fittings, adjustable proportioning valve, flaring tool, pads, bleeders, several pints of fluid, more. I'll just keep checking daily until a new batch of boosters appears.
Local NAPA got me a booster. Thank you, Jodie. I've got it and the master cylinder painted, bleeder lines made, and proportioning valve mocked up.
Of course I'll have to make several hard lines. I've got a good tubing kit, but the bender won't make small radius bends or pretty flex coils. I don't like bending tubing around a paint can or rod, because the lines just collapse. So I bought some HDPE rod and used my lathe to make a few tubing mandrels that prevent line collapse. The small stepped mandrel makes really nice tight bends. The larger ones are threaded 4 TPI and they make really nice coils. I like the small coil mandrel best. I'll probably refine the coil mandrel, by making it double ended, with right & left hand threads. The coil on the mock up pic is just the test piece.
I wasn't expecting a lot of improvement. Big surprise! I can now lock up all four tires on pavement. I don't remember any of our Dentside F150's, F250's, or Broncos doing that when they were new, even with small tires.
I wish I had more time to do the project. I would have done it one piece at a time to see what part actually produced the most improvement. I suspect it was getting rid of the wonky factory proportioning valve, and plumbing front brakes direct to the master cylinder. Anyway, I'm very happy with it.
I might have to try getting rid of the proportioning valve like you did. I added the same booster, the larger piston torino calipers, and a master from a dual piston caliper f-250, and it just doesn't stop as well as I think it should. Doesn't seem to have much initial bite when you step on the brakes. I was going to try a more aggressive pad(parts store ceramic on the truck now, rebuilt factory drums on the rear), but I could try getting rid of the proportioning valve first.
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalyptic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
Slideshow: Called the Fortress, the 850-horsepower pickup combines Raptor underpinnings with military-inspired features, survival equipment, and a starting price of $285,000.
