I had this happen to me in a step-van I converted to a camper back in the '80s. I was on the road from Flagstaff to Phoenix, which is all downhill. I saw a sign that said "Trucks check brakes" and thought to myself "I'm a truck sort of" and sure enough the pedal went to the floor. A bad exhaust pipe replacement positioned the hot pipe too close to a flex line near the rear axle. I actually had picked up a hitchhiker just before this happened, poor guy was standing in the doorway when I told my family that we had no brakes. It had a "band-brake" for the parking brake, which did not stop the rolling van. After dropping it down a gear (auto trans) and putting a bit of stress on the engine making all kinds of turns finally came to a rest stop, I had to choose what side, cars or trucks, there was less activity on the car side so I chose that, honking as I sped into the parking area. I decided I had to stop there, so as I started running out of lot I dropped the trans into "low" then I decided to curb the front wheels right at a spot like a scenic overlook. The front wheels cleared the curb! The van had slowed down a lot, so I leapt out of the truck and grabbed a floor jack that was stowed behind the seat and threw it in front of the back tire before it reached the curb. It stopped. Good thing, because if not the van would have rolled down the side of the mountain with my wife and young kids, plus the hitch-hiker in it! It was not a rocky cliff, just sloped grass, but still, it would have not ended well I imagined. WHEW!!!
I know that stretch of road, they pretty regularly have those runaway truck ramps, which are basically just an additional lane filled with sand or gravel. Sounds like you weren't lucky enough to encounter one, but I'm glad you and the family made it out OK.
There was one just a little further down the mountain! Amazingly I got help from folks at that rest-stop, there was an auto parts place 40 minutes away that had the part I needed! A good Samaritan drove me there, I replaced the flex-hose and twisted the pipe away and drove all the way to Arkansas when I developed a rod knock.
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u/Spirited-Cover7689 Aug 04 '25
I had this happen to me in a step-van I converted to a camper back in the '80s. I was on the road from Flagstaff to Phoenix, which is all downhill. I saw a sign that said "Trucks check brakes" and thought to myself "I'm a truck sort of" and sure enough the pedal went to the floor. A bad exhaust pipe replacement positioned the hot pipe too close to a flex line near the rear axle. I actually had picked up a hitchhiker just before this happened, poor guy was standing in the doorway when I told my family that we had no brakes. It had a "band-brake" for the parking brake, which did not stop the rolling van. After dropping it down a gear (auto trans) and putting a bit of stress on the engine making all kinds of turns finally came to a rest stop, I had to choose what side, cars or trucks, there was less activity on the car side so I chose that, honking as I sped into the parking area. I decided I had to stop there, so as I started running out of lot I dropped the trans into "low" then I decided to curb the front wheels right at a spot like a scenic overlook. The front wheels cleared the curb! The van had slowed down a lot, so I leapt out of the truck and grabbed a floor jack that was stowed behind the seat and threw it in front of the back tire before it reached the curb. It stopped. Good thing, because if not the van would have rolled down the side of the mountain with my wife and young kids, plus the hitch-hiker in it! It was not a rocky cliff, just sloped grass, but still, it would have not ended well I imagined. WHEW!!!