So hypothetical situation....You are driving down a long steep mountain road and for some reason your brake line bursts and all your brake fluid sprays out. You have no emergency brakes as your cable broke previously and you hadn't gotten around to fixing it....How do you stop?

You don't.

It will be a dual mater cylinder. Braking will suck, but there will also be something there. This happened on my truck where it blew a line from the ABS to the l/f wheel. I drove and parked it 25 miles later.

That's why your vehicle has 2 separate systems front and rear. Only way a complete failure would happen is if the master cylinder croaked. The other item you mentioned I've only ever heard of it referred to a "parking brake", only meant to be used when the vehicle is already stopped. Using only the rear brakes provides a silly long stopping distance as the front provide 70% of the braking force.
To avoid the line fail keep on top of maintenance
&



Copper nickel brake line won't rust and it's real easy to work with. If one line is trashed they all are, you can do the whole vehicle for less than $100.

Last resort

This is why I prefer a standard over an automatic trans. At least you can slow the impact at the bottom a bit by shoving it in a lower gear and shutting down the engine.


But even this does NOT WORK on a big truck once the trans RPM exceeds the engine RPM. This is why they make "Runaway ramps". Both feet against the dash and both hands on the stick with all the force you can muster can't get it back in gear.


The choice turns into not whether you can stop it or not but if you should lay it down on the drivers side...or try and get it to lay over on the passenger side.


I have gotten real close to making this decision several times and puckered my way through. Luck and only luck

Here's one for you...What do you do if everything is working right but you have to go down a very very steep road that is iced over so bad the brakes will make it even worse and you have no chains?

Answer to your question should be, keep your brake system in good condition. It's one of the most important part of your jeep.

That's why an emergency brake is part of the safety requirement. I had this happen to my in my truck. Front brake line came off the passenger side. Fluid came out, BRAKE light came on, still had rear brakes (kind of) but pulled emergency brake hard to get it to stop. Was only in local streets so it did stop but it was still scary. Can't imagine on an off-ramp or something like that. Don't drive without it.

No air bags-No problem
No ABS -No problem
No power steering- no problem
No e-brake and no brakes-PROBLEM.

what are you doin wrong to put yourself in these situations?

why wouldnt you have chains?

This is when you join the real world and figure out that it happens to everyone. This is usually done on the fly because every situation is different.

He's in Arizona. Don't need chains there. Never had them here either.

Pat yourself on the back that you paid your insurance premium.

Thank you and you are correct. When I lived in Colorado and other cold locations I had chains at the ready. After carrying them for almost no reason around Az for years they got stowed away. Where we are here it can go from 80 degrees to a blizzard snow storm overnight without warning and now you are in an absolute survival situation on top of that mountain.


The trick is to learn from history, what did they do when a horse drawn wagon with poor brakes had to be bought down an icy hill in a situation like this?


Forgot to mention that I do always keep a long towstrap in the Jeep. (hint)

Priceless lol


God I hate insurance companies...