Brake booster conversion

[sm350bl]

Has anybody converted their coach's from vacuum assisted brake boosters to the hydraulic assisted ( hydro-boost ) setup? If so, was it worth it? Wondering if there enough advantages to make a conversion worth while.

[sm350bl]

Just to add some info, hydro-boost uses hydraulic fluid from the power steering pump to give assist to the brakes. At my work we have a mixed fleet of e350 and e450s. All of the e450s have hydro-boost. According to some posts from the sportsmobile guys the hydro-boost conversion increases braking force by around 30%. I find this appealing since mine has the diesel and relies on a vacuum pump. I do have bigger front brakes than the stock 2wd e350 since I have a F350 4x4 dana 60 front axle and I am thinking anything I can add in the brake dept is always a good thing. I know I have a couple hydro-boost core units upstairs at my work. I think retro-fitting wouldn't be that heinous either.

[chin_k]

How much more braking force are there between the front end off a newer E350/E450 donator, compare to the older stock E350? I saw a few of us beef up the front end that way.

It sounds like you already did the front end upgrade, and now looking into the booster as additional braking force multiplier?

[caconcourse]

Sounds like a great idea, and it sounds like you would be the resident expert. Let us know how it turns out.

[sm350bl]

How much more braking force are there between the front end off a newer E350/E450 donator, compare to the older stock E350? I saw a few of us beef up the front end that way.

It sounds like you already did the front end upgrade, and now looking into the booster as additional braking force multiplier?

The econoline got its brakes re-vamped in 08' in the body change over. They are much larger components and a great upgrade. My stock front end was pulled from under the rv when Salem-Kroger did the 4x4 conversion prior to delivery. They used a 2001 F350 dana 60 front axle that does have wider rotors. I am not sure about overall surface area between the stock 2wd e350 rotors and the f350 rotors.
I have noticed while starting to put some miles on my chinook that a fair amount of foot force is needed to tame the beast. Not horrible, but noticeable. The vacuum brake booster just taps into the 15 inches of vacuum supplied by the belt driven vacuum pump, the hydro-boost gets to take advantage of the power steering's pumps thousand some odd psi of pressure to exert force with. I am thinking that I could be able to piece everything together fairly easily since its all ford stuff from the same years/vans. Other google searches have yielded a fair amount of these conversions take place with favorable results. I am just in the pondering stage but I think im curious enough to see what I currently have in spare parts and come up with a list of other parts needed, brackets, lines ect.

[Astrodokk]

Rich, did you ever get the hydro boost upgrade done? Just curious bc even though I converted my 2000 Concourse from E350 to 2019 E450 front end, I still could use a little more braking power. I'm considering adding 4x4 too.

[sm350bl]

Rich, did you ever get the hydro boost upgrade done? Just curious bc even though I converted my 2000 Concourse from E350 to 2019 E450 front end, I still could use a little more braking power. I'm considering adding 4x4 too.

I have not done the conversion yet, When I had my chinook at work and I was going through ALOT of stuff on it I was thinking about trying to piece everything together to do the swap since I had everything taken apart under the hood and I could access everything relatively easily. At the time I looked in our shops spare parts because I could swear I had a hydro-boost unit or two I had taken off of other buses and couldn't find them. Since I was already neck deep at throwing new parts onto the rv I pushed that project off to the side for later. I have since found my spare two hydro-boost units, so it is something I would like to do eventually when I get the time to bring the rv back down to my work for a couple days to do the swap. It has just been on the back burner since we were using the rv this summer and I have to play ball with our shops work load so I can take up a lift bay.

[Astrodokk]

Ok thanks.
That hydro-boost sounds like a good idea.

[JabberBox]

If youre planning to do the 4x4 conversion using the 2005+ dana super 60 axle assembly dont even waste your money and time changing brake booster stuff. The brakes on that 2005+ axle are light years beyond the stopping power of your existing setup if youre still running the old I-beam suspension brakes that includes the newer larger ones.

[Astrodokk]

Ok good...and thanks.
I had thought about the HB before pulling the trigger on the 4x4 conversion.
Now that I have, I appreciate the info bc now I won't consider the HB any longer if it is as you say.
I read that the 4x4 conversion really does indeed make a huge difference in feel, so I probably won't think about it anymore.