Somebody please explain my rear brakes to me

Make certain your engine is kept well tuned and is stall free. I have a hydroboost system and was having problems with the former engine on my RV and it stalled on a long downhill leaving me with no power brakes or power steering. Fortunately, the brakes still worked well enough without the power assist, and also I'd begun breaking early, so I was able to stop my 33' class A HR before I reached the bottom of the hill where cars were parked waiting for a light. It could've been very bad.

Believe me, along with installing a new long block assembly last year, I took care of my occasional stalling problem.

Steve

Thanks for the info guys!

I am familiar with Hydroboost and am considering swapping my MH over to the HB type brakes. Just seems like less parts to wear out again over time. What do you guys think?

It's a remote Hydrovac

Most cars have vacuum assisted Hydraulic brakes, You have described a somewhat complex version of that system.

Drum brakes, over time, you will get excessive pedal travel.. I had this on one of my towed.. I took it to the dealer multiple times and they adjusted the rear brakes a bit, but could not figure it out.. THE DEALER, Factroy trained technicians and they could not figure it out.

I have some training.. So I put my mind to the problem one day while working (The nature of my job is I had time to do that kind of thing without getting in the way of work.. Just had to start over if work intruded in thinking) .

Well Next day I drove it to my tire and suspension and brakes guy.. Gave one special instruction to the consultant (Mic the Drums) and... Instant problem solved. (Ok so it took a couple hours and cost some $$$$$$) but problem was solved.

You may want to thoroughly inspect the steel brake lines. The leaks that you have could very well be coming from rust holes in the steel brake lines. They are not that difficult, or expensive, to replace and it may be a good idea to replace all steel and flexible brake lines to insure that any other changes will work as designed.
In addition you may want to replace all vacuum lines in your vehicle to insure that you have the necessary vacuum to allow your system to operate.

This sounded so weird I felt a need to go searching.

What you have is called "hydro-Vac" brakes. The search phrase "Dodge Hydro-Vac" yields a lot of hits, including this one http://dave78chieftain.com/HydroVac_brakes.html

The system was used from 73 to 75, because a conventional vacuum booster was insufficient to get good rear braking.
Newer than 75, dodge went to a Hydroboost system, as used on many non-air medium duty trucks still today.

Interesting sounding brake system, sounds a bit Rube Goldbergish. I wonder why they engineered it that way? I'm glad it's not mine. Follow MountainAir05's advice and you should be fine. As for the robustness of the system, it's potentially 40 years old and parts can go bad just from the ravages of time assisted by usage, corrosion, and ozone (on rubber parts). If they aren't horrifically expensive I'd investigate replacing the vacuum assist boosters if they appeared at all mechanically suspect.

Steve

Things do not last forever. Inspect, replace bad parts and brakes if wet from leak, clean up fluid and flush and your are ready to go.

Answer to other question. You have what you have, Changing out a brake system to another will break the bank if you can even find the parts.