Quote:
Originally Posted by burnin oil
Unless you are going for the cool factor there is no problem with rear drums. Most HD larger trucks still run rear drums. Discs do stop quicker for occasional use but drums do not fade as fast when abused. It is amasing what happens with larger wheel cylinders and metalic brake shoes. 94-95 Dodge 2500 trucks had terrible brakes from the factory. A direct bolt in wheel cylinder from GM upped the rear braking by 44%! In 96 Dodge upped the wheel cylinders but was still about 20% weaker than the GM cylinders. Nothing wrong with rear discs either but the front still has to do more work to stop in a straight line.
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+1
The perception is that drums are antiquated. But for rear axle brake applications, they work quite well.
Many master cylinders are split something ridiculous like 80/20 or 70/30. On drum vehicles, this further increases the perception that drums are terrible. But really it's by design that the fronts do more of the braking (perhaps liability, the auto makers don't want the back end coming around). Changing the bias (using an adjustable proportioning valve for example or doing a stealth bolt mod on the master cylinders that support it) can wake up the rear brakes. Also using different shoe material as mentioned above makes a big difference.
There are negatives about drums -- they are harder to service and don't look as cool. Luckily they tend to last longer, so maintenance is more infrequent.