When will FMCSA force disc brakes upon the industry?

That is a hell of a surprise to read!
I would have bet money that the disc set-up would be much lighter!

 

Well he is talking Mack designed brake systems...that's worth at least a hundred extra pounds.

 

I have a friend who has disks on his truck. He explained to me.

1) They are very expensive to replace.
2) They do stop a lot better.
3) The disks warp rather easily due to the high amount of heat generated.
4) Now you are back to the very first line "Very expensive to replace".

 

I did not believe that the disc set up was heavier, so I did some research and he is correct. Drum brakes are lighter, and cheaper.

 

Europe has been using ADB's for years. But the speed of trucking over there is slower than here. IIRC they are limited to 90kph (about 55mph), so I wonder how much the extra speed adds to the heat generated.

If a standard drum weighs 105 lbs I wonder that rotor weighs. The spider is heavy I'm sure, it would need to be beefy. Side note- the spider is the part that bolts to the axle that the shoes and S-cam attach to. A bare spider weighs about 10lbs or so, for a drive axle.

And BTW google does know everything. Scroll to the bottom of the link for weight info.
http://www.roadranger.com/Roadranger/productssolutions/brakes/airdiscbrakes/index.htm

 

Ive seen select few with disc brakes that would be nice if they would mandate that.

 

HA ha......you can thank Joan Claybrook for that one...

 

Here's an idea. Before we bring "Big Brother" in to mandate something lets first take price/weight/parts into consideration. I mean with all the latest emission regulations that made the price of equipment jump I don't believe adding several thousand more dollars to the mix would do anything to help anyone. I'm all for stopping power but if they were as great as some believe they are why aren't there more trucks with them? If they're that much better then the market will take care of it without the worthless government doing anything.

Government just has a long history of putting the cart before the horse. I say let the brake systems prove themselves first. They've been around for a long time and have yet to make a huge impact so there's obviously a problem. If you want them, order a truck/trailer with them. But please don't force something on people who don't like to be test subjects.