Disc Brake Conversion??

Disc all the way my I’ve had my trailer for 8 years only on my second set of pads and they have a lot of life left.

 

I've got Meritor axles with drum hardware that's getting pretty tired so I've absolutely had this idea before...steer axle came with factory disks. Doing a full re-vamp of the drum setup starting with the rear axle only...I'm waiting for the shop quote for the parts and labor but I could see it being a few grand easy to replace everything from the flex hoses out to the drums and everything in between with the factory correct parts (no TRP crap). They did also tell me the S-cam housings no longer seem to be available which kind of got me thinking about how much it would cost to do a disk conversion. More I'd assume. How much more would determine whether it would be cost effective, but the technical and performance advantages are undeniable.

 

I replaced a caliper a couple years ago and the Bendix part was over $1500 for just the caliper.

I'd bet you are going to be north of $10K in just parts. New hubs, rotors, calipers, brake chambers, and pads. Then the labor on top of it.

Just quoted a new truck the other day and its only about $1K more to have it done from the factory.

 

Depending on your pricing level, about $250 each for the new spider + labor to remove and install new ones.
Then it's new hub/rotor/caliper/chamber and air lines.

 

And it really don’t sound much harder than that does it? Assuming there’s no nuclear “gotchas” with bolting the new hardware onto the old spindles and re-using the axles, or where the air flex hoses attach to the chassis…the new ones would appear to need to be about twice as long to get to the new air chambers. Other than that it would be ripping the old stuff off and bolting the new on. Not happy about the idea of having to re-use those nasty old s-cam tubes with all the old dirty grease packed into them with my new hardware. That just makes me not even want to do it. And I kind of like the idea of getting rid of the grease points and smacking the frozen shoes free in the winter.

 

That would be a no-brainer on a new build, sure. Hell, 10 years ago it would have been a no-brainer. My truck was built in 2014 as a nothing-special company truck for Millis Transfer and even it has front disks.

 

Other than cutting of and welding on the new spider (would have axle doctor do it) you're $1500-2200 each wheel end + labor depending on who's system you use.

 

Jesus...2000 per side for axle doctors plus 2200 for hardware plus labor.


I'd just wait for somebody to fall asleep and wreck a cascadia 126, and have the tow yard cut the frame off at the 5th wheel. Those are meritor axles, plentiful parts, all set up.

 

And that was going to be my next question...how exactly the backing plates are affixed to the spindles and how involved that is changing them. Anything involving cutting or welding in this case I would call a non-starter and not worth it. Sounds like the only true "bolt-on" "no cutting or welding anything" solution would be finding a used factory disk brake axle to slide under the truck in place of the old one. Or the big move would be a full half cut but now you're REALLY cutting and welding stuff. Appreciate the insight here.

 

A cutoff is the cheapest easiest way to go, you are still going to be in it for over $10,000 though if your not doing any of the work on it.