Air disc brakes.

Ya man, good stuff, stops on a dime. Had them on the fleet tractors for years BUT very expensive to maintain so says the shop. No fade when wet, no howling when rusty, quick change on pads....but when the rotors went south? Hang on to your pocket. Steep cost, hard to find blah blah blah.........way more than a drum / shoe setup.

Did away with them when going new power. Wanted the saftey but didn't want the cost......

 

I am running 6 way Disk on my truck, Good stopping. Pads lasting much longer than the drum brakes on my old truck. No one has had to replace them yet. in our trucks, so I have no Idea the cost diff verses time of use.

 

I got disk brakes on the steers on the kw I drive, good braking and the pads wear forever, but, both disks got a crack in them at around 700,xxx miles, after spending over $1800 without labor my boss was then told he could have gotten a used front axel with drum brakes put in for less $$. when the disks go bad or crack you have to change the whole bearing/hub assembly. Thats what kw said anyway.

 

have heard good things 40ft shorter stopping with just the front axle with them on 2015 there mandatory on all new trucks so prices should come down saw a pair with 90000 and the pads still looked brand new too.

 

With the little experience I've had with them I would say they're better ;more stoping power and less maintenance; but when you do have maintenance it costs a lot more. As far as the 40 ft shorter stopping distance? It might help you out in a pinch but its still up to the driver to keep the correct following distance. For example, somebody gets in a truck with disk brakes and figures out he can stop faster so his following distance will get shorter to, won't make it any safer. Just my opinion.

 

do they stay cooler than drums?

 

Nice Thread I will keep up with this. Thanks.