DISC BRAKE TRAILER RETROFIT ??

Actually disc brakes on the rear axles of small pickup trucks are overkill and not necessary. The braking with cars and pickups is mostly done by the front and drums on the rear would be more than sufficient for most grocery getters and mall crawlers.

 

We've gotten reduced service life and increased maintenance vs. s-cams, but this is on vocational trucks with lots of stop-and-go traffic in the city.
As for replacing pads, I can do s-cam shoes just as quickly. Now if you have to replace rotors, that won't be quicker, as you have to remove the entire hub to replace those.

 

I've no experience with servicing, maintaining, or replacing them on OTR trucks. From what I've seen based on the experiences of other drivers and techs, a driver who knows how to not abuse their brakes can do well with discs, but the megas would be sucking hind tit if they switched to disc all around. I turned wrenches for (and still do, albeit on a part-time basis) for... not a mega, but an entry-level carrier who hires inexperienced drivers, and I've had to replace brakes all around on trucks... let's just say, more than once.. after their drivers burned them up on hills. For an outfit like that, s-cams are the way to go, and the time spent to do six all around with s-cams is probably going to be less than half the time spent doing pads and rotors on disc brakes. They're not difficult - just very time consuming.

 

I went through a horrible change when I moved to Canada. Went from all disc plus driveline retarder to all drum. It's like braking on black ice every time you touch the brakes. I ran through stop signs and red lights almost once a day until I got used to it.
Switching to discs is the way to go if you spec new equipment. Every disc counts.
But keep in mind, in panic reaction and discs on all 5 axles you might stop the truck but not the load.....

 

There are no retrofit kits that I know of. In the training class I went to, they said that there are too many axle ends and clearance issues to make a retrofit kit, so they are just making them for new equipment.

They are noticeably better and very easy to change brake pads on. All parts, including pad kits are very expensive at this point and there is some special tools needed to change bushings and seals if you need to. The steer brakes do not last as long as most drums do, but the drives last longer. What we found on our tractors is that all the brakes wear out fairly evenly. Were we used to do 2-3 drive brake jobs for every steer, we are now doing all 3 at the same time. It's still less brake jobs, we're doing drives a lot less and more steers now, but it only take about 15 min per wheel to replace pads. Most of our truck got their first brake job and the rotors were all OK for reuse. I'm not sure if they'll go a 3rd brake job or not at this point, way too soon to tell.

 

we just started changing pads on the trailers for the first time at 500000 to 550000
so we are not expecting second set to last as long until we change them again with rotors
we trade tractors at 450000 miles so we have no brake issues theoretically

 

just go order a new great dane with 68 lights
it is only money
yours not mine