disk brake trailers?

Jakes are for the Mountains, don't need it in the Midwest.... Funny how a lot of drivers think they are REQUIRED in truck stop parking lots at 3 AM

 

I don't believe 30% sooner. They have been around for awhile. Back in the 90's Texaco used them on their trucks. The drivers had nothing to say about them and after a year they went back to regular brakes. I grant you the current braking system is old in design and could use a complete overhaul but it's most abundant system out there. I had an idea for heavy haulers that went down grades a lot but the cost would run people off. I would want a temperature monitoring system for each brake drum. Turn the system on and when a little red light went on the brake drum was too hot. It's simple and I would use it as another tool.

 

I work for System Transport and all of our trucks T680s have disc brakes. Company is replacing all the older trailers with newer ones and they all have disc brakes. It's not not having to adjust slack adjusters and they do stop well. I was traveling in Canada one early morning and deer jumped out on the road. I was empty at the time and truck stopped FAST.
On the side one, I had inspection done on truck/trailer while in Canada. DOT inspector says "Now I'll inspect your brakes" I bet he for sure thought he'd check those slack adjusters and find something to write ticket. He got on his creeper and went underneath the truck and then underneath trailer. He came up and he was looked surprised and disappointed lol. All he could say is "your brakes are functioning properly"
Disc brakes are way to go.

 

Main difference I notice drum vs discs is that with discs I step on pedal and truck stops and its more predictable braking.
With drums I step on pedal and its like "oh crap, am I stopping or not" kind of like having air in your hydraulic brake system, there's like brake lag before you actually start slowing down.

 

Disc brakes can overheat and fade too, so I wouldn't go roaring down a 6% grade fully loaded thinking I was invincible. The threshold is higher is all. And the pad type matters. They have soft organic compounds for long life and hard metallic ones that stop on a dime but wear quickly and eat the rotors.

 

so far this is sounding great, would it be cost effective to retrofit on an older truck?

 

Doesn't almost every relatively new truck not work while it's under the typical gear you'd be in when you're actually driving outside of a parking lot? Something about how fast the engine speed changes in low gears...

 

The Jake on our trucks works all the way down to 3rd gear. It depends on the RPM. Below 1,000 it cuts off

 

Well if many did not run through the parking lots like a QUALIFYING LAP for the DAYTONA 500 they would not need the jake nor would it kick in on the newer trucks

 

If you have a semi with the trailer set-up properly I'll bet you couldn't tell the difference between disc or drum. I ran a truck and trailer with drum where the truck was 30 foot with a 20 foot drawbar then a 35 foot trailer all with ABS and all working together. I could stand on the brakes in water and not skid or any type of braking was always on cue. The trick with braking is having your whole rig set-up like it should be.