When will FMCSA force disc brakes upon the industry?

It still all comes down to money not safety......................

In the real world of stop and go traffic, with limited stopping distance disc wins hands down. We all know that there is hardly any way to keep proper following distances, any and all vehicles (including other big trucks) will cut into the space. In most types of city driving, it is on and off the brakes the whole ride. In any type of down hill braking a disc system wins. If it was about safety we would already have disc on trucks, but it's about money.

Mark

 

What your saying sounds reasonable but I gotta tell ya. From a drivers point of view, I neither saw nor felt or heard of any substantial improvement in brake technology ( that worked ) over the course of the 19 years I spent driving trucks.

So i'm questioning myself anyway, why would the technology suddenly improve to any great extent during the last twenty years? Just saying

 

For 8000 years man couldn't fly, then in less than 100 he figured out how to go to the moon. Sometimes breakthroughs happen in a hurry.

 

I have driven trucks in the UK with all around disc brakes & holy they can stop ! standard max weight in UK is 44,000kg & disc/ABS/EBA leave older drum brakes behind ! The biggest problem here in Canada/USA will be the trailers if Disc brakes are mandated though, I have already seen loads through the front of dry van trailers quite often & with disc brakes thats going to get worse & the deckers its going to be dangerous too, In the UK trailers have headboards so the loads are generally against them were as here the load is quite a few feet away from the headache racks & in an emergency if the load is already traveling & with disc brakes traveling faster, the driver is in much more danger ????? Just a thought !

 

In the UK we run at 96,800 LBs so yes slower but more weight to stop ?
Italy (i think) runs at 110,000 LBs ? both are standard max weights
90 kph is 56 mph but downhill you can go as fast as anyone else lol (mexican overdrive) lol

 

The Europeans have been using disc brakes since the 90's. I don't know why the Americans never caught on. I agree, American trucks should use them! Drum brakes are so unsafe.

 

why give any body any more control over what we do and use it's not up to them if i run disc or drum brakes i pay the bills and i stop just fine

 

I like disk brakes, but calipers are heavy and if you drive on rought roads they will go bad in a year..

in mud disk brakes are useless. so for onstruction trucks they are useless.

disks may crack wuth thermal stress.

so, IMO, disk brakes and EBS are for highway trucking

Good thing - really easy to change brake pads

 

I worked in a logging camp when disc brakes first came out in the Ford crummy's, they would have to change the inner pad at 3 weeks, both pads at 6 weeks, and replace the hubs at 9. They had hubs stacked up finally we were allowed to retrofit back to drums.
Disc brakes in trucks work great, If you do the stab braking method you will have problems, long light applications work the best. The insurance industry will get the regulations changed, every time a truck rear ends a car, and it does not mater if they cut you off and slam on their brakes, the insurance company pays.
If you run drum brakes without shield in construction sites the brakes will not last either. and discs work great in pick-ups in construction sites.

 

I work with disk brakes on trucks every day... more pain, but less accidents