Drum Brakes

[psyshack]

I wont by a car anymore that has them! Its a shame there even made for automotive use anymore. And a marketing tool at that.

If drum brakes where so good they would still be on the front wheels on cars and Large aircraft would use them still. I cant imagen having drum brakes on a motorcycle now days.

Drum brakes dont deal with water worth a hoot. They have a propensity to lock due to shoe shift in the drum. You have springs that fail alot more often that folks want to admit. They only use about 1/2 of the shoe surface in braking. Just look at the shoes sometime. Only the top half of the show wears. The bottom half is barely used unless there is a lower cam that moves the lower part of the shoe into action. also if you look at a worn shoe you more than likely will see that the inner part is worn a bit more than the outer part. This is due to flex in the drum that happens during braking.

My brother is a tool and die man and shop manager. He quotes jobs makes dies runs production, buys matrials and such.

We talked about this very same subject. Hes with me on this issue and cant figure out why cars are even built with drums anymore. So I asked him to do a mock quote on production of the two brake systems. Are drum brakes really cheaper to produce than disk? I also asked my father inlaw the same question as he owns a foundry. So casting the drums, rotors and calipers would be right up his alley. he and my brother worked on this as if they where both supplying for a large automive company.

The answer was socking! Over all drum brakes cost more to produce!

The disk and caliper casting cost more to produce than the drum. But there also a much higher quality casting and peice of work. Then it ends. The back plate of a drum brake cost alot more to stamp ot then a light weight sheild used on on a disk brake system. The brake pads of a disk brake cost almost half as much as a drum shoe to produce. Then theres the springs, pins and other small hardware in a drum system. Spring winding machines cost alot to run and maintain at a level of producing brake parts. Theres alot of quality control issues from bulk spring wire stock to production of said springs. Alot of springs if tested right would be culit. The piston in a caliper is cheaper to make than the pistons in a common drum brake. Valving and control circuts are about the same for both.

In there little excersise they came up with drum brakes costing about 20% more to produce than disk brakes. Also there was more product liablity in the drum brake systems.

I think market dept's use drum and disk brakes as a trim adder for a excuse to charge more for something that cost less to produce. IMHO drum brakes should never be used on a new production auto.

Drum brakes and disk brakes are kinda like floresent lighting and power compac floresent lighting. Or even LCD panels verses CRT.

Older flo-light systems cost more to make than compac-flo-light systems. The newer lightes put out more light per watt used! A electronic ballist is far cheaper to make than a old style ballist and the bulb production is basicly the same.

Same with LCD's and CRT's. A CRT cost far more to make than a LCD. Just making the glass tube cost more than anything in a LCD panel of the same size.

In the LCD/CRT issue Im guilty of buying a CRT recently over a LCD. No way in hell Im paying 2500 bucks for a 32" wide LCD panel to watch TV on. So I purchased a 36" Sony Vega CRT for 700 bucks. I will never ever move that god awful heavy TV again. I will take it out of this house in peices when its time comes and it leaves.

But I will never purchase a car or truck again with drum brakes. My last drum brake purchase was my 00 Ranger. I only bought it new cause I got it for under 15k new. And truley wish I had not bought it. The drums are awful on it.