Drum Brakes

[shatto]

Drum Brakes.
Where? How about on the inside and the outside of the wheel?

Boeing did it in the 1930's, before disc brakes.
Boeing B-17 brakes:

[theclencher]

I don't need or want brakes that strong.

But if they were only on the outside, that would probably make checking/servicing them easier.

I'll take my drums on all four corners please.

[VetteOwner]

lol yea, as long as they are adjusted right they will stop just as good as disc

[GasSavers_Pete]

In the early to mid 1960's Rolls Royce were copping a lot of bad press for staying with drum brakes when most makers had changed over to discs at least for the front.
Even the humble Ford Escort had front discs at the time.

Rolls Royce provided one of their drum braked vehicles to be compared against ANY disc braked vehicle provided by the motoring press.

The Rolls stopped repeatedly from 60 mph until the linings were worn out while the disc braked car managed it about four times before the brakes overheated and went on holidays to recover.

Rolls Royce didn't make a press announcement about it but the message was very clear.

What is on the spec sheet is only part of the story.
How well engineered and fitted makes up the rest.

Peter.

[shatto]

One can learn the most interesting stuff here....
Thanks, Peter.

[theclencher]

Not doubting the RR thing Pete but in diametric opposition to that story, disks are usually credited with being superior to drums because they have better heat rejection capabilities. In other words, disks' claim to fame is better fade resistance than drums.

Personally I prefer drums on all four wheels for several reasons, and I have several classic cars equipped as such. I have zero, none, nada desire to convert them to disk as the typical modifier does; in fact I would like to swap out the disks on the fronts of my newer vehicles to drums! Biggest reason would be no drag, although the very latest disk assys. are supposedly far better in that regard. Another thing I dislike about disks is how the dust filthys up the front wheels, especially alloy wheels. If there was a no-drag disk retrofit I would consider that an improvement but would still be stuck with the dirty wheels. Man I hate trying to scrub wheels clean.

[theholycow]

There are dust-free pads you can buy, too.

RR's point was that sub-par engineered discs can overheat much more easily than above-par engineered drums. At that point it becomes like the old unibody-vs-body on frame debate; a unibody CAN be made to handle everything that body-on-frame trucks do, but the industry generally does not engineer and produce such a product.

IIRC, discs weigh less, which is good for handling where unsprung weight is the enemy.

I prefer disc brakes only because I've had bad experiences trying to work on drum brakes and rarely any difficulty working on disc brakes. It's been a lot of years since then, I'm a lot better at this kind of stuff, and I suspect I could service drum brakes with much less stress and difficulty now.

Ok, one other thing I like about discs: You don't have to remove the wheel and struggle to get the stuck drum off in order to check the condition/level of the friction material.

[IndyFetch]

When disc brakes first appeared, were they solid discs or were they vented as all fronts and many rears are today? Vented discs have much better heat reduction properties than solid discs, and may account for the fade in earlier cars if not so equipped.

I greatly prefer working on disc brakes for the simplicity (no friggin' springs!) and ease of removal/installation. Like THC, I also like being able to inspect brake wear without completely removing a drum.

[shatto]

Back when Jaguar dominated the world of racing, one reason was because a Jag could 'go deeper into the curve' because of the superior disc brakes.

[trollbait]

There are dust-free pads you can buy, too.

Ceramic pads are OEM on the HHR, and are greatly improved over other cars I've had in terms of dust. There are also plastic shields that mount behind the wheel to keep dust at bay.

Drums take a double hit from heat. Not only does the the coefficient of friction drop for the stopping surfaces as the heat climbs, but the drum will also expand and pull away from the shoes.

Personally, I prefer disc just for ease of maintenance. I'll have had the HHR for nearly 3 years soon, and I still don't know how to get the rear drums off.