The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline DISC VS DRUM

I got a hot rodder friend that thinks I'm crazy for putting back the stock drum brakes on my 1950 suburban. My theory is that the ol' gal with the 235 and three speed transmission will only cruise at 60mph on her best day so do I really need disc brakes?

I do not have disc brakes on my 1954 Suburban.

I have all new braking equipment (original specs).

I have no problem stopping, even when driving at higway speeds.

A hot rodder drives a different kind of vehicle, often in a different manner.

Thank you for confirming what I already suspected. If I had it all souped up driving 80mph all day it would be a different story i'm sure.

The rear brakes do less than 20% of the stopping on most vehicles, unless you're hauling maximum gross weight most of the time. Drums make good sense on the rear, with an upgrade to front discs being a much better idea. Look at the rear disc setup on most of the modern vehicles- - - -the piston size, disc diameter, and pad area is a lot less than the front. This is done mostly to prevent rear wheel lockup on a panic stop since weight transfer puts a lot of the braking force on the front.
Jerry

The thing that turns me away from disc brakes is the fact that I am a Novice mechanic to the extreme. Anything other than stock will require welding and fabricating, both things that I am not very good at.

There are enough front brake conversion kits to make an upgrade a virtual bolt on operation. Of course, it also requires a swap to a different master cylinder and some slightly different plumbing.
Jerry

well…. I have no plumbing or master cylinder so maybe I need to look into it. It all looks a little overwhelming to be honest.

I agree with Tim. All of my hardware is also new. Except for the drums! Impossible to get these days. I'm all stock and have absolutely no issues with braking. Just proper maintenance to keep them adjusted.

Nice! Thank you.

Drum brakes are fine. They require maintenance. Keep your brakes in good order and they will work when you need them.

I've still got 4 wheel drums on our '63 GMC... they work fine, however I am surprised by how often they need to be adjusted. If the 6-lug disc conversion wasn't so much $$, we'd have done it by now, as we already have a brake booster on the truck.

I rebuilt the entire Huck brake system on my 49 to stock specs and they do a very serviceable job in stopping the truck with the stock 216 power plant.
I like the idea that the truck is mostly stock but I'd want more stopping power if it had more going power.

I'm going to vote you keep it disc's. But if you do the swap let me know I'd be interested in them. LOL

Dave

Link to an article with actual brake stopping distances. It not just brakes but the entire package including tires to really get the braking performance up. But front disks plus decent radial tires should get 70-120 feet better stopping distances from 60mph.
Stock brakes are poor at 250-300 feet from 60 mph........don't kid your self.......250 a perfect stock system is not great braking, it's just barely getting by.

This stock mid 60's truck started at 60-0 at 266 ft after the upgrades it was 176 ft.

Brake upgrade article with measurements

http://www.earlyclassic.com/Tech.aspx?category=Mid+60's+Makeover+II

Good point. Maybe with drum brakes it would be better to slow down to 50 or 55 mph and leave a 3 second following distance instead of two.

I have drums, they work fine, and it never occurred to me to install discs.

Drums with new cylinders and pads stopped my one ton really well for awhile but needed a lot of adjusting. And on one tons there is some hardware that is not reproduced, so I worried about that. When I had problems with my master cylinder I decided to upgrade to front discs from Hollister Road, with their modern power boosted master cylinder. And thanks to Hotrod Lincoln for his vacuum canister idea. It seems to stop a tiny bit better, but no more adjusting drums on the front. I also bought a rear disc kit but haven't installed them.