Blue Ox
Turning Diesel Fuel Into Fun
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2018
- Posts
- 5,218
- Reaction score
- 12,015
- Location
- LI-NY
- First Name
- Derek
- Truck Year
- MCMLXXXV
- Truck Model
- K20HD
- Engine Size
- 6.2L
Nice work! Those brakes will last a good long time. While I enjoy the utter simplicity of disk brakes, the old 3/4 and 1 ton drums have some serious stopping power.
An aside, I knew the brakes worked really well on the blue truck when we bought it last year. Could see new calipers up front and the drums looked clean on the outside and spied new Nails in the backing plates. Presumed someone at least put new pads on.
To my surprise and pleasure, finally popped the rear wheels off a couple months ago when I was painting the chassis, and the back brakes looked identical to your pic, save for a very small amount of brake dust. Everything was new, right down to the springs and hardware. Drums slid right off with just a little wiggle. (Sf axle)
People rag on drum brakes on cars, probably all from bad experience with unassisted systems on older cars. Most people don't realize that big trucks are primarily equipped with drum brakes and they provide plenty of stopping power for a lot of weight. Biggest thing is proper adjustment, and on our trucks the use of heavy duty shoes. They'll last a seriously long time. I usually get around 100K out of a set vs about 30-40K out of organic shoes.