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And let me apologize as well Gringletaube. Though Casa Azul is not a military truck, you guys are the only people in the US that seem to be doing performance improvements to medium heavy duty all wheel drive trucks.
In Europe they use disc brakes on big trucks with success
In Europe there big trucks are the size of our medium trucks . A 18 wheeler would not fit in most European cities.
They will also cost you 3 times what your deuce is worth too. Disc brakes are a great idea but expensive. Water, mud and dirt is also hard on disc brakes too. Ever seen a pebble get stuck between a brake pad and rotor ? I have and it's not a pretty sight. Disc brakes also can warp badly when driven into water when there hot. So be careful off-roading. As a mechanic I love working on disc brakes. Easy to replace pads and if you catch them soon enough you don't have to cut the rotor. But when you do have to cut the rotor they can be just as much a pain as drums.
Yes it is a lot of questions, that is why i only sold complete front and rear disc brakes in kit form. But after 16 years of 2 1 /2 ton Rockwell axles i have discontinued all Rockwell axles and related parts.
What truck are you driving ? A deuce ? Also if your driving into salt water 6 times a day I would not want to be the mechanic who must work on your brakes. You do realize that is not a good idea ?
I can tell from your post you are not a heavy truck mechanic. I've worked in this industry for almost 40 years now and I'm one of a very few who have worked on heavy truck disc brakes so I know what I'm talking about. Disc brakes are better then drums in many ways, but cost is not one of them. Also longevity is not one of them. You will on average replace disc pads two to three times before you will replace one set of drum brake shoes. Also the cost of truck rotors is greater then drums, and yes you will be replacing those rotors. Yes the disc brakes will stop an average size car or truck faster then drums, but in large trucks this advantage goes way down. At the transit agency we must perform brake stop tests (federal law) on every bus 4 times a year. We had one of the only busses in the world at the time with disc brakes. It was a 60 ft articulated unit. During the stop tests it performed the same as the 60ft articulated drum system busses. The tests consist of driving up to 20 mph then putting the transmission into neutral and then slamming on the brakes. The force of the brake apply was also calculated in each stop. The busses had to pass at "0.50 G force" and a certain distance of travel. The busses with disc's performed the same as drum brake systems. This is also what happened on over the road "semi-trucks" during the late 1970's when they decided to go with disc brakes. At that time I was working at IHC trucks so I remember very well what had happened. There is a reason that today there are NO busses with disc brakes on them (cost). Also name a semi-truck manufacturer that is using disc brakes ( again cost). You can get the same stopping power with cheaper drums then using the much more expensive disc brake system. Remember at the end of the day all we want to do is STOP the vehicle. If your totally locking the wheel not allowing it to turn then you will not be stopping. Back to the disc brake busses. We could increase the pressure to the disc's so much that they would lock up the wheels. Trust me you do NOT want to be driving that with locked wheels ! Your stopping distance was totally out of line with any standard ! Now back to our deuce. If you keep the brakes adjusted properly they will lock up all the wheels ! That tells me that we have totally adequate braking ability on our trucks.
That is with abs on all wheels.
Are these 80,000 GVW trucks ? Using "ABS" I wouldn't be surprised, but drums brakes have had "ABS" on them since the late 1970's. Most over-the road truckers despised them I remember since it takes the control out of their hands. Who is the manufacturer of the trucks Red ? Last time I looked Kenworth and Peterbilt and Freightliner where still just using drums. The "air over hydraulic" systems where an expensive pain and the "air only" systems could not build enough pressure for the disc pistons. There still is the total hydraulic system but again that is very expensive for an over the road truck as they still must connect to trailers that do not have hydraulic brakes, so they must have a compressor and valving to allow for this connection.
