Brakes. Why drums?

honestly the cost wouldn't be much higher seeing as the FJ Cruiser shares the same rear and as ours...not to mention every other truck/suv that Toyota makes has rear discs accept the Tacoma (Rav4, 4Runner, Sequoia, Tundra, FJ Cruiser)...

another way for Toyota to save money...is have 1 standard lug pattern for all their trucks/suvs...why would you put a 5 lug pattern on the X-Runners and Pre-Runners/4x4 all have 6 lug pattern...stupid if you ask me...

 

Well when I bought the truck I asked the salesperson that question and he told me that it's good to have a front disc/rear drum setup for towing?? Idk if he knew what he was talking about though lol

 

if that was the case why didn't they put drums on the rear of Tundras...

that salesmen is dumber than hell...he should be working at GM/Chevy dealership downtown Hilo, instead of working at Toyota...lol

 

You can choose between the following two answers, or a combination of both:

A) Marketing. At a certain price, consumers expect disc brakes whether they need them or not, especially if your competition put them on theirs to satisfy the boulevard cruisers.

B) Another 1,000 lbs of curb weight, plus the added load capacity, not to mention the requirements of the SUV that shares its chassis and is even heavier.

Car companies do lots of things that have nothing to do with what's cheapest or what's best.

 

this is changing actually they have made disc brakes for the semi trucks. and are coming into play more recently they stop the truck alot faster and smoother than drums. (diesel mechanic/student)

 

even with a disc brake, you will still have a drum style parking brake inside the rotor itself. my expedition and 94 camry wagon both were set up that way

 

Thank you for all the info. I'm glad I asked on this. Was a bit odd to me at first, but the reasoning for the drum brakes makes sense.

 

drums are waaay cheaper to replace than a rear caliper with a drum park brake inside. ill take drum brakes over discs any day.

 

A drum brake is lighter than a disc brake that provides the same breaking power, and with the light rear end that is on the tacoma you want as little unsprung weight as possible. The FJ 4runner and tundra are all much heavier in the rear than a tacoma, so they can run heavier brakes without worrying about wheel hop and other problems that come with too much unsprung weight

 

Well.....I know they are a bastard to change.

 

Isn't that why we have EBD (electronic brake force distribution)

which IMO doesnt really work LOL. i feel like the front brakes are taking all the beating...plus my brake pedal feels so mushy everytime i need to stop i already have the pedal as low as it can go, everyday im driving on a road where the speed limit is 60 and i have to switch to the center lane to make a left into a neighborhood...going from 60/65-0 i feel like my brakes are crap since i have the brake pedal to the floor.

And they dont even squeal, i only have 42K miles! Wtf.

 

So was my '94 Rodeo...but none of my 4-wheel disc brake cars have been (Integra, Maxima, VW Rabbit). THAT set-up would definitely be more expensive than a simple drum! There are a couple of designs that implement a parking brake through the caliper.

Why not do it for Rodeo and the Tacoma??...the obvious discrimator seems to be 'mass', or size of vehicle. It may be a disc parking brake just isn't strong enough for bigger vehicles? I know you have to generate a lot more brake force (hydraulic pressure) for a disk brake as opposed to drum...that's why drum-disk conversions fail if you don't also replace master cylinder, proportioning valve and brake pedal moment arm.

 

I'm not positive, but I don't think my Tacoma has EBD...just ABS. The braking force is biased heavily to the front because the vehicles mass during braking shifts there. The rear brakes just don't do much work even carrying a load in the bed. ABS detects when a rear wheel starts to lock and it reduces brake pressure.

I've had some pretty hard stops, even carrying about 900lbs in the back on hard-pack (to see how the brakes handled it), and the front's never wanted to lock...only the rears. I was really impressed, not by the stopping distance maybe but how controllable the stops were.

Stopping a trailer they might come more into play, but if it's a very heavy one I'm gonna want trailer brakes anyway so I'm not that worried.

 

Accoding to this website
http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/techcenter/articles/43857/article.html
it's all about production cost. As buddywh1 so well stated in the last post, the front brakes do the lion share of the braking work so essentially the rear drums are there for backup. My truck is on its third set of front pads at 90,000mi while the original rear pads are still at 70%. That says it all.

 

Yeahhh supposedly we are supposed to have standard (before the star safety system on the 09+) EBD, BA (Brake Assist), and ABS.

I can definitely notice the BA working and ABS. But not so much the EBD.

 

X2

 

One reason that I have not seen mentioned yet (maybe I missed it) is that Drums have much better clamping/holding power once you are stopped. This may not seem too important initially but if you are off-roading and get on a hill, then something goes wrong, you don't want to end up sliding or creeping down the hill while you are working on getting that wench tied off.

 

as said: the main reason for rear drums is lower cost. Dunno about now, but Honda was still using rear drums on Civics (non Si) as of a few yrs ago. Also, it's a "light" truck with almost no weight on the back end- it's doubtful that rear discs would make any difference in stopping.

Not all vehicles have the separate drum parking brake with rear discs; some actually move the caliper with cables.

 

my expedition had rear discs with a drum style parking brake... substantially bigger than a tacoma

 

The disc brake systems on a class 8 truck are an option, but rarely see them in comparison to all wheel drum systems.......alot of the business class trucks run disc brakes, but as far as class 8 - not nearly as popular due to the expense of the option as well as expense to repair. Rotors alone cost in the $125 range, where typical drums ( 16.5X7 ) are $55-$85 -- and pad kits are twice the price over shoe kits as well. In all honesty, drum brake systems have been around for a LONG time -- it's hard to improve on that kind of ingenuity -- other than enhanced performance, there's not really much more benefit with disc systems, if any; as they cost so much more to maintain/repair and the parts longevity is usually less.