Has anyone retrofitted disc brakes in the rear?

Also not to sound condescending but what exactly is the issue with locking the rear brakes?? It's the front ones that you lose control if they lock because the front brakes are attached to the steering wheels. The rear wheels don't steer so there is no significant loss of control from them locking, you just get more oversteer

 

Curious as to why you say a “LOT” of cutting ? What do you cut besides the back plates ?

Although I understand your point...you should include not feeling like you are going to rear end people in stop and go traffic as your drums fade into your definition of “ feel “ IE: actual stopping distance vs pedal feel. I beleive this in technical terms is known as the pucker factor. Rear discs will decrease tour stopping distance.

 

Well actually...I did my conversion in two steps over a couple of weekends and found this to not be accurrate...suprised me too honestly. With just the discs added running on my OE master cylinder there absolutely was a gain in braking power but just a slightly softer pedal.

 

I had to cut the backing plates first which was no easy task. They are thick, and you have to get the sawzall in some tight areas. It took me about an hour per side to finally get those backing plates off. Then I had to grind down the bottom of my Spindle gussets to clear my front discs: this was right before I started grinding so you can see the rub

 

eeek :/...yeah those spindle gussetts were not installed correctly. I used a plasma cutter so my backing plates took about 30 seconds to remove

 

How were they supposed to be installed differently? These are total chaos spundle gussets, they come with a warning about brake clearance but I just said screw it and cut into them because the area where I took material off was not technically load bearing

 

this is after cutting before I painted it with rust protectant. Not that the rust protect will do that much but better than nothing I guess

 

Well actually....

1. Tons of people on this site are in fact daily driving with 35’s, steel bumpers, full size spares, bed racks, camper shells and/or roof top tents etc.

2. Even without the added weight if you want to talk about a racing or spirited driving scenarios discs are still better because they don’t fade.

 

Take a pic of the top portion of the spindle and gusset. My assumption is that the gusset was aligned too low on the spindle ?

 

Just an fyi - you can remove that remaining bit of your front backing/ dust shield plates. It is not needed, I removed mine years ago and did not need to use the spacers SOS supplied either.

 

I was not supplied said spacers... I figured a little more cooling find can't hurt haha. Here's the top portion:

 

hmm weird, are they TC spindle gussets ? that top alignment is correct so I don’t know why you have that problem at the bottom...unless your rotors have a smaller ID ? I just have the Stoptech 4 piston front calipers which is a size smaller rotor so maybe the inner diameter of tour rotors is smaller which puts it tighter to the spindle ?

 

Could be. They ARE TC spindle gussets. These are also aerorotors, which could be the difference. They are two piece rotors and I'm sure some of the dimensions are a bit off stock rotors due to the material difference in the hat... Either way it wasn't too bad as you can see in the picture it was mainly just the one corner I had to grind down a good bit.

 

Never had the rear drums fade on me. I could always lock up my tires in a panic-stop situation regardless of how long I've been moving in stop-and-go traffic. With the typical off-road oriented tires we like to run (which have poorer traction on pavement), the tires will continue to be the limiting factor in braking performance. You actually see this here:
https://www.caranddriver.com/review...ving-impressions-review-car-and-driver-page-4
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2017-chevrolet-colorado-zr2-crew-cab-v-6-test-review

Colorado LT stops 70-0 mph in 183 ft. The Colorado ZR2 with less grippy Duratracs does the same in 199 ft. The TRD Pro, BTW, does it in 180 ft with the same test conditions. In fact it bested the other rear disc-equipped trucks. Car and Driver typically does 10 runs with each vehicle and takes the average.

Note I'm not disputing disc brakes are generally better than drums for dissipating heat. I just don't see it resulting in a performance improvement in the Tacoma rear axle application. It's true Toyota selected drums for the rear on the Tacoma to save money - they told Motor Trend as such in 2005.

 

Of course disc brakes fade.

 

If anyone is getting brake fade on any brakes, you are not braking correctly.
Stop and go, hill decent, panic stops. Brake correctly and you won't experience brake fade on drums or discs.

 

You’re on the right track but interpreting it wrong. If front wheels lock you can still “steer” the vehicle. If back lock, you have no control over where the back end of your vehicle goes.

 

You dont want the rear of your vehicle to pass you during a panic stop.

 

The two other people above me summed it up pretty well. When the rears lock first, the rear has no control and will dramatically rotate if there is any yaw to your trajectory, or if you attempt any evasive maneuver.

"More oversteer" is an understatement, we are talking the potential to swing the rear 90 degrees out or just straight up do a 180 on you. It is exciting, to say the least.

If you'd ever like to try it in a semi-controlled situation, find an empty parking lot with fresh snow, get a bit of a head of steam, and then let off the throttle and yank the e-brake and keep it yanked. You will make a fun swirly, and find that with the rears staying locked almost any attempt to turn can result in the ends of your vehicle switching sides.

Methinks that you will find that if you pushed the truck "to the limit" that softer pedal would turn into a sharper loss of rear pressure.

Not to drag "the chart" out again but take a look:

Average around town driving should never really hit that bias knee point, so your softer pedal but gain in power makes some sense when there is a linear front/rear bias.
Hit the "oh shit" button and you would find the rears tapering off with their pressure. Remember that it's a system designed to keep drums from locking- it's gonna take a lot more pressure away from your discs.

 

According to Mike Sweers....


"Truck buyers and journalists love to hear about new styling, powertrains and technology, yet the nitty-gritty maintenance items are often overlooked. For example, while the new 2015 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon got disc brakes all around, Toyota opted to keep using drum brakes on the rear of its 2016 Tacoma, but the decision is not without logic.

The reason has to do with trade-offs, according to Toyota Tacoma chief engineer Mike Sweers. Toyota improved the drums brakes with a new vacuum booster and a new antilock braking system to improve how the brakes feel, reduce fade and improve stopping distance.

"Based on these changes and the proven durability of our braking system, the disc/drum was determined to meet all of our criterial for on- and off-road performance and maintain proper brake surface temperatures," he said. "Bottom line is that disc/drum or disc/disc setup will give you similar performance and stopping distance based on system cooling and/or temperature buildup. Disc brakes provide better cooling and reduced mass over drum systems. Drums provide less exposed braking surface and less brake vibration due to braking surface flatness [rotor warping] concerns resulting from overheating of surface."