Has anyone retrofitted disc brakes in the rear?

I will say, as someone who does a lot of gravel driving and has done so with several late model trucks, that rear discs are a pain in the ass. Yes, they are better at heat dissipation than a drum. Yes, it's usually easier to change a disc brake pad than a drum. However, especially with aftermarket setups, if there is an sliver of a crack between the dust plate and the rear disc or caliper, you will get rocks pinched between the disc and the rotor. If you drive with even a pebble wedged in the caliper for any amount of time, the rotor is ruined and you have to get a new one usually with the way the newer trucks are setup. Sometimes you hear it, sometimes you don't.

 

In the 90's Dodge actually had lots of trucks that were only ABS in the rear and the rears were drums. From my understanding it was a technical limitation that they tried to spin into a safety feature. Once they had four wheel ABS the safety feature argument dropped off the face of the earth.

 

I am fine with the brakes on my truck, but if you are driving thru and hauling that much gravel are you also getting it stuck in the front calipers? Seems like the front would be more open and exposed to the pebbles since the wheels are turning left and right.

 

Pebbles only get caught in the disks of rear swaps.

 

Why are we still hashing on this silly subject?


If you just have to have disc brakes on the rear of your truck just because, then go do the conversion.
If you feel you are being cheated out of rear discs because all the cool trucks nowadays have them, go buy one of those more awesomer trucks then.

However, if you really can't say for sure that your truck has an issue with the drums on the back of your new truck, then you probably don't have a problem with the drums.

If you really don't give a rats ass about what kind of brakes all the new trucks have on the back theirs, and you are perfectly fine with the full functioning rear drums it came with, lemme get a "Hell yeah!" from ya.

 

I drive tens of thousands of miles of gravel a year. The rears are way worse than the front because of how gravel behaves. It's almost like water, as your tires go through some is picked up in the tread and thrown randomly and some is spilled out sideways almost like wake. Given how gravel is oddly shaped and bounces it has no problem finding the little spaces it can get into on the rear discs if you drive enough miles. It all comes from the actions of the pebbles and rocks coming off the front tires one way or another.

 

If you drive through water every day like I do, the shoes will sieze to the drum. This happens on the brake shoes and especially the parking brake.

The Tacoma manual even says not to set the parking brake in certain cold/wet conditions.

I might do the swap just to eliminate this issue.... In some cases people do have good reasons for this conversion.

If your truck is a pavement pounder there's no reason to swap unless you add big weight to your truck.

 

Agreed. I had this truck for 6 months and the E brake has locked up on me 3-4 times already (every time happened when the temperature dropped below freezing). I suspect that there was mud and/or water in the drum brakes as I go mudding every so often. One time it froze without having set the E brake. Fried my clutch every time trying to get it to release. Not sure why they have such old technology in a 2018 truck. Disc brakes are so much simpler and more effective IMO

 

Hey, my brakes were fine until I added more weight and bigger tires. Youre forgetting there are times that you need to upgrade certain components to match others. It was a little dangerous at first with the stock brakes, but I upgraded all 4 corners and the MC to get proper fluid movement to the calipers, and basically created a balanced system once again by using 6 pistons up front and singles in the rear. Its pretty close to factory bias, with the rears locking up first so I can properly move the rear end around entering a corner but pedal feel is more than adequate to avoid dangerous 4-wheel lock situations.

 

Sooo..its official. I have a problem with the drum brakes (at least the E brake system). Shouldn't be locking up on cold freezing days 3 times in last month. I'm inclined to open up the drum brake and inspect it because I don't have time to bring it to the dealer. Appreciate any feedback or if any other members have experienced this as well.

 

The brakes in the Tacoma are going to kill me one day. They are not good at all. Upgrade your fronts

 

I believe the main question of the topic was not drum vs disc but rather the topic of the electric hydrobooster of the off road. The sport can swap in the sequoia master and call it a day. The off road is not easily swappable. Like everything else we get the itch upgrade or attempt to make an awesome truck better.

 

If drum brakes are so great, why haven’t any of these fanboys retrofitted them to the front? Why doesn’t Toyota put drum brakes on their full size truck? What about on any other vehicle they offer?

Don’t @ me.

 

..just to confirm, the master cylinder in the TRD Sport can be retrofitted with the OEM master cylinder in the larger Sequoia? If (when) I do upgrade to 4 wheel disc brakes I would consider upgrading the MC as well. I had a 08' BMW 335 which I upgraded the brakes to a later model BBK and upgraded the MC as well to the M3 version. Worked flawlessly and the car's stopping ability significantly improved.

This truck needs beefer brakes and Toyota should at least offer a better brake package IMO. I also understand that if I lift the truck and stick on 33" tires plus armor, I shouldn't expect a stock brake system to perform outside stock specs.

 

Exactly. He Sequoia master is what SOS performance seeks for doing this swap. I was going to do that but did not take into account the difference in the off road.

 

Because brakes are one thing that if theyre broken its too late and youre dead was my thinking

 

You are all wrong. Both types of brakes are completely worthless, which is why I did a brake delete mod and now I only use a drag chute for stopping.

For panic stops I fire the retrograde rockets, but I'm only allowed one panic per week. (I'm already maxed out on my purchase quantities of ammonium perchlorate before getting placed on some sort of watchlist.)