2016 has rear drum brakes...

What should I look for in my new truck?

 

A ladder frame and a box. After that buy what you want while making sure the vehicle meets your needs.

 

someone delete all these pointless threads please.

 

I tow a camper trailer and I haul fire wood lots of it. I have no issues with the stopping power of my truck loaded or other wise. That being said 80% of my driving does not involve trailers or fire wood. That is why the rear brakes last so long they don't do much. The back end of any pickup does little braking most of the time. What I can tell you rear disks on the pickups have problems more than any thing else is the fact they don't do much. Things like parking brake problems, binding caliper slides, sticking caliper pistons rusted rotors. With the big trucks they are slowly going to bigger brakes and disks air disk brakes to meet the new stopping requirements. Disks are not new to big trucks they played with them years ago and dropped the ideal because of the problems, cost and the fact they did not work well. Things change designs change and maybe soon all big truck will have disks one big reason is the fact they are less prone to brake fade some thing that does not seem to be a problem with my truck even up and down in the White Mountains where I live. To call drums brakes on the back of a Tacoma crap brakes is pointless because time after time Toyota has out stopped all the rest of the trucks in their class so replacing them with disks is only because people think they are better when it is some thing in this case is not needed. Like you say they last forever that in it's self is one of the better reasons to use them.

 

You speak volumes of truth bud.

Consider this. After a long hard day of beating on your truck off road (either work, or play related) with disc brakes on the rear end, you have to cross through some water, or mud. You have been pushing the brakes heavy duty and they are tired, not to mention scorching hot. After crossing said water or mud, you now have to deal with scoring and embedded scratches on your rotors due to the small pebbles which are now trapped between your pads and rotors the mud has embedded in it (at the bottom of that water as well). You have also severely warped the discs due to the sudden thermal shock from scorching hot to cold. You are now either vibrating on braking, pedal pulsating, or worse, you have cracked rotors which could lead to catastrophic failure rolling down the road and attempting to brake. Lets not talk about that uneven wear (on the pads) and excess material deposit on your discs due to the ceramic brake pads and the way they wear under high temperatures. Now the truck requires mechanical work, or worse, a tow home, or to a shop due to the inherent nature of disc brakes.

I don't know, I have performed repairs on drum brakes before, and I'll tell you, it is much less frequent then the countless jobs I have performed on disc brakes, due to all the reasons I listed above. I stand behind Toyota's decision to stick with drum brakes and I'm glad they are going to continue using them. Just some food for thought for you.

 

This reminded me of a similar debate in mountain biking. I raced for GT for about a year before they bellied. This was sometime in th late 90's. I still ride and race recreationally and have followed the technological advances of biking over the last couple of years and they are astounding. Disc brakes were a hard sell for mountain bikers. Lots of debate. Now they are almost the norm.

As far as warping discs due to temperature change and debris embedded in the pads...try driving in Iowa, in the winter. Everyone is doing 60 mph in below zero weather with salt and sand all over the place. Then it rains, out of nowhere, now it is just a mess of slush and debris working its way through the pads and discs. There has to be tons of places like that up north and the east coast.

I do agree with all the positives for drums though. For me, rear discs are just a sign of progress and I will admit to liking how they look better.

And bringing it back to mountain biking, I've had discs literally smoking hot, ran through a stream bed, then rode hard another 15 miles back to the trail head. No issues, at least no more than the norm as I hate them to begin with. Another issue for another forum.

By the way, I like most of the responses on here, very informed and in a non intrusive way.

 

Our hummers downrange had 4-wheel discs, and the veh maint shops were constantly doing brake jobs.

Just sayin'.

 

Was it the weight? New pads? Warped rotors? Soldiers driving them like rental cars?

 

So, what about the front disk brakes? The ones that do a vast majority of the stopping? Wouldn't they be ruined to you in this scenario you describe? If the problems you described were as prominent as you portray, why wouldn't they keep drum brakes at all four corners? While Toyota may have other reasons for keeping drum brakes on the Tacoma, the single biggest reason is cost savings.

 

It's interesting to hear of all these failing rear disc brake cases. Unless you don't ever change the pads, disk brakes are pretty damn easy to maintain and work on--not to mention the other advantages of disc vs drum. Only problem I've ever had was a siezed caliper piston but that was an 'inherited' problem that was probably due to not changing the pads often enough.

 

The Middle East eats everything, and that dust gets into things that you'd think impossible. The desert ate brakes like nobody's business, and that happened even faster when it was 135+ outside.

 

Discs fail all the time when they overheat. The thing is that consumer vehicles are rarely in enough hard braking situations to even get close to overheating the brakes. Ask a truck company that's bought semi's with disc brakes about their experences. They'll tell you all about what failed discs look like and how catastrophic the results of failed discs are.

That being said I think this is becoming way more polar than it ought to be. Really, rear discs are more important for looks and feel than functionality. As I've said before, if 4 wheel disc's are a make or brake decision for you on your truck you're probably not concentrating on the things that will really matter to you after a few months of ownership.

 

GoPro mount?

 

F yeah, and the ECT button returning

 

My life is ruined due to this revelation.

 

Toyota sales team at work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80ne1qRoHyk

And if you buy now you get ECT and GoPro mount huh I mean ShamWow Mop.

 

The long wheelbase means a disadvantage climbing or crawling. I will be keeping my pro. They obviously had to make it less rugged for weight savings in my opinion.

 

How is it obvious that it is less rugged? Please explain.

 

You have to consider the amount of surface area, thickness, heat dissipation characteristics of the metal the discs were made of, and the overall inertia that those brakes and discs are attempting to stop, mountain bike or vehicle. Just because the discs on the mountain bike were smoking hot does not mean they were glowing hot. There are different tiers of heat we are dealing with when comparing the heat coming off the disc brakes on the mountain bikes when comparing them to that of a car. Obviously weight plays a huge factor as well when trying to stop something.

Here's one to wrap the head around:

A 2008-2010 Dodge Charger R/T, curb weight of close to if not over 4000lbs. The disc brakes on those warp insanely fast due to the huge weight this vehicle is packing not to mention the undersized discs and pads these beasts are fitted with from the factory. There is literally nothing you can do to stop it from happening, unless you retrofit the car with a BBK (Big Brake Kit) it's going to continue to happen.

How many threads do you see about warped front discs, vibrating, shaking, and ruined rotors and pads after wheeling or just a commute from steep grades on this website alone? Looking at the other end of the coin, how many other threads have you seen on here, or any other forum at that where the drum brakes have failed? Now if you have a leaking axle seal which is letting in oil or fluid into the drums, that could very easily contaminate and warrant replacement of the shoes and possibly even the drums. All I'm saying here is that drums are much more reliable then discs. After all my years of wrenching and working on auto's, I have statistically done a higher amount of work on disc brake side equipped vehicles then drum brake equipped sides.

Speaking of which, because of the hard wheeling I do avidly, I have at this point warped my rotors and have almost finished off my brake pads. I expect it and have pulsation but I know where it comes from and why, but it doesn't bother me because I still know I have life left on the pads. Until they get lower to the point where they warrant replacement, I am not touching the front brake system at all.

Great response here I really couldn't have said it better. The bottom line about this conversation when it's all said and done, is how much do you wheel your truck and run it hard (this includes commuting over steep grades)? If you answer both of those questions with "I run it hard" then drum brakes are the obvious better choice for you.