Brakes. Why drums?

A couple reasons:
1). Drums are cheaper and don't do as much braking. This is a truck, not a sports car, therefore, "high demand" braking is not really an issue.
2). Rocks- Trucks are designed with some off-road capacty, and drums offer protection to the rear axle braking.
3). Even if the backs where discs, they would almost mimic that of a drum brake when the parking brake is applied...

 

I think it's economics, but I still don't understand how drum can be cheaper than disc. An XRS Corolla has rear disc, while every other model Corolla has drum. I don't understand, as the drum brakes argueably require more labor to install than disc brakes, with their many springs, pins, keepers, brackets, etc. How much cheaper (if any) can drum brakes possibly be compared to disc?

Rock protection? Really? Seems like a stretch, I'd have to hear it from a design engineer to believe that's really a serious consideration.

 

I asked the dealer this question when I bought my Tacoma in 2004. He told me that you won't be doing high speed braking (>100mph) in a Tacoma so rear disc brakes are not needed. I just said ok and bought my truck.

 

Apparently you've never been in one of those big trucks with disc brakes when pulling a 10,000-15,000# trailer. The stopping power they help provide sure as heck isn't "car like"! The drums on a Taco seem to be adequate but I'm thankful for the discs on my 2500 Jimmy.

 

Yea, its just them being cheap.

Its not about "protecting the brakes". Its slightly cheaper. Maybe. If an XJ can have disk brakes, so can a trd off road sticker.

Probably at some critical engineering plateau where the weight of the truck only allows for x towing/cargo capacity so they only need X braking. Saves em .75 dollars per truck.

 

x2

 

While disks are better (they shed heat much faster and so have greater fade resistance), it is the rare north american passenger automobile that can safely handle high speed braking, disk's or otherwise.