Rear disc brakes?

Yes. Rhino lined. Along with the whole bed too. Awesome stuff

 

No, but it does make me pause when I am thinking about towing my SxS up to the mountains to go play with some friends this summer on a single axle non-braked trailer. I pull it all the time here fine, but it's pretty flat compared to Colorado. I would have paid the additional $500 or whatever to have it when buying, even as an option. Same with deeper gears. Bottom line for me is that these aren't cheap trucks and yet we have to settle for cheap brakes. I want better and I am not the only one.

So related question then, did you need the OR? Are you constantly in need of the locker and MTS/Crawl? Hell, even 4x4? Me either, but it is nice to have when you need it. How about the tech package? Needed that or nice to have? That's where I am at with brakes. In all honesty, my truck is "nice to have" not "need to have". There are some people in here weighing in saying they don't NEED rear discs and it's outlandish to want them. Some are the same people rocking $5k in rims, mud tires, and lifts and many have never seen dirt (not directed at you). This site was built on "nice to have". No one makes an enthusiast site for box trucks and work vans.

 

Any what do modern fire trucks use for brakes? Disc. Because they perform better rather than last longer.

And how is comparing a Semi truck, fire truck, F1 car, etc beneficial to this thread? Its not.

Why is this dead horse still being beaten? It was not the intent of this thread.

 

my brakes work fine. In fact I really like the way they feel.

 

As someone who has actually done the conversion, they made a great difference. I have a nice solid pedal that I'm not worried about having during hard braking situations. I wasn't initially looking for braking improvement. It was more about convenience. But the performance is better. So it was the icing.

 

site was also built on "need to complain"

 

Yeah thermal energy and the coefficient of friction disc are better wasn’t the point of my comment. Disc brakes require power assist to be efficient drums brakes do not. “ Efficient” is maximum productivity with minimum wasted energy or expense. Toyota uses drum brakes because they are cheaper to build. You will never find a manual disc brake car on the planet because disc brakes are very inefficient without power assist to generate the pressures necessary to make them work.

 

What? Tons of older cars had manual disc brakes. You don't find manual brakes now for the same reason you don't find manual steering or windows.

 

Guys are still doing it to clean up the bays. They'll delete the booster.

 

Okay don’t name a ton just name one vehicle that came from the factory with manual hydraulic disc brakes?

 

I would agree that although the braking is sufficient, it is not efficient. Most of the braking on my 2020 Tacoma is done by the front brakes and I suspect I will need new pads by 30-40k miles. In comparison, our Honda CRV, VW GTI, Ford Transit, or Ford F150 all have much more balanced braking; the nose doesn't dive forward as it does with the Tacoma. I wonder if there is a way to balance out the braking, have the rears bite more? On all our other vehicles (past & present), we'll go 80-120k before a brake job is needed but with every Tacoma I've owned, this is my 5th, they are very reliant on the front brake I've needed new shoes @ 30-40k.

 

1968 GTO
1970 Corvette

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSHvxqrGwwY

 

Yet the Tacoma still outsells them all, I guess discs aren't as important to most consumers as some people think.

If rear discs are so important, people can still buy a truck that have them.

 

Chevelle, Camaro, Mustang, Corvette and sure others. Pretty much any car from 60-70s.

Edit: They're still really popular today in drag racing. Lots of people convert to manual brakes. Less weight and don't need a big booster in the way.

 

Good to hear!


Still trying to get this thread back on topic.

Those of you that replied with actual real life experience and useful links, thank you!

So here's the rear disc conversion I did on my 4Runner. Front Range Off Road has designed a backing plate to allow you to do a full floater conversion and install 5th gen 4Runner rear brakes. https://frontrangeoffroadfab.com/drotor-backing-plate-kit/ The cost effective way to source the rest of your parts is from a Tundra or 4Runner rear axle. (EDIT, I think I meant Sequoia or 4Runner)

More photos on my build thread. THE DIRECT LINK DOESN'T SEEM TO BE WORKING... SCROLL TO PAGE 4, POST 110
https://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=100581.0;message=1150095 (CAREFUL! Most of you will not like this link! It takes you to a thread with very little bickering... there's lot of technical stuff there. Most of the modifications would void your warranty, endanger your family, and anger all California politicians.)

I've been using it about 2 years. Using a larger Toyota master cylinder, aftermarket proportioning valve, and Tundra front brakes as well. It works great. I wish my modern Tacoma brakes performed as well.

This UPI kit looks to be extremely similar, but without the full floater conversion. https://youtu.be/mO1zXrgNwr4 This is the direction I was thinking for my Tacoma. The UPI kit (which 3 years later, still doesn't seem to be for sale) looks like a bunch of OEM Toyota parts along with a custom disc brake mount that I'm capable of making myself. I might just start collecting parts to do this.

Those of you who've already done a rear disc conversion on a 3rd gen Tacoma TRD off road, what master cylinder did you use? Did you also change the prop valve?

 

This has literally almost nothing to do with the brake bias, and almost everything to do with the weight distribution. There is comparatively no weight over the bed.
It will dive in the front regardless of whatever upgraded brakes you put in the rear. The only way you could offset it would be to put ridiculously stiff springs (for a truck) in the front.

This thread is the becoming the poster-child for lack of critical thinking on TW.

 

Right. ANY other truck. But none are perfect and the argument that disc brakes are not important because the Tacoma sells well is not logically sound. I can name issues with all of the other vehicles that caused me to not buy them despite disc brakes. I bought a Tacoma because it had fewer things I dislike, not because it is perfect. It can be made better and it should be.

 

My stock drums are still on (159,xxx), changed shoes at 130,xxx. Original front pads went to 81,xxx, front rotors changed first time at 120,xxx.

I have never...not once, needed more brakes than were supplied on my truck the past 14 years...but mine is not a race truck, and I don't regularly tow 5k+ loads.

I'm thankful that Toyota didn't increase the cost of my truck with unnecessary rear discs.

 

There are only two kits that I know of. The SOS performance version and Pedders. There is a considerable price difference between the two. SOS uses mostly OEM parts from a 2010 4Runner. You can also upgrade the master cylinder off a Sequoia (I think the actual brake parts are from a Sequoia as well). I have no idea where the Pedders stuff is coming from and they've never told me where. I imagine you could do the same master cylinder upgrade.

Lately, I've been looking to possibly put the Sequoia booster on my truck. No reason other than for ease of replacement. I could get rid of the SOS adapter plate and nobody would be the wiser that anything was done.

 

So it was completely bolt on? That's nice for ease of removal if need be. The ones I have worked with in the past for retrofit all required a fair amount of fitment and welding to use the stock axle assembly.