Drum brakes sure do get a bad rap

[Ghoste]

I just don't get it myself.  If you compare the swept area of the average muscle era Mopar drum and the self energizing action of shoes versus pads, I just can't understand why everyone thinks they are a hazardous method to stop your car.  The 9 inch drums under a 66 Tri Power GTO?  Yes, I can see that.  Doing multiple panic stops from 75 mph?  Yep, they are going to fade.  But real life use?  I just don't get it, sorry.  They seemed to  work fine for decades until discs became a selling feature on newer cars and conversion companies with money to be had started advertising heavily in car mags.  They work fine in the heavy commercial industry so why are we all so anxious to rip out a simple system that works fine to install four wheel discs?

[Baldwinvette77]

i have 4 manual drums on my daily driven olds, they saved my life once, and a dog that ran onto the roads life another time, they do get a bit scary on the highway, but hey, a teenager with 325hp on tap managed not to have a single crash with 4 wheel drums, thats gotta count for something, only reason i wont willing install drums on a car is because i hate those stupid springs and wheel cylinders, screw it, but yeah not bad if you already have them 

[charge69]

They work OK on my 1969 R/T but I still have to be careful and "plan" my stops more often. The "swept area" of a disc brake does seem much less but have it all over drums for cooling and braking power.

If I was building a Charger, especially a non-numbers-matching one, I would definitely put power discs on it. Mine is numbers-matching and I felt compelled to put it back more original and that meant "manual drum brakes"!

[Baldwinvette77]

They work OK on my 1969 R/T but I still have to be careful and "plan" my stops more often. The "swept area" of a disc brake does seem much less but have it all over drums for cooling and braking power.

If I was building a Charger, especially a non-numbers-matching one, I would definitely put power discs on it. Mine is numbers-matching and I felt compelled to put it back more original and that meant "manual drum brakes"!

manual drums with a hemi  dayum  who ever ordered that car new had some serious balls

[Ghoste]

Have you driven one though?

[Baldwinvette77]

Have you driven one though?

have I driven a drum brake hemi car? i havent even seen a hemi   

[Ghoste]

You are in Ontario right?

[kokxville]

They work OK on my 1969 R/T but I still have to be careful and "plan" my stops more often. The "swept area" of a disc brake does seem much less but have it all over drums for cooling and braking power.

If I was building a Charger, especially a non-numbers-matching one, I would definitely put power discs on it. Mine is numbers-matching and I felt compelled to put it back more original and that meant "manual drum brakes"!

manual drums with a hemi  dayum  who ever ordered that car new had some serious balls

I have a 69 4 speed R/T with the 440 and non powered drums all around,but i'm upgrading to disc brakes.It scares the sh#t out of me when i brake

On my 66 belvedere 318 904 auto,i've had powered drums and they worked fine.

[hemihead]

Many people are so used to Disc brakes now that they think Drums are unreliable . Then there are the people that have to do the "Fad " thing
and put whatever is the latest on their car because " everyone else has it "  or  they need the biggest for some kind of ego trip . Kind of like the guy who has to have a 440 in his car to drive 35 mph to a car show . I have owned and driven many Mopars with Drums and I find nothing wrong with them . The 11 inch Drum brakes are a pretty good setup .

[A383Wing]

I got 10" manual drums on all 3 Chargers....never have had a problem stopping. A couple times the cream 66 has had a "fading" issue after repeated hard stops, but nothing else

[stripedelete]

I think they got the bad rap from GM and Ford.   Mopar drums were large enough to stop their cars.
Maybe the reason 1st and 2nd gen discs are rare.

[cdr]

drums on all four of mine

[Ghoste]

Stripedelete that has always been one of my suspicions too.

[Baldwinvette77]

yes i am in ontario, i was told by a nova owner that drums are superior because they wont throw brake dust on your chrome rims, he had a solid point  

[Ghoste]

Whereabouts are you?

[WHITE AND RED 69]

yes i am in ontario, i was told by a nova owner that drums are superior because they wont throw brake dust on your chrome rims, he had a solid point  

 I would rather have brake dust on my rims than another car sandwiched to my hood.

If you just cruise from show to show then drums are fine. If you use your car in traffic or for spirited driving that involves more than one stop then you need disc brakes. You'd be surprised how much better your cars will be with just front discs. You can get away with drums on the rear but the front needs em.

I want to take my car across the country, autocross, and tracks. So its disc brakes for me.

[Mike DC]

            

IMHO drums are a piss-poor overcomplicated design compared to discs.  There isn't a drum brake setup on earth big enough to fix the basic problems.  I was about 12-13 when I first saw a drum brake opened up and the design just seemed like a bad idea to me even then. 


--  Drums are a PITA to service compared to discs for several reasons.  I would almost do the conversion just to avoid working on drums.  

--  They fade like crazy.  You can't plan ahead for a panic stop and you can't make other drivers act sensibly.

--  In the last 40 years the roads have literally doubled in traffic, driver distractions have gone up dramatically, and everyone else expects your car to stop like a modern one.  

--  Forget theory for a second.  In real world testing the stopping distances for drums are consistently & significantly longer.  This happens even when both setups being compared can easily lock up all 4 wheels.

--  A decent 2nd-gen grille assembly costs a thousand bucks these days.  Any questions?

[Brightyellow69rtse]

power drums here. i hate doing drum brakes its its a pita. discs up front is the next big project for the car i think.

[Charger-Bodie]

4 Wheel manual Drums for me too! One Car is a 670 horse Hemi and one a stock 440. Firm feel sells carbon met. shoes and they make the drums so much better,and I personally think their fine anyway if the setup is correct and the fluid is getting where its supposed to.

[green69rt]

I kind of have to agree with Ghoste.   Drums do ok when you know how to keep them working right.  The problem I see is that many people want a carefree care, meaning no maintenance.  My old charger required adjusting the brakes fairly often ( I don't remember how often.)   When they were adjusted right everything was great.   The fading problem only occurred when using the brakes again and again (street racing??? Who said that?)   Discs don't require the maintenance but get bigger to get the same swept area, there's always a trade off.   All things said and done, I'll probably have discs on my car when it's done, guess I'm lazy!

[Musicman]

I modified these 11" X 2-1/2" drums for the rear of my 67... The drums have been drilled to release trapped Heat, Gases, Dirt & Moisture. I will be using Ceramic shoes with these as well.
I think disc's are fine on the front, as long as they are "up to the task", which many of them are not, unless you move up to a 17" or larger rim. Of course, there are some good sets that will fit a 15" rim too, it just depends on who put the kit together and what it's comprised of.

[1BAD68]

Those look interesting.
Just wondering why don't they use disc brakes on 18 wheeler's?
Seems like they would benefit from them "if" disc's really do have better braking ability.

[Bob T]

That's a tricky blue pic Musicman, can count on you to raise the bar 
Interesting theory on drilling, definitely took some time on the set out , is it tested out yet?

11 x 3 drums up front on my R/T, they pull up ok and straight but I'm not hammering on them, I'm very aware of over demanding from them with multiple high speed stops. I'd look at discs for a future upgrade, but  cant justify the spend currently

[Dino]

Drums on mine and they work absolutely fine in my daily stop and go city driving, however the few times I had to mash the pedal for an idiot driver or a crossing deer, the car would not do a panic stop in a straight line so you have to work at it to keep it on the road.  With some fine tuning the car would track better but I'm still sticking discs on it.  Drums do work though.

[HPP]

I think the application of an over the road truck is a false analogy in being compared to a daily driver car. These trucks are rarely darting in and out of traffic and hitting multiple, rapid braking situations. Even in traffic, they crawl along and have so many trans and rear gears that brakes are less of a factor than a 3,4, even a 6 speed car. Additionally, they have 5 axles with varying bias comtrols on those axles to control braking force.