Why do they even make drum brakes?

Question

Never understood why they still made drum brakes after disc brakes were invented...much better, cheaper, simpler design. Why did they always put front disc rear drums?

Answer 1

1) Drum breaks are much cheaper. They are also more durable and under less stress when applied, thus making better parking breaks. As you observed they can apply less stopping power and thus make inferior stopping breaks.

2) You want more breaking power in the front because traction is proportional to the amount of weight on a tire and when you slam on your breaks the car's weight shifts forward. Thus, the wheels with the most traction do the most breaking.

Answer 2

Approximately 60% of the breaking in any car is done by the front brakes. That only leaves 40% for the rears. Drum breaks fit the bill quite nicely. Since it is easier to incorporate the emergency brakes into the drum brakes, manufacturers use them. It is much more complicated to incorporate emergency brakes into a disk brake system. They have to cast into the rotors a small drum so they can put in small brake shoes called emergency brake shoes. They last a long time so they don't wear out very often. They are very hard to find when they do. And since this design is so much more complicated and more expensive to make they just use drum brakes and use the rear disks on the higher end lines, or as an option on mid range ones.

Answer 3

drum brakes had more surface area to make contact and would not lock up the wheel as easy as discs brakes, it gave better control when braking hard. drum brakes would tend to slip a little ( let the wheel turn ) after applying hard and limit the sliding from side to side during braking. before the anti lock brakes, if you had 4 wheel discs and hit the brakes hard it would put you in a uncontrollable slide, when all 4 wheels locked up and the rear of the vehicle would swing around to the front( forward motion or driving force). drum brakes properly adjusted and maintained would actually last longer under normal driving habits. the front disc brakes would induce the braking motion and allow a more positive control of steering while the rear drums would slow down the forward motion or driving force

Answer 4

part of it is expense, a wheel cylinder used in drum brakes costs about $20, a caliper costs $200. some manufacturers are going back to drum brakes because in humid or wet area like here in wisconsin rear disc brakes rust heavily due to the fact that rear brakes do less braking so the rotors need to be replaced about every 2-3 years, and customers are getting pissed because rear discs unlike front discs are very expensive.

Answer 5

Discs are greater desirable on the front as its the place 80 % of your struggling with desires come from (think of of the vehicle's hood diving whilst braking stressful) and the rears only grant 20 perecent of the braking ability. Disc brakes do grant alot greater overall performance and reliability over drums yet some vehicle manufacters nonetheless use drum brakes for couple reasons, its very low-value to produce and quite user-friendly, and drums whilst adjusted precise do no longer produce any drags on the same time as disc brakes do produce drag. So thats why alot of vehicle manufacters nonetheless use front discs and rear drums to maintain expenses down.

Answer 6

LOOONNNGG before we had the technical abilities we have today, the only way we could really get decent brakes on the heavy American cars was with drum brakes.
By virtue of their design, they are Kinda Sorta almost semi power assisted.
As the brake shoes engage the drum, the rolling force of the drum assists the engagement of the shoes, and helps the vehicle to stop.
This is an OVER simplification, but you asked, and that is about as clear as this old mind can make it via a keyboard. ;-)

Answer 7

For 2 reasons when you have a larger vehicle like i do, you need a more durable brake that will actually stop you because you cant slap disc brakes on a astro an expect it to stop, and they are much cheaper

Answer 8

They are cheaper , better in wet conditions, and you really dont need discs unless your driving in racing conditions

Answer 9

The only thing I can think of is that they're cheaper.

Answer 10

cheaper