Mercedes-Benz Forum banner

Disc or Drum brakes?

1K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  Merz-Ben 
#1 ·
Hi everyone,

I wondered which were more desirable, disc or drum brake on the U900's... in terms of overall performance, robustness, maintenance, etc. Thank you.
 
#4 ·
IMO, Disc brakes on a Mog are 100% better than the drum brakes... if you ever had to change the brake linings on a drum brake truck, then change the pads on a disc brake unit, you would never want to see a drum brake again.

That being said, from a purely cost related standpoint, if you ever priced a NEW brake caliper for a disc brake truck, you might think twice about owning one. I think the last time I priced disc calipers from a U.S. vendor it was over $2K each for rear calipers (original MB), in the mid thousands each for a FTE aftermarket (still the same mfg as the MB one though), and I think it was $500-$900 each for fronts (and there is 4 of them) where you can buy aftermarket wheel cylinders for a drum brake truck $50-$100 each. If you start with a truck that has been well maintained or restored, and you continue to change the brake fluid every couple of years to keep the moisture from condensing in there and ruining your parts, then parts cost isn't much of an issue.

The bottom line is that drum brakes are cheap to maintain parts-wise, but are more difficult to service and are not as effective, where the disc brakes can be very expensive to repair if neglected, but will stop on a dime and it takes longer to get the wheels off than it does to change brake pads.


Cheers,
Ben
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top