Drum to disc

[Franktafl]

Has anyone changed or upgraded their drum style electric brakes to disc? If you did, what issues did you encounter? Did you use the hybrid style of electric to hydraulic?

 

[dsol]

Frank, to answer your question I have not but a while back when I was very unhappy with my brake performance I was considering the change. I did some reading/research and it seems like a pretty massive undertaking and you need an awful lot of plumbing for the hydraulic lines that I could not tackle.

Ultimately, I had a trailer repair guy look at my brakes and he determined they were low quality (no surprise right?) and not functioning well. 3 of the 4 were basically done and the 4th looked like it wasn’t functioning at all as it looked brand new.

After he replaced everything I was able to feel a tremendous difference in stopping ability and decided to forget about the disc swap.

I know this isn’t what you were asking but thought I would share that there might be a path to better braking without completely redoing everything.

If you do end up changing I will be curious for your feedback and what the all in cost winds up looking like.

Good luck.

 

[Franktafl]

Frank, to answer your question I have not but a while back when I was very unhappy with my brake performance I was considering the change. I did some reading/research and it seems like a pretty massive undertaking and you need an awful lot of plumbing for the hydraulic lines that I could not tackle.

Ultimately, I had a trailer repair guy look at my brakes and he determined they were low quality (no surprise right?) and not functioning well. 3 of the 4 were basically done and the 4th looked like it wasn’t functioning at all as it looked brand new.

After he replaced everything I was able to feel a tremendous difference in stopping ability and decided to forget about the disc swap.

I know this isn’t what you were asking but thought I would share that there might be a path to better braking without completely redoing everything.

If you do end up changing I will be curious for your feedback and what the all in cost winds up looking like.

Good luck.

Thanks for the feedback D... on my old RV, it had the zerks on the wheels and eventually, they were overgreased and all over the brakes. They also told me that the stopping ability would be much better with disc than with the drums..it may be cost prohibitive for the amount of return on investment.

 

[dsol]

I am certain they will stop better. I think they wear better too but initial cost will be pricey and somebody that really knows what they are doing needs to install the booster and run all the hydraulic lines. It can be done but not by me!

 

[ATCguy]

I remember looking into it a few years ago while I was still full-timing… but the total cost, including parts & labor, was just too much to make it practical. I can’t recall the exact numbers, but it was going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15% of what I paid for the entire rig.

However, what I did end up doing is pretty much the same as dsol mentioned in his initial reply. I replaced all 4 of my OEM brake assemblies with new auto-adjusting units, and had the wiring going to them re-plumbed & loomed along the frame. Afterwards I had much better performance than before… and the cost was a fraction of what going the disc route would’ve been.

 

[Franktafl]

I remember looking into it a few years ago while I was still full-timing… but the total cost, including parts & labor, was just too much to make it practical. I can’t recall the exact numbers, but it was going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15% of what I paid for the entire rig.

However, what I did end up doing is pretty much the same as dsol mentioned in his initial reply. I replaced all 4 of my OEM brake assemblies with new auto-adjusting units, and had the wiring going to them re-plumbed & loomed along the frame. Afterwards I had much better performance than before… and the cost was a fraction of what going the disc route would’ve been.

Thanks Tom, never thought of that as an option….

Frank

 

[23satd5]

Changed the drums to discs on a 2012 voltage toy hauler, best thing I ever did, now when i have to stop, the car behind better pay attention, as I can stop 32000 lbs faster than the car behind can stop, no more BS of the trailer pushing the truck....

 

[OldOneTwo]

I upgraded my 2012 Komfort 3130FRL to EHD disc brakes in 2015 before taking a 10 week trip from gulf coast Al to MI to WA to AZ to TX and back. It was a life saver in more ways than one.
Great for descending the mountains. Avoided two accidents narrowly with the new stopping power. It took me a week and a half to change out the wheel hardware. A week to cut bend and flare the piping and install the EHD actuator. A couple of hours to wire it up and bleed the system. I have yet to change out the pads. Although I have cut down the number of trips I take. I got all I needed from etrailer.com. You need a compatable brake controller. Best upgrade I have ever made. I was 75 at the time.

 

[Franktafl]

Thanks old! That’s good information. Did you need to add a brake controller to your truck that was compatible?

 

[OldOneTwo]

My truck came prewired, I bought a Tekonsha P3 controller. It handles the EHD nicely.

 

[jeffwelsh]

I had the upgrade done as part of switching over to Morryde IS suspension. For the first couple of years we had our camper, the breaking never did feel right. It was checked under warranty and of course they could find anything.

I ended up taking all of the connectors apart at the axles and found one where they had striped the wire instead of letting the 3m connector cut thru. It was barely making contact. Apparently that was enough to make the brakes work, but not enough volts / amps for them to be effective. After that, they were fine.

 

[dsol]

Can you guys share pricing on the conversions? I imagine today it would be several thousand dollars given all the inflation and supply chain issues we are seeing.

 

[Franktafl]

It looks like just the parts are around 2 g. Not sure if that includes bearings and seals for the wheels but that does include the controller in some instances. Then labor.

 

[OldOneTwo]

At the time I did my tandem conversion, I had about $1900 jn the calipers and EHD unit.
Another $120 in plumbing and wiring. Go to etrailer.com and search brake conversions. It will be more expensive than 8 years ago. Doing it myself I saved a ton.