Drum Brake Shoes

[bigdaddycelso]

I recently replaced my drum brake shoes on my 07 ranger with 55K mi on it. My neighbor said he had a dodge van with 160K and he had never touched his drum shoes. But my shoes were almost down to the rivets and i know they needed replacing.

How long do shoes usually last?

Is there some way to adjust my braking system so that it uses the front brakes more than the back?

 

[Sunk]

Brake life depends a lot on what kind of driving you do and what kind of driver you are... You could probably adjust them all the way in but that would just wear your front brakes out faster. Replacing them isn't really that bad..

 

[adsm08]

That's about normal. Depending on how the truck is used the back brakes will need replaced anywhere from 50 to 100K miles.

Also, I'll bet you use your parking brake and your neighbor doesn't. Not using the parking brake will allow the rear brakes to get out of adjustment and not wear because they are not working at all.

And no, you can't really adjust how the brakes handle the load. The front ones are doing most of the work normally anyway.

 

[94 lngbd]

front brakes do about 70% of braking & the rear drum s can be adjusted to be closer to or further away from the drum itself. Do you by chance due as I have seen several do with there left foot is drive with it posed over the brake & several times actually be on the pedal even when accelerating

 

[bigdaddycelso]

no its a manual so my left foot is on the clutch or the floor.

and you are probably right about my neighbor not using his parking brake. he said he was going thru disk pads at a rate that i thought was more than normal

 

[adsm08]

he said he was going thru disk pads at a rate that i thought was more than normal

Sounds about right. Brakes are a trade off just like everything else in cars. If one set wears more slowly, it will put extra load on the other axle.

 

[Andy D]

If you DIY, pull both drums, but do one side at a time ,so you have the other as a reference.