Most Aggressive Rear Shoes?

[454cid]

On this note... I've been thinking lately that it may be a good idea to run a more aggressive pad material on the front than shoe material on the rear in general. The rear drums have a lot more surface area in contact with the shoe material than the front discs do with the pads. Ideally I'd like to run GG pads and shoes but GG pads and FF shoes may not be a terrible thing.

The force of friction doesn't actually depend upon surface area, from what I've learned in school. I didn't get very far studying engineering so it's possible there's more to the story than what I learned but I'm thinking increased surface area would be more for heat transfer and brake part longevity.

I'd love to find some pad/shoe combination that gave me better brakes. I've never had friction material that I thought, wow, this really makes a difference. I admit, part of that may be because I wait too long to work on brakes.

 

[Supercharged111]

If you're going to be empty all the time, a killer front pad will do you. If you're going to haul, I would do both ends. When the ass gets heavy and the front gets light, the only thing stopping the truck is the rear.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Some guys who race Crown Vics in Lemons swear by Raybestos "service grade" pads. I run a set on my Mustang and they're pretty good, but they squeak when cold. For a '99 K3500 with a 454, I think you'd be looking for Raybestos 452SGs. RockAuto currently doesn't list them, but Amazon shows them for $62 a set.

Edit: Doh! Just realized I'm late to the party. Still, I recommend SGDs for an aggressive daily driver pad.

 

[Pinger]

Couple of things I'm not quite getting.

Why the reticence about bonded shoes (over riveted)? Pads are bonded and they rarely separate.

Why is there no mention of larger diameter wheel cylinders? Standard method to increase braking on a drum set-up is increase cylinder size (at the expense of slightly increased pedal travel). Not an option here or reasons against?

 

[Supercharged111]

Some guys who race Crown Vics in Lemons swear by Raybestos "service grade" pads. I run a set on my Mustang and they're pretty good, but they squeak when cold. For a '99 K3500 with a 454, I think you'd be looking for Raybestos 452SGs. RockAuto currently doesn't list them, but Amazon shows them for $62 a set.

Edit: Doh! Just realized I'm late to the party. Still, I recommend SGDs for an aggressive daily driver pad.

Raybestos has a full line of actual race pads as well. They're awesome and outlast Hawks by a landslide.

 

[Supercharged111]

Couple of things I'm not quite getting.

Why the reticence about bonded shoes (over riveted)? Pads are bonded and they rarely separate.

Why is there no mention of larger diameter wheel cylinders? Standard method to increase braking on a drum set-up is increase cylinder size (at the expense of slightly increased pedal travel). Not an option here or reasons against?

As for bonded vs riveted, it seems brake shoes are an afterthought to the braking community. We get what's available and that's it. As for the wheel cylinder, I'm unaware of upgrades there for most of the axles in these trucks. I know my dually has the biggest ones GM used and are an upgrade to someone with a SRW and a 14 BFF but for the 9.5 14 BSF in my 1500 I'm not sure that there is an upgrade.

 

[Pinger]

Another option - if it exists - is a change of master cylinder for the rear circuit. (Haynes says circuits are split front to rear - ie, not diagonal).
I have no idea what is available in the way of alternative master cylinders (or wheel cylinders) but there may be possibilities.
Historically, when drums were more common, increasing wheel cylinder diameter was common practice to achieve greater braking. Twin leading shoes even more so - but a ball ache too far!

 

[Supercharged111]

Dually has the bigger MC, I did stick one in my 1500 too.

 

[Pinger]

Dually has the bigger MC, I did stick one in my 1500 too.

Smaller diameter for a master, bigger for a slave.

Bigger wheel cylinders would be the most obvious way - especially if an off the shelf option were available. There will be bigger somewhere from something but as ever, the actual fitting will come with difficulties the dream conveniently side-steps! Always the way.....

 

[df2x4]

Why the reticence about bonded shoes (over riveted)? Pads are bonded and they rarely separate.

To be honest I never really thought about it that way. I just always seek out riveted shoes because the OEM ones were riveted so I figured there was a method to the madness. I really have no better excuse than that.