Welcome Julie &amp; Jim!<br><br>I too am interested in a disc conversion for my 95, but nothing to do with pad life. I just want it for the simplicity, and brake-hp dissipation capacity increase discs yield over drums (typical a 3-5 fold increase). There is one guy selling a kit using off the shelf parts, but costs $2K+. You would need to change the drum backing plates to caliper mounts, modify the parking cable assembly, change master cylinder (probably proportioning valve/metering block), modify brake lines, and of course buy calipers &amp; rotors. Don't know about interfacing ABS with this conversion, although the newer RAMs have it.<br><br>The drums you refer to are probably parking brake drums. There are several different methods of parking brake actuation w/rear discs. Ford used to have a drum &amp; shoe setup right at the end of the transmission/xfer case. Some systems use a mechanically actuated caliper on each rotor. Not sure, but believe they now use a rotor w/an integral internal (small) drum w/brake shoe for parking brake. Regardless of method, the parking brake setup adds complexity &amp; $$$.<br><br>Your short pad life is partially due to the front weight and necessary brake bias to the front. The diesel trucks weigh more in the front end than some other trucks at both ends! That said though, you may have rear shoes that are out of adjustment. I found that alone makes a huge difference in braking, though it would not seem to on a vehicle with only ~15% braking on rear (typically). Later model RAMs (98 up I think) used a larger rear wheel cylinder (same as on the 3500) to give additional rear brake bias. Note - the later trucks also came w/a rear weight sensing proportioning valve which offsets the increased rear bias when the truck is empty (to prevent excessive rear brake lockup). I changed to the larger cylinders (but don't have the weight sensing valve), which did give somewhat better rear braking. I thought it may induce excessive lockup (which was already a problem unloaded, especially in rain, going downhill). Oddly, I found braking to be more consistent, w/less lockup. I have not noticed a large difference in front pad wear though. I use my truck in my work, so it constantly has ~1000+ lbs of tools, etc in it. Sometimes it has much more. I live in mountains of NC (though nothing like yours in Co), and travel extensively on winding narrow backroads. I change front pads at ~40K mi, although there is usually much pad left even then. I do have a manual transmission which does help.<br><br>I have found the rear self adjusters on my truck to be extremely problematic. They rarely work properly for very long. Some people here have no problems, others only occasionally. The go-fast backwards-slam on brake routine doesn't seem to work on my truck. I usually punch the parking brake just before slowing to a stop (in a parking lot), reverse, tap brake, repeat as needed. Even so, after a few months, the adjusters will cease to work. Then it's time to jack up the rear and manually adjust the shoes. If the shoes don't get too loose, the self adjusters seem to work ok. Once the clearance reaches a certain point howver, nothing seems to help except the old brake spoon routine (in my experience).<br><br>I run Porterfield Kevlar R4S pads &amp; shoes, which seem to work best for me. Others here use various other brands, and are happy with them. Note - the rear drums on 2500s are actually 3&quot; wide, though the shoes are 2.5&quot; wide. Conceivably, one could go to 3&quot; shoes for more brake capacity (swept area). I had even considered swapping to the 3500 drums, which use 3.5&quot; wide shoes. Decided not worth the cost &amp; effort though.<br><br>Good luck with your truck &amp; welcome abaord!<br>Sorry for the l-o-n-g response...<br>-Scott

 

[quote author=Julie H link=board=5;threadid=10883;start=0#104881 date=1045277857]<br><br>Do you think it is possible to modify the rear and get the pulling to stop? I saw that the web site stated that the larger wheel cylinders and the shoes would be enough or does it require the EGR too?<br><br>[/quote]<br><br>The 3500 rear cylinder swap didn't do a lot for &quot;pull&quot; on my truck. The kevlar shoes made the biggest difference, along with maintaining same lining clearances L-R. I found much of the brake pull my dealer couldn't fix wasn't in the front, so much as the rear shoes. Because of the servo effect designed into drum systems, even small fricitonal differences between L &amp; R side shoes, whether due to uneven wear/clearance etc, will be multiplied and manifest itself as pulling L/R. I found semi-metallic shoes to be worst offenders for this, especially when hot (due to their aggressive hot friction coefficient). If one adjuster keeps slightly tighter than the other, it will pull. Never could predict which direction my truck would go under warm/hot braking before. Now, is much better, but still never perfectly straight on. That's a trait of drum brakes unfortunately. Remember, anything you do to increase fricition force in a drum system can lead to even more problems. As the drum heats, it expands. As it expands, the shoe's contact patch actually decreases. This leads to localized heating, shoe outgassing, fade, and further heating. IE, shoe fade, which just biases the front discs even further (faster pad wear).<br>If you think it's bad on these trucks, try it on an old car w/4 wheel drums! My old 66 GTO had front drums. Stopping was an exercise in steering and praying, to say nothing of underwear changes... Front discs made BIG difference.<br><br>Regards,<br>-Scott