How many miles are you getting on the 2003 -2500 front brakes?
How low do you run them down too, I have 27K with about 1/4 in. left and are the organal ones riveed?

 

I got 72,000 mile's out of mine, and they still had some left on them. And, that's with heavy towing.

 

Mileage is not the key factor, so you probably won't get the same answer from most.

I traded my 04.5 with 45k on it and the brake pads were more than 1/4". I ran that mileage driving tons of highway miles, so I didn't use the brakes as often "per mile" as a city driver would.

There are wear indicators on the pad that will tell you when it is time.

 

I suspect 150k using an e brake and towing. 200k using an ebrake and not towing. These are highway figures.

 

18k before they started SQUEELLLLLLLLiNg like I don't know what. They had plenty of pad left but whould just make a whole heck of alot of noise. I replaced them with Value line pads and they started squeeling instantly. So I went back to OEM pads $130 and they lasted another 20k before they started squeeling, now I'm running some Autozone jpads that squeel but I'm just waiting for sring to replace the pads and rotors.