KATOOM

I never really understand when these posts come around because I think my brakes are fantastic for a 4 ton behemoth.

I've had my exhaust brake for the past 60k miles or so and with just over 100k miles on the OEM brakes, there's still 1/2 the front pads left. My 38' toy hauler is anything but light too.

Keep those rear drums adjusted otherwise the fronts are trying to stop the entire vehicle by themselves.

Keep the power steering fluid clean and its a good idea to switch it over to a quality synthetic because the hydroboost system runs very hot and the fluid breaks down over time resulting in poor steering and brake power.

And also note..... The manual tranny 2500 trucks have larger brakes than the auto tranny 2500 trucks.

Danderson

The manuals do have larger rear brakes which make a difference.
The big improvement came in 2001.5 when they added rear discs.
My 3rd gens work super well.

KATOOM

Actually the rear discs are no better and tend to be less powerful than the drums. The advantage of the rear discs is they better automatically adjust on their own whereas drums star wheel adjusters can unknowingly get stuck. But.....the known drawback of the 2nd gen rear discs are they pick up road crud and the calipers hang up and drag.

Danderson

Never had an issue with my '07 rear discs and the stopping power dwarfs the '98.5 2500. I had to add a DTT Smart Controller and exhaust brake on my '98.5 in order to approach the stopping power of my 3rd gen. Chevy 1 ton rear cylinders and a TSB from Dodge OK'd me to bypass the rear proportioning valve with a constant camper load. I carry the same 2000# popup on the 3rd gen.
I did have excellent drum brakes on my '92 Hino medium duty truck,however,the brakes on my 2500 were under engineered. The auto 2500 owners are where you hear the gripes.
My friend's '98.5 2500 NV5600 shares the Dana 80 axle and larger brakes but he immediately felt the better braking in my 3rd gen when test driving it.