Drum Vs. Disc

[Longhorn Man]

Originally Posted by 1968CHEVYC10

In 2007 GM switched all of their 1/2 ton trucks back to rear drums, wonder if emission requirements had anything to do with it.

It was before 07... we have an 05 at work with drums.
Regardless, brakes have nothing to do with smog requirements.

There are a few reasons to do this;
1 Better parking brake
2 last longer with far fewer service intervals (100k out of rear drums with zero maintenance is common)
3 less drag which equals better MPG.
4 cheaper
5 less weight (even better MPG, but fractions of a MPG)

The MPG thing is a huge one, being that GM (and all other auto makers) need to meet CAFE requirements. So even a .25 MPG increase is a huge thing for them to meet the requirements put on them by the feds.