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3500 DRW brakes - how many miles did you have at replacement?

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jeffn

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I am curious to hear your experiences with the OEM brakes. How many miles did you get on them?
 
This is going to vary wildly depending on what's towed, and how it's towed.

If it were an accord or camry, sure, you could get a good feel based on others since those types of cars are all used the same way.

So maybe I don't tow at all. Maybe I tow light with no trailer brakes and use the service brakes a lot. Maybe I tow heavy but consistently use tow/haul with exhaust brake. Maybe I live in the city. Maybe I live in the country. Blah blah blah.

Just yesterday I was pulling apart my wife's subaru's front brakes since the car has 93k miles because surely it needed new pads. Nope. Plenty of pad. (We live in a rural area with no red lights, stop signs, or traffic, so our shiz lasts a LONG time.)
 
jeffn said:
I edited the title for clarity. I have a DRW.
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Is it gas or diesel? How is it used? and in what environment?


The diesels with EB and properly adjusted trailer brakes when towing, Also slider pins and callipers when in good shape make a huge difference for brake life. should last just as long as a 2500/3500 SRW which should over 80k miles
 
I tow occasionally but mostly highway/empty miles. I decided to grease my front hub bearings at around 85,000 so I got a new set of Power Stop pads since I was going to pull the calipers anyway. The fronts were worn down pretty good, but probably would have gone to over 100k. I now have 116K and the rears (and now the fronts) are still in great shape with many, many miles left. I'll probably pull the fronts again around 130-40K and grease the hubs again.
 
RTillery said:
I tow occasionally but mostly highway/empty miles. I decided to grease my front hub bearings at around 85,000 so I got a new set of Power Stop pads since I was going to pull the calipers anyway. The fronts were worn down pretty good, but probably would have gone to over 100k. I now have 116K and the rears (and now the fronts) are still in great shape with many, many miles left. I'll probably pull the fronts again around 130-40K and grease the hubs again.
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You will get a lot of miles out of the brakes, probably twice what you have on them now. Using the Exhaust Brake is a huge benefit for the brake pad life.
 
RTillery said:
I tow occasionally but mostly highway/empty miles. I decided to grease my front hub bearings at around 85,000 so I got a new set of Power Stop pads since I was going to pull the calipers anyway. The fronts were worn down pretty good, but probably would have gone to over 100k. I now have 116K and the rears (and now the fronts) are still in great shape with many, many miles left. I'll probably pull the fronts again around 130-40K and grease the hubs again.
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Is yours 2wd? The hubs on the 4wd are not serviceable unless you mean you are sticking a needle fitting in the seal to add grease
 
4WD. If you remove the caliper and rotor you can access/remove the wheel speed sensor and feed grease in thru that hole. I like to add some grease every 75K or so.
On using the exhaust brake, I asked one of the biggest turbo rebuilder-distributors in the Rocky Mountains about that. He said he doesn't bother unless he is towing. He said using it all the time is just going to wear out your actuator sooner and brake pads are a lot cheaper than a turbo. YMMV
 
RTillery said:
I asked one of the biggest turbo rebuilder-distributors in the Rocky Mountains about that. He said he doesn't bother unless he is towing. He said using it all the time is just going to wear out your actuator sooner and brake pads are a lot cheaper than a turbo. YMMV
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Lots of info on this if you google it...I do not use mine all the time, only towing but a lot of guys do use it full time. The idea behind running the exhaust brake is that it exercises the vanes in the turbo and keeps them clean, now is that science or internet theory...who knows.

I was only saying that EB use while towing saves your pads...maybe not on a Chevy...but it does on Ram. ;)
 
I’ll get flamed here but factory brakes (rotors and pedal feel) are garbage. My truck(2500) does sit some as I have a work vehicle. I got a whopping 26k (MY2021) out of my brakes. Yes I tow a 5th wheel(25% of miles) with functioning brakes and small utility trailer when needed. The inside of both the front and rear rotors ended up having what looked like casting defects. Hollow areas that got worse over time. I reported a thumpy pedal to the dealer at less than 10k. Powerstops front and rear for the win. What a difference.
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Sent from me
 
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