Dear All,
Looking at buying a Dennison 14-lock sliding skeletal trailer. Could you offer your feedback on disc and drum brakes to help me decide which would be the better option.
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Hi I profer drums as less likely to crack in winter or going on and off farms but I also profer montracon skellys more solid but weigh more
I prefer disk. Unless you have a tipper driving through ■■■■ all day everyday disks are the way to go, so long as they’ve been looked after by previous owner. Drums are old hat nowadays.
Dennison and bpw would be my spec if all else avoid discs just unneccasary
This may sound stupid & probably is but I know drum brakes are air operated, are disc brakes also & do the use less air as you’d think some trailers had perforated air lines all the way down the length on time it takes to build the air sometimes, this would be a consideration for me.
Not to mention I had 7 new Montracon trailers that mostly failed there first mots for low effort on the air brakes…
coiler:
I prefer disk. Unless you have a tipper driving through [zb] all day everyday disks are the way to go, so long as they’ve been looked after by previous owner. Drums are old hat nowadays.
+1
But I doubt this will be the majority view. I’ve noticed a lot of new supermarket trailers seem to have gone back to drums.
Personally the majority of my trailers are disc now with a few on drums. I know all the alleged drawbacks with discs but the drums just seem to generate more overall maintenance work. I’ve also done fully loaded dynamic brake tests with disc and drum trailers and the discs shave enough off the stopping distance they could easily be the deciding factor in an emergency stop.
Drums every time.
They dissipate heat better due to large surface area,you can park the trailer up for 2 or 3 weeks and the brakes come off unlike bloody callipers where the guide pin sliders sieze,the brake shoes last far longer than pads and cost less for a reline and you dont get the problem of water getting into the tappets or the silly bloody bike chain siezing or snapping.And if you get rear steer axles getting the callipers off is a bloody nightmare.
And if you get descent axles eg BPW its only about another 30 minutes to do a triaxle reline with drums as discs.
And yes they both work of air and there is no difference in the air used as they both use the same size chambers.
I didn’t think of that Bking, so discs stop you sooner than drums, argument over…
Own account even!
Now you’ve just brought it back the other way Bking after me leaning towards discs…
i spoke to the salesman at Dennison when speccing a brand new trailer a few years ago, he advised on BPW Drums, as discs were far too problematic
i got 5 years out of a set of brake shoes on a trailer from new, on 2 different trailers, both Dennisons on BPW drum brakes
i had another trailer with ROR axles on disc brakes, always having trouble with it on the brakes 
Aren’t Mercedes disc brakes meant to be really good & much better than the rest with few problems?
I’ll concede the point about having a trailer parked up for months and/or working in mud all the time and/or working lightly. disks are not the way.
Don’t agree with bking regarding wear rates. I get 2 years out of brake shoes and almost 4 years out of pads.
Disks are cheaper to run IMO.
Stopping distances are shorter with disks. When I bought my first disk braked trailer 10 years ago my brother in law was driving down the m6 early one morning when everything stopped in front of him while he was daydreaming. He had one of those once in 20 years experiences where you have to slap everything on, foot to the floor. The load shifted, but stayed on the trailer and he was left 2’ off the back doors of a truck in front of him. Proper clean out yer pants moment. I reckoned if the trailer was on drums he would have hit the truck in front. So another reason why I have stuck with disks.
Don’t listen to salesmen selling trailers. They want you to have the cheapest axles so they maximise their meagre profit.
Silver_Surfer:
Aren’t Mercedes disc brakes meant to be really good & much better than the rest with few problems?
I’ve been an ror man for years and have since moved onto bpw. Any make of brake will give problems if not maintained properly.
I asked a question about it a while ago, some good advice here and a good post from Coiler as usual, so I am following the advice given and buying drums.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=78886&p=1053853&hilit=disc+drum+brakes#p1053853
My next door haulier has 800 trl, they used to spec discs but found that the calipers seized and resulted in a suspend tow back or a expensive road side repair , occasionally a unnoticed crack would also give them a pg9 they have changed back to drums mainley for reliability as normally a drum would get you home, discs do give you much better brakeing but at a maintance cost, also sadly for me bpw drums seem to be in my use far superior to ror, lasting a lot longer. I now spec bpw drums only, good luck its all a matter of personal choice .
Some interesting points, suppose its horses for courses.
Not to mention on the willy waving front that drum alloy wheels look much better than disc alloy wheels!
Mercedes brakes are nore bremse calipers and discs that come in a mercedes box and stopping distance has nothing to do with disc or drum as the deceleration of the wheel is under the control of the ABS.
Good drums will stop a trailer as fast as any disc brake will but the difference is that they wont overheat and “fade” out after a few applications down a long incline.
Also BPW sell 4 times more drum axles than discs.
And looking at their new “design” caliper I think that will be rising to 100%
What a bloody abortion it is! Mind you the Eco plus 2 axle is a backward step too.
If something aint broke dont fix it.
Bking:
Mercedes brakes are nore bremse calipers and discs that come in a mercedes box and stopping distance has nothing to do with disc or drum as the deceleration of the wheel is under the control of the ABS.Good drums will stop a trailer as fast as any disc brake will but the difference is that they wont overheat and “fade” out after a few applications down a long incline.
Only the bit about the OEM of Merc bits being Knorr Bremse potentially has any truth in it in this lot.
Whilst we are on the subject i know nothong about container work, other than i couldnt make any profit from it ! But all the big boys use dennison trls and i have looked at a flatbed they have made and it was good quality engineering, if i was to buy a skelly it would be a dennison on bpw drums, but as has been said here everyone to his own.