[cupidstoy]

really sorry to hear about catostrophic brake failure. glad your families are ok and hate to see good trucks end up in the salvage yard.

so far, nobody mentioned a couple of things that might be related to this.

* rear brake adjustment via parking brake
* effect of load sensor under bed
* break in period or oily film on caliper or drum surface (from road oil through alloy wheels on front, or leakage around rear axle seals, a known issue on some tundras due to plugged diff breather)
* ABS

when i picked up my 04 doublecab used at just under 12,000 miles i felt like the brakes weren't up to par. they were kind of squishy and didn't grab like i thought they should. having run into the emergency brake adjustment issue on other cars, i consciously started using it a lot and also pushing it down when driving/coasting to "exercise" the rear brakes and also to heat them up a bit to smoke off any films or dust.

now, i know there are a lot of folks out there who will disagree or say this isn't a good idea, but i've had similar issues with other vehicles and getting the brakes good and hot in a safe manner once or twice has solved a myriad of troubles such as sqeals, chatter and seating issues. not for everybody, but sometimes it helps. just make sure you torque your lug nuts equally.

i also checked everything over real good and bled out the rear brake lines and the proportioning valve on the bed load adjuster. other posts indicate this is a stubborn area where air gets trapped. all my fluid was clean and i didn't notice much if any air, but the brakes seemed to work better.

when there is a load in the truck (400 lbs or more), i definitely notice stronger rear braking and less nose dive in hard braking. this is the proportioning valve doing its thing.

effect of abs or other design issues? unknown. when my abs comes on, it pulses faster than other older designs i've driven. i don't know much about the inner workings of the abs system.

the bottom line for me is this: a vehicle that weighs almost 5,000 lbs needs all four wheels working together to stop well and quickly. air in the lines, misadjusted rear brakes or a little bit of oil on the friction surfaces and you are asking for trouble. the front brakes alone can't do the job. when the brakes don't grab equally or consistantly, reliable stops are difficult to achieve.

knock on wood, but my 04 DC stops pretty well now with the factory setup. not to say it couldn't do better... when the stock pads start to give up, i'll go with a more aggressive pad material and add stainless lines to replace the rubber flex hose. i really enjoyed that upgrade in a nissan car - the brakes are rock solid with no squishyness.