Expected Brake Life

[Larry Fisk]

Hello my friends, I am going to have new tires installed on my 2005 Beaver Patriot Thunder. The coach has 85,000 mile on it. One of the Michelin tire dealers is a travel center that also does breaks if needed, the other choice I have is tires only. With the miles I have on the coach would you consider it important to have the breaks inspected or should they be good to go? I have no idea what the life expectancy is on break pads. I know it all depends on how heavily they are used and when navigating grades we always depend more on the jake break than the breaking system. I am not having any issues with the breaks at present but I wasn't sure if 85,000 miles is a good time to have them inspected. If so I will take the coach to the travel center that also does breaks. Thanks for any advise,
Larry Fisk

[Dave Atherton]

Larry, brake wear has a lot of gray area as to miles. On the brake shoe in the middle of pad
there is a groove that looking at side view looks like the letter Y this is a wear indicator that
tell when pad should be changed. then you cannot see the top two legs of the Y and only
just a vertical cut, its time to replace brake shoes also at this point your auto slack adjusters
that apply pressure to brake shoes are at end of there travel and need to be reset when new
brake pads are installed. this is part of brake repair ( adjustment ) hope this will answer your
question.   Dave Atherton Retired Cat Mechanic

[Edward Buker]

Larry,

If you know the brake types that are used, like Meritor for instance, they may have a measurement indicator for pad wear on the backside of the caliper that is accessible. On the Meritor there is a round shaft that passes through a casting that you can measure and there are specs for the pads based on the amount of exposed shaft. You need to also check and see that both pads are wearing similarly. Message here is see if you can find who made the brakes, download the service info and see what is indicated for a pad checking technique. Dave has highlighted an on pad indicator type which are also good if they are available.

Later Ed

[Keith Moffett]

Larry
Another reason to change them or at least inspect them very carefuly is that they can rot.  Our front pads were visualy checked with about 70% remaining.  It became necessary to remove the wheels just days later and the brake pads were all but dust.
Keith

[Larry Fisk]

Thank so much for all the feedback. I think I will go to the shop that can inspect and replace if necessary. Safe travels to you all.
Larry Fisk