I am curious as to how well the drum brakes on the Honda 4bys preform. I have heard from some Yamaha and Kawasaki owners that their drum brakes constantly fill with mud and water, but I haven't heard much from honda owners. How well do your drums work?

 

Oh no, not this again!
OK, here it goes. So far at approx. 1000 miles the drum brakes on my Foreman are like new. This machine has been in many waterholes and mudholes that covered the drums and have yet to find water coming out the drain when I pull the drain plugs. However, I do make a habit of checking that the breather hoses on the back of the brake backing plates are connected before I go into any substantial mud or water holes.
As far as stopping power, squeeze them brakes hard enough and they'll throw you over the handle bars, no kidding!

To pose a Question to those who work on quad disc brakes regularily- is there an adjustment on these disc brakes so you can set how sensitive they are, or how strong they grab, or are you at the mercy of the system itself, good or bad.

PS someone once posted that disc brakes were the future, that's why all new cars and trucks have them. Well for anyone in a mountainous area, with knowledge of older drum brake cars, they will tell you one of the downfalls of drum brakes on a car is "High Speed Brake Fade". This situation occurs when the drum gets so hot that it expands to the point were the brake shoes cannot make enough contact to stop the vehicle (it is doughtful that you could ever get Quad brakes that hot). On the other hand when disc brakes get that hot the disc expands and they get tighter. Drum brakes can't be too bad, far as I know they haven't put disc brakes on large trucks, 3 ton and up, yet!

Jeff

 

BigRed, I agree with you. I hope this does not turn into another "mine is better" thing. As far as I have seen, drums and disks have both worked great in the situations I ride in.

P.S. Not sure about all makes, but the Ford Heavy Duty trucks (F-550 to F-750) have hydrolic or air disk brakes. And you can also get anti-lock as an option on them.

 

the horror stories are probably coming from people that maintain their brakes themselves. the drums brakes on hondas are triple sealed. now this is only a hypothesis (educated guess). the people that are doing their own brake work are probably not getin the drums resealed properly. now if you allow the dealer to do your brakework and they begin to leak then the dealer should fix the leaking drums since they are not supposed to leak. i understand the leating a dealer work on your quad can get expensive but how often should you need your breaks replaced if they are working right.

p.s. it looks like disc breaks would be more seseptible to falure in muddy and dusty siuations because they are exposed to the elements. it's pretty much personal preferance.

i hate not having a spell checker

 

Thanks Lurch!
I didn't know that they had started using disc brakes on the bigger trucks.

Jeff

 

Chicken and the Egg?

 

I agree with Big red also.. Honda drums on ATV's work great..even better than Yamaha's disks on my friends 99' kodiak. I personly dont ride Ult quads fast enough to need disks (rubicon) but... on my 90'XR200R, and grilfriends 88'XR100R bike's that have drums it givs me nothing but trouble like break dust makeing the stone age flat bar stick that makes the drum brake work. after nailing the rear brake hard i cannot get the brake unlocked while rideing down a road at 50MPH, and they always overheat on super fast race pace trail rides. My 96' XR400R and 91'XR250R and 92'XR600R with disks have never had a problem with any of them, and I have ridden in mud,snow,volcantic ash,ice,river crossings,salt water,sand ect and never had any pre-mature pad wear. My 2 cents are Drums are stone age and disks work great. I personly have never had water in a drum break that was put together with new seals-i have only had water problems with old dry seals. If you are going to ride fast then disks are a must, but for ranchers and rubicon that are Ult and mild sport the drums are more than enough as I am still on the stock set on my 86'200SX and 84'200ES
Joe

 

Cartman308,

Well, did you ever think that some of us might know how to work on the drum brakes? I can tell a couple stories on the drum brakes on the front of my quad, but I know that was my fault for getting in to big of a hurry. I'd say most people on the site could do work on the drum brakes on their quads with ease, and save lots of dough by not going to the dealer. I already know how from experience myself, and so do lots of others on here, but I bet that you give those that aren't to sure a detailed repair manual and they could figure it out. So I don't think that the "horror" stories come from people that do the adjusting themselves. To me its just not fesible to load the quad, take it 35 minutes to the dealer, then come back when I could spend 10 - 20 minutes at the house and get it done better and not have to pay a mechanic.

 

i mean no harm i've only had my quad for a little over a month. i was just thinkin out loud
i should have writen "maybe" instead of "probably"

 

On my wolverine we haven't done anything to the brakes, and they work so well that I can lock them up on pavement! I was just wondering if drums are as matinence free and powerful as my wolverine's disks?