I have 5000 miles on the truck now. new everything . I think the brakes feel weak in a way. How often do you adjust them? I know it should be self adjusting but I don't think it works. or works well.

 

Your right, they don't work well. I'm lucky now to have one that stays adjusted but my other two OBS's didn't work worth a damn! The two that didn't work well I would pull the drums off when I felt they needed adjustment. Most of the time I would find the self adjuster cable off or something. I bought all new springs etc. but never had any luck.

 

"How long is a piece of string?" I think it depends a lot on how you drive, where you have to drive, trip length (short trips use the brakes more), lots of factors. I'd say play it by ear. Keep a mental note of how tightly you adjusted them on initial install. 5000 miles is as good a milestone as any; jack up each side and, based on how they felt initially, get a sense of how much "looser", if any, they are. Adjust accordingly. If they require little to no adjustment, you can probably go longer before checking/adjusting again. If they seemed to wear quite a bit, work that into your schedule for next check. 'Course, if they seemed to wear significantly more than expected, then look for issues, poss. dragging parking brake, etc.

 

I didnt realize this was a thing. I must be lucky as I installed my brake shoes 60k miles ago and haven't adjusted anything since and they work awesome.

 

Hate to say it, but in 150,000 some odd miles my tuck has never had the rear brakes serviced. Ive replaced the front rotors along with pads at around 120,000, but keep putting off the rears. No issues yet, and brakes fine even towing 10K. I do have new drums plus shoes to install, and I'm somewhat excited to see how they will look when that day comes.

 

Same here never had problems with my rear brakes, except know that my BRAKE/ABS light are on. The truck has what you call Pedalitis, where the brakes start to slowly go to the floor.

 

Pretty much my experience. I have 120k now on original brakes.