Hi everyone. I have a 72 f250 camper special 2 wheel drive with a 390. Frame is in excellent condition. I have a camper with a WD hitch setup probably weighing between 7-8K lbs the time we hook it up. With the motor and 373 gears there is plenty of power to pull it. However, I have drum brakes all around and I'm wondering if anyone here has pulled weight with drums and your experience. I would like to do an axle swap with a later F250 front end that has discs but all I can find is 4x4 documentation. Has anyone swapped axles in a 2 wheel drive and what donor would I need to make it as simple as possible?

 

You can upgrade your front brakes to later model F250 disc brakes.

If your rear drums are in good condtion, with quality linings, and properly adjusted, they will be fine.

How are the brakes on the trailer?

 

Trailer brakes are good. Is there a suggestion for later f250 brakes? I can't seem to find a conversion kit for the 8 stud 250s.

 

Prior discussions with links--short version, '73-'79 donor or '68-'72 OEM disc.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ion-parts.html

More of the same:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post20960437

 

To answer your question about experience using drums and towing, we pulled our fiver (just over 10k lbs) through several states for five years. I never felt the need to convert to discs though if I did it would only be on the front. The one weirdness with drums is they can make the truck feel squirrely if you press them hard at 85 or more mph. And if the trailer brakes don't activate, the truck can feel a little squirrely. In my case, the brake light switch on the truck quit working so I had to manually apply trailer brakes. In other words, in hard/heavy stops they don't brake perfectly even. To be clear, I'm talking extreme circumstances here...one should not drive that fast in one of these trucks and make sure the trailer brake system is good to go.

I think if I had an auto tranny I'd be more motivated to convert to discs since older autos did not provide any engine braking.

Now we have an 2002 diesel super cab...quieter, has A/C and seats the whole family. Imo, antilock brakes are a bigger safety improvement than going from drums to discs...primarily on wet pavement or tree leaves on the road. Kinda sucks if the rear end locks up...especially with a trailer attached during a panic stop.