I'd echo what most folks have said: upgrade your front brakes and keep the rears in good shape. I replace all the hardware (i.e., slave cylinders, springs, self adjusters) along with the shoes and drums every 20,000 miles or so, which seems to make a big difference.

If you're towing a lot, I'd spend the money on upgrading your trailer brakes and installing a EBC if you haven't already. Good trailer brakes are worth quite a bit, in my experience.

Well adjusted drums generally are just as effective as discs, with two exceptions: they take longer to dry out after driving through deep water and because they don't cool as quickly as discs they fade quicker.

 

^^^^Agreed. And it wouldnt cost you an arm, leg, and first born to do it either

 

Friction force is a function of the friction coefficient and the normal force - surface area doesn't matter except in terms of heat dissipation.

 

This place sells them if you have your heart set on rear disks:

Ford Rear Disc Brake Kits for 9", Dana 60, Dana 70 and Sterling

 

I'd just like to point out, most of these trucks have only rear ABS, because the rears lock up long before the front brakes are done.

If you really want better emergency-stop braking, switch to a truck with 4 wheel ABS (on your truck, upgrade the front)

 

if you are still not convinced, there are companies out there selling the brackets and utilizing either chev front or e350 rear rotors and calipers, keep in mind other than money spent on the swap is going to also leave you without a parking brake unless to opt to spend the big money on rare elcamino calipers.

 

Certain Caddy calipers have a parking brake capability, too.

 

thanks for clearing that up, also, these calipers with parking brakes were made for smaller vehicles in general not full size trucks, (yes i know, the caddies have some serious mass) if its an auto trans or you don't utilize a parking brake it would be a viable swap. however, rear drums, shoes and spring kit will still prove cheaper and easier to fix in the future. (not having to look for odd ball non stock components.)

 

As far as upgrading the front brakes, you guys have mentioned bigger rotors and adding ABS? Is there much room for bigger rotors with stock 16" rims on the F250s? Also, what would be needed to upgrade to front ABS? I'd really love to have front ABS since I've had some issues with stopping on slick surfaces. I can usually manage to slow down well enough, but that last little bit is hard because my brakes seem to lock up hard when at slow speeds even with the lightest pedal pressure.