Our head mechanic & parts manager asked me if I had heard anything about "Gorilla Brakes" on here. I had told them I never heard of such a thing but thought I'd throw this out there.
Apparently there is a company here in Canada called GB&C INC. (Gorilla Brakes) in Brantford, Ontario that makes a sever duty 23,000-lb brake lining that has kevlar fibers built into them, and leave a special lubricating film on the drums of the bus that are suppose to stop the screech of braking and reduce heat.
Here is a link to an article on "Today's Trucking" about them.
Has anybody heard anything about these products? If so, what do you think? Our head mechanic had seen a booth for these guys at a recent show a few weeks ago, but didn't really ask any questions. He just took one of their flyers back.
What has us here puzzled is how can any film left on the drums be a good thing?
PS: We run with air brakes here.
Edited by - 1983ChevroletWayne on 03/31/2013 2:26:53 PM
We tried somthing similar Cohesive Friction from Carlisle, the shoes coated the drums and offerd a quieter brake noise. but when the units sat for an extended time over the summer. We had to pry the shoes off the drums often splitting the lining in two, and had to use an air scraper to salvage the drum. Might be a good idea if you ran the unit all the time and never let it set for more than a weekend.
Our hyd. disk brakes squeak very little now. The sound is coming from where the backing of the pad contacts the caliper. I lube the surface of the caliper on the opposite side of the pistons and use a piston cushion from NAPA on the pistons. This has quieted all of them except when they get a rock behind the tab.
Never heard of them. We're using a product from NAPA on our 4715 front shoes called HD Plus Ceramics - p/n we're running is 084U90-6N, which is a 20K shoe kit with hardware. Less drum wear (we were getting less than half shoe wear on a set of drums) and noise.
"Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional."
Canadian "Gorilla" Brake Linings With Kevlar
Posted - 03/27/2013 : 6:14:18 PM
