Disk Brake Pads With Heat Cracking

F=MA add 50% to the mass of the truck and you dramatically increase the force needed by the brakes to stop it. They will wear faster use tow haul more. That said I had a caliper go bad on my 03 F350 which caused premature pad wear. The piston was not fully retracting causing the pad to constantly rub. Get the system checked out.

My brakes have never worn like that either with my F350 or the current F450. We do use tow/haul and rarely use the brakes on the highway.

I would probably look into better brake pads and discs if I had your issue.

What brand are those pads? Get something different.

Are those Performance Friction replacements? Good pad but need to be warm for best braking. First couple stops in the morning can take more effort.

I recommend a very small amount of white lithium grease at the mounting points of the pads. This reduces the chance of getting stuck and creating unbalanced wear.

Don't use an extension on the impact gun for best performance. Especially a non-impact extension acts like a spring to absorb the hammer action.

Good time to flush with new brake fluid.

Yes I have seen pads come apart like that in the old days when turning wrenches paid the rent and tuition.

I don't recall who made the old brake pads but they were metallic. These new pads are supposed to be good as you can see on the box as I read it aloud. It is not a sticking piston problem as when I pressed the pistons back into the cylinders, they did not stick. The rotors also spun freely before disassembly. A sticking piston on a caliper would cause somewhat of a pull to one side in the steering and that is not happening. Right now, the new pads are providing good stopping power and the stop is in a straight line without any pulling to either side. All is working properly.

1 years is mean less. How many miles?
Brake pads can have different quality, but it is driving style that matters the most.
I've been doing 100,000 miles on most of the pads.
Lately put Akebono in my sedan and after 80k miles measurement indicate they should be good for another 300k miles.

This is like beating a dead horse to me.. Max out a truck with weight and the brakes will also be maxed out.

Our company 350/3500's (same brakes as 3/4 tns) have always ran heavy, and 1/2 the time with trailers. Brakes see massive use because of the city driving. Never surprised when they need brakes at 15-20k miles. We change the whole system each time; disc's, new calipers and pads. I haven't had a caliper turned in 20 years or more. It's just not worth it.

For us on this forum, lugging along with max weight on the back in the RV world, either ease up on the driving or get bigger brakes. It's like the guy that argues that 4 wheel drive is the solve all for driving in snow. Just 'cause you can get going and it works doesn't mean it's a good idea and is the best solution. You still have to stop.

I dare say, there aren't many 1 tons with campers that can stop in even close to the distance the larger trucks can (450-550/5500's, etc). Physic's... so, you either adjust your driving and habits or suffer the consequences.

To the OP... sounds about normal to me.

That's just a defective brake pad. Can't say I've ever seen that happen before, but not related to hauling a camper I'm pretty certain. Good thing you caught it quick. Hard not to I spose!

Edit, after reading Reality checks post, did I read yours wrong Jeff? Brake pad lining just went MIA, right? Not wore out?

With the heat cracks I would call it failure of an inferior pad.

Grit dog wrote:
That's just a defective brake pad. Can't say I've ever seen that happen before, but not related to hauling a camper I'm pretty certain. Good thing you caught it quick. Hard not to I spose!

Edit, after reading Reality checks post, did I read yours wrong Jeff? Brake pad lining just went MIA, right? Not wore out?

The material on the one pad just sheared off. All the other pads looked to have worn evenly. About 3/16 to 1/4 inch of material was on the other pads.
Seattle and surrounding areas are hilly and I drive plenty of those hills regularly. I also drive stop and go traffic. Yearly mileage is 12 to 16K miles. I've gone about 25 to 30k miles on most brake pads over the last 12 years. The difference is this set of pads has more use with the truck camper on than any of the other brake pads. Close to 5 months with the truck camper on the truck over the last year. This probably is an amount of use with much increased weight issue.

Defective pad. If it were just expected wear because the truck was loaded a lot (which it isn’t), the other brakes would have been worn out too.
If you’re getting your brakes excessively hot, use more downshifting and exhaust brake.