Do drum brake pads use a thicker shoe in the front or the rear? Its been a long time since I had a trailer that had drum brakes. Changing bearings and brake shoes today. I guess I should have done the disc brake change over.

It's been a long time, but I recall that it was impossible to mix up the shoes because of the notch in each shoe to accomodate the adjusters. I'm guessing here but from a wear standpoint, the rear probably wears faster due to the self-servo action of the system (the braking force isn't linear to pedal pressure).You're really testing my memory-just trying to help--Lou

I remember there being a longer shoe on the front or rear but not thicker. I recieved to sets of brake shoes in the box. The only difference being the lining on two shoes were about .060 thicker than the other two. Is there a certain order or did I get an oddball set. I didn't notice a difference in shoe thickness until I installed both sides and one drum almost fell on and the other side you would never be able to beat on with a sledge hammer (not that I would but frustration is setting in and I want to be on the water).

If you were to measure the lining material along the length of the shoe... where the friction material contacts the drum... the leading shoe has less length than the trailing shoe. Trailer brakes on drums have only "one sided" slave cylinders. That is because the brakes don't need to work in reverse. So... the shoe that is closest to the side of the cylinder that has the piston is the leading shoe. Is that clear?...

Thanks for the help. Fixing the problem now.

I get better info on OSO than any book.

You may have inadvertantly put two leading shoes on one side.. and two trailing shoes on the other side. The leading shoes have less friction material near where the cylinder piston pushes on the shoes. Good Luck.

Like everone said, the shoe with the longer friction material goes to the rear. If the shoes have a different thickness, they were made wrong and must be exchanged.