Back in 2012, Wylie Wilson, owner of Wylie Wilson Trucking in Red Wing, Minnesota, thought he’d give air disc brakes a try on some new trucks, just to see how things went.
“We were running all drum brakes, and we’d have to do at least one brake job, maybe two, on the trucks before we traded them in, but we have really good drivers, and we were getting decent mileage out of those brakes,” he recalled. Three years later, he checked those Bendix ADB22X air disc-braked trucks alongside drum-equipped counterparts and found they had operated at several hundred dollars cheaper per wheel-end—a big cost reduction for the company’s fleet.
“The brakes really proved themselves worth the investment and worked great,” Wilson said. “And with the safety and stopping-distance advantages, everything is such an improvement that I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want them.”
Founded in 1992, Wylie Wilson Trucking continues the Wilson family business that brings together more than 100 years of trucking industry expertise. Today, the 31-truck company delivers wide-ranging experiences and capacities across the Midwest and New England, with four divisions that haul a mix of freight, raw materials, and home and office furniture. Wylie Wilson operates a fleet of Kenworth and Peterbilt tractors pulling 53-ft. dry vans, intermodal container chassis, flatbeds, and temperature-controlled trailers.
Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems introduced ADB22X air disc brakes in 2005. A North American leader in the development and manufacture of active safety, air management, and braking system technologies for commercial vehicles, Bendix is a part of Munich, Germany-based Knorr-Bremse, which has produced more than 60 million air disc brakes.
Performance and maintenance
Compared with drum brakes, air disc brakes provide shorter stopping distances and virtually eliminate brake fade, providing greater reliability with more consistent stops, Bendix said. During heavy stop-and-go traffic situations or mountain descents, brake fade can start to set in on drum brakes, extending stopping distances as drum brakes heat up. Air disc brakes also provide improved brake stability from side to side, reducing the risk of brake steer for straighter, more stable stops. In addition, the performance advantages of air disc brakes mean they provide better support to today’s advanced driver assistance systems. In the garage, disc brakes offer quicker pad replacement and longer pad life, lowering maintenance costs and increasing uptime.
“Our drivers absolutely notice a difference in one of our trucks if they’ve been driving on drum brakes,” Wilson said. “A huge difference. And they prefer the discs—just a superior feel.”
Wilson takes pride in his company’s efforts to proactively maintain and regularly upgrade the fleet’s equipment, and notes their typical trade cycle is about six years. “Since we’ve been using the Bendix disc brakes, most of those trade-ins never even get their friction changed because they’re still at or above the 50% wear spec,” he said. “We inspect them and get in there regularly to make sure the calipers are sliding, and the usual preventive practices, but from what I’ve seen, they’re less work than the drums.”
He also pointed out that Wylie Wilson technicians have never had to replace a splined disc rotor on an ADB22X due to stress cracking or thinning. “I attribute that to a good product and good drivers,” Wilson said. “We don’t run serious mountains, and our drivers don’t run too fast or too hard and put that extra stress on the brakes.”
Technical support
Air disc brakes were still a bit of a novelty in the North American heavy-duty commercial market when Wylie Wilson tested the waters, and that led to some quality time spent working directly with the Bendix team. “When we first got them, we were having an issue with a truck in the shop, so I called Rich Litecky,” Wilson relayed, referring to Bendix’s Northwest regional fleet account manager. “He shows up with a sports jacket and tie on, and the mechanics are looking at him, and he went right over to the truck with the wheel off, took off his coat and tie, put on his coveralls and dove right in and got his hands dirty.
“After he put new calipers on, he asked the guys if they’d worked on these kinds of brakes, and when they said no, Rich conducted an on-the-spot education session. And that kind of support has certainly helped with the success of the product, and it made a believer out of me in both the brakes and Bendix’s commitment to help keep our trucks running safely.”
The shared goal of safer trucks
“They really are a great group at Wylie, and their dedication to operating a safe fleet is apparent in everything they do,” said Jeff Foreman, Bendix director of national account fleets. “It says a lot about the culture and commitment that every Wylie team member realizes they play a part in their collective success and knows that their efforts contribute to helping get everyone home safely at the end of the day. Being a partner of theirs for more than a decade is an honor, and we’re excited about the road ahead.”
Wylie Wilson himself still holds his CDL and often gets behind the wheel of his 2015 Peterbilt 389. But he and others in the company also have a soft spot for a certain 2012 Kenworth—one of the originals he ordered with those first Bendix disc brakes. “It’s our pet fleet truck, with pretty lightweight specs, and it’s been a good spare truck for us,” he said. “It’s at about 865,000 miles, and it’s still on the original brake pads.”
