As others have written, maintainence is the key for the toyota truck e-brake (the ones I'm familiar with are on second gen trucks), but when they get bad they are a real bugger. Around here in the rust-belt the e-brake arms on the backing plates need annual attention, but the frame mounted bellcrank between the front and rear cables (halfway back on the passenger frame rail) almost never gets any attention and ends up useless after about five winters, which makes the system non-functional. When you get to that point rebuilding the original system is a pretty serious undertaking and a disk conversion starts to look real attractive, but I think there are more problems with the common disk conversions than it seems like at first glance. Like the problem of lateral runout on a disk mounted to the end of a semi-floating axle when you have a fixed mounted caliper. I've read that many people who go that route get excessive pedal travel that they can't get rid of. It seems like Front Range's full floater axle kit solves the runout problem which should make it easier to get a good pedal. I'd like to make that upgrade, but I can't jusify the expense for my situation.

I'm currently running '86+ drums without the ebrake parts. They work fine and they are totally simple to service; I just have to adjust them manually a every couple of months. I think they would be even better if I replaced the factory load-sensing-proportioning-valve (LSPV) with a manual proportioning valve. A t-case mounted aftermarket e-brake is high on my list as well.