X brake upgrade
This time I spent my money and did it right. Could not be happier.
These things stop my 12K boat and 9500K travel trailer like its barely behind the truck.
Summit Racing had the best deal with free shipping when I looked.
Rotor size trumps all other mods for braking value. You end up with more leverage (brake torque) more mass (a greater heat sink with far greater fade resistance) and more swept area (efficiency and lower operating temps). No other change; pads, hoses, calipers, piston qty etc offers those benefits.
The larger SSBC calipers certainly look nice. And that 35% number could well be true- we'd have to know the pistons area to say if it clamps more, but it's still stuck with an underwhelming rotor mass so increases in fade resistance and overheating are still a good potential. More clamping might have you getting more immediate 'wow factor' for lock up but repeated hard use will still have the elevated temps associated with fade many owners complain of. What makes that system so nice however is that it'll fit a stock 17" wheel. No true BBK can do that....you'll need larger wheels for larger mass.
One limitation I may point out however to the truck market is that you have tire limitations with your choices of rubber. Ultimate stopping is dictated by the rubber to the road. (just like on snow and ice) Most truck tires don't have near the torque that performance street tires have an conventional autos. That means that going "too crazy" can create some issue for the tire to stick which in turn creates wheel lock up and ABS events. A balance of all that should be considered. Don't expect your truck to stop like a Corvette that's just not going to happen with truck tires.

TCE continues to offer the only true BBK with full 16" rotors front and rear. But you'll need 20s to take advantage of all that...




