Raybestos doesn't make a 300 for a DRW RWD just there premium standard rotor.

Denny

 

Yep, sorry you are correct. I didn't realize that. I'm not sure why they don't maybe not enough numbers to make it worth their while. You might check Delco they had the same rotors, probably made by Raybestos though, but you never know.
Mark

 

I HAD the Raybestos R300 on my truck in the front and rear. They were not on too long, shortest time I ever had a set of rotors on my truck. They vibrated under braking and eventually heat checked. It was not a severe vibration but you could tell the slot location was not engineered right and IMO there was too many of the them for the rotor surface area. Better off avoiding them IMO.

The Raybestos Advanced Technology pads are rather good. Hawk Super Duty pads are pretty good in my experience. Running the EBC Yellow Stuff on mine now and the front ones will be gone soon. I thought I could handle the dust from the Yellow Stuff pads but it is to the point they are starting to screw up my wheels from the hard to remove dust.

 

Well that's not good, can we get a little background if you would be so kind. What do you tow and how much does it weigh? How much weight do you haul? Is your truck stock? What are the wheel/ tires sizes? Do you drive in mountains a lot?
Thanks for your help.
Mark

 

They were on my 04'. Empty weight with me in it is at 7k lbs. Most the truck pulled was grossing around 14,600lbs combined (truck, trailer, load) that was in the mountains but only once a year. Trailer has electric brakes on both axles so it is not like the truck brakes were over worked. Even my 3k lb boat combo has brakes on the trailer. My other boat is under 1k lbs and you really don't know its back there. Obviously the front rotors are a little smaller on the 04' vs the 11'up trucks. Stock 16" wheels with 33" tires. Most of the driving was empty at around 7k lbs mostly back roads on fairly flat ground. I may be harder on brakes than the average truck owner with how the truck gets used but I did not have issues with other rotors like I did with the R300 nor did my dad with his truck which is basically the same and takes the same rotors and pads The rotors just had a weird feel to them under braking which I am sure was caused by the front rotors only. I feel the grooves in the rotor were too plentiful and too close together. I would probably still have the R-300 rotors on the rear if a caliper did not go bad and require new brakes on the rear. The rears did not exhibit any issues I could see otherwise.

 

Okay well I'm already committed so we will see. I already have around 1000 miles on them and the only thing I notice is how much better it stops. Even pulling my 11,800 pound toy hauler they have been flawless and stop with a lot less pedal pressure. I read all the reviews I could find on these rotors and none mentioned cracking. I'm not saying it didn't happen obviously you had some severe issues with them. I wonder why just the fronts cracked and why you could feel the slots.
Time will tell.
Mark

 

What I have found is the front brakes do so much of the stopping that they will tend to heat up and crack before the rears, that happened on my 2000 DRW and a little on my 2013 DRW so far.

So far my plans are to use Preformace Friction pads and new rotors on the front, I'm still leaning towards the Power Stop slotted.

I've used Preformace Friction before with great success in my last DRW. Great stopping power and no fad under heavy mountain braking.

Denny

 

stay away from Ceramic on your SD.. stick with the semi-metallic.. Ceramics are good for light vehicles.. but on the HD stuff especially with pulling that RV theyll give out on you.. make you feel like you have no brakes at all.. i had Ceramics on mine for about 1000 miles.. after 4 almost accidents from the lack of grip (i seriously thought something else was wrong in the system) on an empty truck, i switched back to Semi-metalics on my 350 and not looked back.. when i was telling the guy at the parts counter my ordeal to buy what i had on the truck prior he said that was why they specifically recommended AGAINST ceramics on HD vehicles..

 

I'm home and the truck is on jack stands, when I removed the RF pads this is what I found. The shiny spots look like they are solid steel, it appears that the bonding material and the metallic wasn't mixed properly. It's no wonder they squealed The good thing is the rotor has only .001 run out and I'm going to put new Preformace Friction Carbon Metalic pads on the old rotors and hopes for the best, I'm also using a DA with coarse paper to break any glaze on the rotor surface.
Denny

 

We are back on the road again with the Preformace Friction Carbon Metalic pads and they are well seated in and the rotors cleaned up nicely . I have so much more stopping power with less pressure applied to the pedal that I had to set the gain up on the controller to stop my hitch from clunking when braking caused by not enough trailer braking. They are also silent
Denny