Alcon Brake Kit

[brettmess24]

20,000 miles and I just replaced the front/rear pads.

Yikes!


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[zombiekiller]

Yikes!


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my factory pads, nor my rotors made it 20K miles. jus sayin.

 

[brettmess24]

my factory pads, nor my rotors made it 20K miles. jus sayin.

Double yikes!


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[zombiekiller]

Double yikes!


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rocks and sand eat pads. rocks and sand eat rotors. I even had to sand the rotors twice to get rid of the glazing.

everyone i see building and beating on legit trucks is running Alcons.

that being said, stopping power isnt what im after. I just want my brakes to not fade like the stock ones do. 3-4 hours into a hard day, and even with a recent fluid flush and bleed, stainless lines, and fresh pads/rotors, the factory brakes feel REALLY mushy to me and the fade is very apparent.

 

[Nick@Apollo-Optics]

rocks and sand eat pads. rocks and sand eat rotors. I even had to sand the rotors twice to get rid of the glazing.

everyone i see building and beating on legit trucks is running Alcons.

that being said, stopping power isnt what im after. I just want my brakes to not fade like the stock ones do. 3-4 hours into a hard day, and even with a recent fluid flush and bleed, stainless lines, and fresh pads/rotors, the factory brakes feel REALLY mushy to me and the fade is very apparent.

That’s the beauty of the aftermarket BBKs, including Alcon. Not just improved stopping power. But consistent stopping power and increased fade resistance.

 

[zombiekiller]

That’s the beauty of the aftermarket BBKs, including Alcon. Not just improved stopping power. But consistent stopping power and increased fade resistance.

yep. My decision point is circling around a few things...

1. Alcon's rotors don't work with the spindles on my mid travel kit. I've heard whispers that using different rotors will clear this up, but I have no intention of tossing $1000 worth of rotors that came with the Alcon kit, just to buy rotors that fit.

2. I'm trying to weigh which is a better option for me... R1 or Alcon. I haven't caught notice of the r1 setup being used on a hard use truck and I'm a little over being the "first" with my truck.

I'm currently working on upgrading parts ahead of upgrading to 39s or 40s so that when I go to bigger rubber, I'm not grenading or swapping parts constantly due to the added stress. i HAVE to address the brakes before bigger rubber.

That being said...

If someone wants to furnish said brake parts to me with some pricing concessions to work it all out, I'd be happy to do that. If I'm left to do my own R&D on my own dime, I'll redirect that spend to a 10" ring gear, bulletproof Currie rear end and swap pads and rotors on the factory brakes more regularly. I've got plenty of real estate on the outside of my truck to satiate any of the companies, and I have lots of runs with lots of social media and media coverage lined up, so I can certainly push lots of impression for someone. I'm also a pretty brutal wear tester.

 

[DF105]

Alright all, I did it. I ordered the Alcon kit along with the tie rod adaptor kit. This string has been going for a little over a year, so it’s interesting reading going through it. Somewhere along the way Alcon updated their kit/design. I installed it on my 2018.

There was a day when I did a fair amount of off roading. Not so much these days, but I love this truck, and enjoy the times off road and using it as my daily driver. I live in San Francisco, and its the S.F. hills that drove me to make the leap to make the upgrade.

It was interesting that so many in this string were very concerned about the weight of the Alcon kit. This truck is a frickin heavy brick so I didn’t understand the concern. I did take the time to weigh the components when they arrived and the OEMs when they came off the truck. The front disk and caliper adds 6.5 lbs each (13 lbs total). The Alcon rear disks are quite a bit different in configuration than the OEMs. They add 14 lbs each (28 lbs total). I personally don’t think 41 lbs makes a big diff in the grand scheme of things.

There is also a lot of chat about spacers and tie rod ends. On my 2018 it requires the ADD tie rod kit, and I had to use the spacers on the front wheels (did not have to use the spacers on the rears). In my discussion with the company I purchased the brakes from prior to sale I will say that I understood that the design had been changed to be compatible with the 17” OEM wheels. True statement when you use the spacer. My understanding was obviously incorrect. I’m not happy with a spacer, so will likely begin shopping for rims.

I did not do the 60 to 0 pretest before making the move. There are plenty of videos out there, and I just didn’t get around to it. I will say that after bedding the pads (hadn’t heard about that process before now) I notice a VERY distinct difference on the hills around my house. I just did the install yesterday and most certainly happy already!!!

 

[nikhsub1]

I thought the new alcon kits do not require the tie rods to be changed????

 

[DF105]

People in the thread wrote things to make it a bit confusing. Some posts said ford uses various tie rod ends. Some cause conflicts. I had already ordered it so I figured if I didn’t need it I would return it. After test fitting it looks to me like it’s definitely needed. I can only speak to my own experience obviously.

 

[Nick@Apollo-Optics]

I thought the new alcon kits do not require the tie rods to be changed????

There is a ton of confusion out there about this. Partially caused by Alcon and partially caused by Ford.

Ford is definitely using two different tie rods so that's causing some of the problem. The other thing is that Alcon stated they changed their kit, however, they didn't. It's the same kit, but for awhile, Ford was only using the type of tie rods that were compatible. However, Ford went to using multiple types again so the information changed.

Effectively, there's no way to know if the kit will work or not because the clearance difference between the two is so close.

What we do to alleviate this is we recommend your purchase the tie rod kit at the same time you purchase the front brake kit.

If you find that you do not need the tie rod kit, we will send you a pre-paid shipping label to return the new, unused tie rods.

This way, you have no hang-ups when you go to your install.