Brake system upgrades?

[Cody Templeton]

From what I remember, wilwood was coming out with a matching set of rears “soon” to compliment the ones they made to be used with the oem 17 inch wheels in the front. Perhaps this year at SEMA?

I figured they probably would as it only makes sense to. I understand the front does the majority of the braking, but why have some massive brake upgrade on the front and the stock brakes on the rear?

 

[JDEVEROUX]

Hey guys! Currently have the Powerstop Z36 heavy duty truck front and rear brake kit as well as the Powerstop red powercoated calipers, Crown Performance 6-piece stainless brake kit with red sheathing in a 3" lift length, and the system was flushed and refilled with full synthetic DOT 4 fluid. Have you guys found that the stock brakes with good parts are more than capable?

EDIT: Looks like the only big brake kit that fits under a 17" wheel is the Alcon kit, but requires tie rod adapters. The Wilwood and Baer kits require a 20" wheel. I can't imagine the Alcon kit adds much braking performance over stock, especially for the 3500+ dollar price tag after you buy the tie rod end adapters. Also, there is no matching rear kit for the Alcons either. I definitely don't want to run a 20" wheel either.

I have had the R1 Kit on my 2014 and it worked great. From what I was told they were the second inline to make a kit fit a 17" wheel and my kit worked flawlessly. It stopped way better than stock and getting parts and pads was easy. I had an 6 Piston Front, 4 Piston Rear, Slotted Rotors, and Floating Hats. It saved me a few times on the trails.

 

[Cody Templeton]

I have had the R1 Kit on my 2014 and it worked great. From what I was told they were the second inline to make a kit fit a 17" wheel and my kit worked flawlessly. It stopped way better than stock and getting parts and pads was easy. I had an 6 Piston Front, 4 Piston Rear, Slotted Rotors, and Floating Hats. It saved me a few times on the trails.

I'm glad to hear that they work well and it was a good kit. I do like that they offering 2 piece rotors, as well as color options for everything as Alcon does not. They are also a fair bit cheaper than the Alcons as well. It would be interesting to see a head to head test on them vs the Alcons, but I bet they're pretty similar since they are similar sized calipers, rotors, pads, etc.

 

[Whoops]

I'm running SSBC 6 piston rear calipers which I haven't seen mentioned as an option. The truck is at HRD right now having the Wilwood aeros installed. The Wilwoods don't play well with the SVC spindles and need a little custom fitting.

 

[Cody Templeton]

I'm running SSBC 6 piston rear calipers which I haven't seen mentioned as an option. The truck is at HRD right now having the Wilwood aeros installed. The Wilwoods don't play well with the SVC spindles and need a little custom fitting.

What's the reason for going with the Wilwoods over the SSBC setup?

 

[Whoops]

What's the reason for going with the Wilwoods over the SSBC setup?

In large part, I'm familiar with Wilwood. I'd never heard of SSBC prior to looking into upgrades. And, I think HRD, the shop I'm working with, is a lot more familiar with Wilwood and either choice would require modification to work with the SVC spindles. The SSBC rears were kind of a shot in the dark. So far though they seem to be working really well and install was straight forward, just a little dust shield trimming.

 

[JDEVEROUX]

I'm glad to hear that they work well and it was a good kit. I do like that they offering 2 piece rotors, as well as color options for everything as Alcon does not. They are also a fair bit cheaper than the Alcons as well. It would be interesting to see a head to head test on them vs the Alcons, but I bet they're pretty similar since they are similar sized calipers, rotors, pads, etc.

From my understanding the R1's and Alcon's are very similar but the R1's do stop better. I the R1's have more Pistons per Caliper and the caliper is fully machined versus the Alcon which is cast and machined internally. I had ordered these from the guys at Evil and when talking to the owner there he stated he was part of the Alcon Development Process when he worked with the ADD guys and then did the full R&D for the R1's. I have tested a bit against a buddies truck with the Alcon Kit and my truck does stop better. I also called R1 rece3ntly and found out they have an 8 Piston front caliper available.

 

[Cody Templeton]

From my understanding the R1's and Alcon's are very similar but the R1's do stop better. I the R1's have more Pistons per Caliper and the caliper is fully machined versus the Alcon which is cast and machined internally. I had ordered these from the guys at Evil and when talking to the owner there he stated he was part of the Alcon Development Process when he worked with the ADD guys and then did the full R&D for the R1's. I have tested a bit against a buddies truck with the Alcon Kit and my truck does stop better. I also called R1 rece3ntly and found out they have an 8 Piston front caliper available.

Number of pistons doesn't necessarily matter, it's the surface area they cover. I would assume if it's an 8 piston caliper it's a large caliper. That being said, I'm more interested in the brakes that will still fit under a 17" wheel. As far as comparing two different trucks in stopping power - they need to be exactly identical as far as suspension, tires, weight, etc. The only way to truly compare brakes would be to fit them on the same vehicle, like Alcon did with their testing. Also, as far as a machined vs cast caliper, I would imagine the only difference that would make would be weight.

 

[JDEVEROUX]

Number of pistons doesn't necessarily matter, it's the surface area they cover. I would assume if it's an 8 piston caliper it's a large caliper. That being said, I'm more interested in the brakes that will still fit under a 17" wheel. As far as comparing two different trucks in stopping power - they need to be exactly identical as far as suspension, tires, weight, etc. The only way to truly compare brakes would be to fit them on the same vehicle, like Alcon did with their testing. Also, as far as a machined vs cast caliper, I would imagine the only difference that would make would be weight.

Agreed on the number of pistons. From my understanding the machined calipers have a slightly tighter tolerance allowing a few more wheel choices. I did see the stopping chart for R1's BBK when I ordered my kit. The guys did a Stock vs Upgraded Pad and Rotor vs BBK test. It was impressive and aside from pads both Alcon and R1 should be about the same.

 

[Cody Templeton]

Agreed on the number of pistons. From my understanding the machined calipers have a slightly tighter tolerance allowing a few more wheel choices. I did see the stopping chart for R1's BBK when I ordered my kit. The guys did a Stock vs Upgraded Pad and Rotor vs BBK test. It was impressive and aside from pads both Alcon and R1 should be about the same.

The dimensions could be different between the calipers sure, but I'm not sure that could be attributed completely to just the cast v.s. machined idea, because they can make the caliper as big or as small as they want to for an application really. I'm sure they are a great option as well for our trucks. I would imagine it more comes down to brake pad compound choice for stopping power, as that will greatly affect results too, like you said. I'd wager a bet to set they probably work about the same as the Alcons based on the fact they are similar sized rotors and calipers, but definitely nice that R1 Concepts offers a lot more color options than just red like Alcon.