Brake Upgrade

I don't want to switch to big brake kit or anything crazy. What have you all found with better stopping power and hopefully less brake dust? Maybe ideas for brake pad rotor combo? Are slotted and dimpled rotors worth the money? Will need brakes soon and figure someone here found good upgrade idea. Thanks for any ideas

I've heard and read good things. Haven't put them on my truck yet, planning on it soon.

A better pad compound and rotors can marginally improve braking over the OEM pads and rotors. I always recommend the EBC greenstuff pads wit their sport rotors, i've had them on my 2 trucks and both are high performance and have been put through the ringer with high speed runs/stops, mountain driving, and auto cross. There are better performance compounds from EBC but the greenstuff pads are the best all around pad I've found for street and performance.

Thanks for info

Second ebc! I have the yellow pads front and back with the dimpled and slotted rotors. Also upgrade your front brake lines to braided stainless better feel in the pedal and upgrade your fluid. I went with a much higher boiling point.

Hipps2000 said:

Second ebc! I have the yellow pads front and back with the dimpled and slotted rotors. Also upgrade your front brake lines to braided stainless better feel in the pedal and upgrade your fluid. I went with a much higher boiling point.

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Thanks I think I'll go with EBC pads, the slotted/dimples rotors and see how much it'll cost me to have brake lines installed. Thanks for everyone's input.

Do brake lines and flush fluid same time. I used Crown brake lines. Google them they were like $120 but much better and stronger than stock...peddle feels stiffer as well, truck stops on a dime. Reason I went yellow is green they only make for front and I wanted match. Really happy with EBC got a great price match at auto anything as well.

Hipps2000 said:

Do brake lines and flush fluid same time. I used Crown brake lines. Google them they were like $120 but much better and stronger than stock...peddle feels stiffer as well, truck stops on a dime. Reason I went yellow is green they only make for front and I wanted match. Really happy with EBC got a great price match at auto anything as well.

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Ok I'll check out the yellow and see how much someone charge to switch lines.

If you're looking to stop faster, you're looking in the wrong place. Tires are what stop you, traction is the limiting factor. It doesn't matter what your pads/rotors are made of, you only have a given amount of clamping force unless you go to a big brake kit. Some might be slightly better by being softer but it'll only gain you what, 2-5 feet in the real world? That's not a worthwhile return on my upgrade if you ask me.
Pad compounds and heat ratings are great, but I doubt you're autoXing or on a track. High heat compounds are just that, good for high heat, made by repeated hard stops. There isn't a compound out there that will stop you faster. Rotors are the same. Slotted/dimpled/drilled rotors are for the track, not the road. When they get hot, those are potential stress/heat fracture points when you drive through a puddle of it rains and you repeatedly cool them too quickly. They're only there to evacuate gases made from repeated hard stops.
The aftermarket just has a hold of people looking to make their brakes look 'cool'. The best everyday performance is from a solid rotor for the most friction surface with an organic/metallic pad.
I've tried all combinations of pads from All the major companies on my 1LE Camaro which
lives at the track and autoX. I have some I like more than others. But in the end, now I'm retrofitting a set of Carbon Ceramic brakes from a wrecked Z28. Pads/rotors won't stop you faster or give you better pedal feel until you're right at the edge of the performance envelope about to boil the brake fluid. Then you might be wishing for Dot5 and a drilled rotor.
Until you get there, save your money for better mods, just run a stock brake. My .02, I hate seeing people waste money on a part the aftermarket says improves performance.

The only way a pad will help is if it's a soft metallic race pad. But since you'll never get the temps up where they need to be, you'll chatter the pads until the fall apart, they'll destroy the rotor in about 5k miles, and the amount of brake dust is unimaginable, and it'll corrode and eat your rims... Go over to Camaro5.com and some of the Vette forums, you'll learn a lot about brakes and compounds.
Good Luck!

Forgot about the braided lines everyone brought up. If there is one upgrade i'd recommend on a daily driver brakes it's braided lines. Those will change the pedal feel since you lose 99% of the ballooning in a rubber line. Go for those! You won't be disappointed.
And the swap is incredibly simple if you're even slightly mechanically inclined. Go grab a cheap set of line wrenches at Northern Tool and knock it out. It'll take you longer to bleed the brakes afterward than to swap the lines after you figure out the first one!
Have fun, happy modding!

Broke pilot said:

Forgot about the braided lines everyone brought up. If there is one upgrade i'd recommend on a daily driver brakes it's braided lines. Those will change the pedal feel since you lose 99% of the ballooning in a rubber line. Go for those! You won't be disappointed.
And the swap is incredibly simple if you're even slightly mechanically inclined. Go grab a cheap set of line wrenches at Northern Tool and knock it out. It'll take you longer to bleed the brakes afterward than to swap the lines after you figure out the first one!
Have fun, happy modding!

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Agree, steel lines are great! Did steel lines on my car - Pontiac G8 GT. best bang for the buck in terms of brake feel, not power. This is also my required mod since the 90's for all of my motorcycles.

As for braking "power", I'll have to say my ram sucks. Yes, final contact patch is the end all of braking but until the tires break loose, the amount of pedal pressure and ability to modulate that pressure on the ram just plain sucks. Coming from a 09 Tundra, that truck had some stopping power. Down side, modulation and feel of when will the tires break loose sucked. But it seemed to be able to stop everything I hitched to it, even without a trailer brake. The ram, atleast mine, has poor stopping power and modulation. I'll bleed em again but probably still won't change. There's something to be said about larger rotors. don't need to be slotted, drilled, etc all that does is take away from modulation feel. just my humble opinion.

Upgrade your suspension too, limiting how much weight transfer happens will help with brakeing as well as help with cornering.

Broke pilot said:

If you're looking to stop faster, you're looking in the wrong place. Tires are what stop you, traction is the limiting factor. It doesn't matter what your pads/rotors are made of, you only have a given amount of clamping force unless you go to a big brake kit. Some might be slightly better by being softer but it'll only gain you what, 2-5 feet in the real world? That's not a worthwhile return on my upgrade if you ask me.
Pad compounds and heat ratings are great, but I doubt you're autoXing or on a track. High heat compounds are just that, good for high heat, made by repeated hard stops. There isn't a compound out there that will stop you faster. Rotors are the same. Slotted/dimpled/drilled rotors are for the track, not the road. When they get hot, those are potential stress/heat fracture points when you drive through a puddle of it rains and you repeatedly cool them too quickly. They're only there to evacuate gases made from repeated hard stops.
The aftermarket just has a hold of people looking to make their brakes look 'cool'. The best everyday performance is from a solid rotor for the most friction surface with an organic/metallic pad.
I've tried all combinations of pads from All the major companies on my 1LE Camaro which
lives at the track and autoX. I have some I like more than others. But in the end, now I'm retrofitting a set of Carbon Ceramic brakes from a wrecked Z28. Pads/rotors won't stop you faster or give you better pedal feel until you're right at the edge of the performance envelope about to boil the brake fluid. Then you might be wishing for Dot5 and a drilled rotor.
Until you get there, save your money for better mods, just run a stock brake. My .02, I hate seeing people waste money on a part the aftermarket says improves performance.

The only way a pad will help is if it's a soft metallic race pad. But since you'll never get the temps up where they need to be, you'll chatter the pads until the fall apart, they'll destroy the rotor in about 5k miles, and the amount of brake dust is unimaginable, and it'll corrode and eat your rims... Go over to Camaro5.com and some of the Vette forums, you'll learn a lot about brakes and compounds.
Good Luck!

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Can't say I agree with a lot of what you said here Bud.My Factory rotors were f*cked in approx year and a half(approx 12 k miles).I live in the snow belt.I purchased a complete set(4 drilled/slotted coated rotors and ceramic pads)dirt cheap I might add.I 1/2 and 1 winter later these things are awesome.The originals didn't feel like they were gonna stop you but these will stand it on it's nose.No brake dust either.
Having been a licensed tech for over 30 years I've seen a few rotors in my day and these looked as good or better than most I've pulled out of the box.And like I said they weren't expensive.As a matter of fact for the price I paid I thought I would have to change them out in a year and even then they would still be a good deal.

I have Zimmerman rotors on my BMW X5 and they don't look anywhere near as good a year later.

CVX20 said:

Can't say I agree with a lot of what you said here Bud.My Factory rotors were f*cked in approx year and a half(approx 12 k miles).I live in the snow belt.I purchased a complete set(4 drilled/slotted coated rotors and ceramic pads)dirt cheap I might add.I 1/2 and 1 winter later these things are awesome.The originals didn't feel like they were gonna stop you but these will stand it on it's nose.No brake dust either.
Having been a licensed tech for over 30 years I've seen a few rotors in my day and these looked as good or better than most I've pulled out of the box.And like I said they weren't expensive.As a matter of fact for the price I paid I thought I would have to change them out in a year and even then they would still be a good deal.

I have Zimmerman rotors on my BMW X5 and they don't look anywhere near as good a year later.

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Which pads and rotors did you buy?

Not sure if its too late and you've already bought new rotors/pads but I can highly suggest EBC stage 3 kit slotted/dimpled rotors and greenstuff pads. I just did my fronts and rears and the difference is very noticeable over stock brakes.

We offer many brands like EBC, Stop tech, R1 Concepts, hawk, etc.... We have a great package for the money that we offer. Its the R1 Concepts Geomet rotors and posi-quiet pads. This combo has excellent stopping power with low dust and heat while keeping the price relatively low.

Let us know if you would like a quote on anything with your forum discount!

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/2013-2014-2015-2016-2017-Ram-1500-Black-Slot-Drill-Rotors-Metallic-Pads-F-R/312260445140?fits=Model:Ram+1500&hash=item48b42c43d4:g:csgAAOSwX8dbvm~V:rk:23f:0&vxp=mtr

The ones I got came with ceramic pads.