More Braking Power?

Magnum5.9 · Jun 3, 2016

I've been reading up on how to add some braking power to our 2nd gen trucks because I am throwing on 33"s with 20" rims but I wasn't able to find much with a Google search.

Am I better off to just upgrade my stock rubber lines to stainless steel, upgrade rotors, pads and calipers or what do you guys suggest?

sbarron · Jun 3, 2016

For 33's no real need to upgrade the calipers or lines unless you really want to. New pads and rotors (or just resurfaced) and properly bleeding the system will be your biggest bang for the buck.

Magnum5.9 · Jun 3, 2016

sbarron said:
For 33's no real need to upgrade the calipers or lines unless you really want to. New pads and rotors (or just resurfaced) and properly bleeding the system will be your biggest bang for the buck.

My calipers and lines are still the oem from 2001, are they still as good as if I bought replacemnts?

Will better quality rotors or pads improve my braking any? If so what do you guys recommend

Magnum5.9 · Jun 3, 2016

I was thinking of trying to improve my braking because im going to 20" rims which will add some rotating weight/mass

dapepper9 · Jun 3, 2016

2000+ calipers are about the best you very for the 1500s. Good pads. Ss brake lines can give a more solid feel from the initial push but nothing much more. Good shoes in rear. There's also rear disc kits you can do but $$$

Magnum5.9 · Jun 3, 2016

dapepper9 said:
2000+ calipers are about the best you very for the 1500s. Good pads. Ss brake lines can give a more solid feel from the initial push but nothing much more. Good shoes in rear. There's also rear disc kits you can do but $$$

Any pads in specific you recommend? Will drilled or slotted rotors help out at all?

Magnum5.9 · Jun 3, 2016

dapepper9 said:
2000+ calipers are about the best you very for the 1500s. Good pads. Ss brake lines can give a more solid feel from the initial push but nothing much more. Good shoes in rear. There's also rear disc kits you can do but $$$

Any pads in specific you recommend? Will drilled or slotted rotors help out at all?

Jhighers · Jun 3, 2016

Ebc green stuff pads always have done the trick for me. You need to watch the drilled rotors. With age and heat cycles they tend to crack between the drill holes. I say for a set of stock rotors and green stuff pads and you will be good to go for awhile.

Yeret · Jun 3, 2016

dapepper9 said:
2000+ calipers are about the best you very for the 1500s. Good pads. Ss brake lines can give a more solid feel from the initial push but nothing much more. Good shoes in rear. There's also rear disc kits you can do but $$$

interesting. i just took a look and it looks like those calipers are of the two-piston design. Bet they work pretty sweet on a half-ton considering the folk's one-ton Ford has OEM two-piston calipers.

Are they a direct swap on earlier year Rams?

Magnum5.9 · Jun 3, 2016

Yeret said:
interesting. i just took a look and it looks like those calipers are of the two-piston design. Bet they work pretty sweet on a half-ton considering the folk's one-ton Ford has OEM two-piston calipers.

Are they a direct swap on earlier year Rams?

I believe 94-99 had the one piston caliper while the 00+ have dual caliper. That's why the older second gens benefit from doing the 2500 LD caliper swap

dudeman2009 · Jun 3, 2016

As far as i've seen there are no real better calipers for the 00+, unless you convert to racing parts, but one of those cost about as much as 4 oem calipers. As for drilled rotors, There is a reason heavy duty trucks don't use them. When you are towing, even with a brake controller and trailer with brakes, the rotors tend to overheat very quickly due to having 2/3rds the thermal mass and then crack due to the thermal stress. Just get a nice pair of solid rotors.

As for pads, I just get what autozone sells.

gofishn · Jun 3, 2016

Not sure if it is applicable, to a 1500 or not, on my 99 2500, I replaced teh rear wheel cyclinders with oen ton chevy wheel cyclinders, did noticean improvement to stopping power. other than that, Would not suggest drilled or slotted rotors unless you are planning on heating them up, and coolling them down, quickly and often. WOuld never recommend them for towing usage.

as mentioned, they will crack. advantage is they do get rid of heat quickly.

EBC will probably be my next set of pads. Possibly powerstop and powerstop reg rotors.

dudeman2009 · Jun 3, 2016

gofishn said:
Not sure if it is applicable, to a 1500 or not, on my 99 2500, I replaced teh rear wheel cyclinders with oen ton chevy wheel cyclinders, did noticean improvement to stopping power. other than that, Would not suggest drilled or slotted rotors unless you are planning on heating them up, and coolling them down, quickly and often. WOuld never recommend them for towing usage.

as mentioned, they will crack. advantage is they do get rid of heat quickly.

EBC will probably be my next set of pads. Possibly powerstop and powerstop reg rotors.

00+ use a 1in bore instead of the 15/16in bore of the 99. I think chevys one ton uses 1 1/16th in bore on the single wheel versions, I know the dualies ran 1 3/16th bore on their wheel cylinders.

As far as keeping it ram, 00+have the largest cylinder bore of the 1500s in this generation. I don't know if the chevy parts will bolt on, the one ton cylinders around that time period should be less than $20. I helped a friend replace most of the internals of his 2000 C3500 drum brakes about 3 years ago and each cylinder was about $10.

BBartow · Jun 3, 2016

Yep 00+ use 2 piston calipers so no 2500LD swap. They also use bosch rear brakes so the wheel cylinders are a different casting, swapping to 1 ton cylinders is not possible.

Magnum5.9 · Jun 4, 2016

Sounds like a pad swat and possibly a rotor swap or resurface will be all I can do and new pads on the drums

More Braking Power?

Magnum5.9

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sbarron

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Magnum5.9

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Magnum5.9

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dapepper9

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Magnum5.9

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Magnum5.9

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Jhighers

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Yeret

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Magnum5.9

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dudeman2009

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gofishn

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dudeman2009

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BBartow

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