Brake upgrades?

Coming this Spring, I'm gonna have to do some revamp work on my brakes. I've got locking when cold, a driver side caliper that likes to stick occasionally, uneven wear on the front rotors/pads and my rear drums/shoes are approaching their serviceable limits.

Since a lot of hardware/hydraulics need to be attended to, I'd like to know if there any significant "bolt and go" aftermarket upgrades available for the 1500 series second gen trucks. I'm not interested in doing hub/knuckle swaps and stuff to enable kickass aftermarket stuff, I just want to maximize on what can be done with the current setup.

Only one i know of is actually 94-6 2500LD brake calipers and mid-90s GM 1-ton wheel cylinders

If you dont have 2 piston calipers (I think it was only the 00-01s that did) Getting a set of those is the first thing to do to improve braking.

For the rear drums, you can retrofit the chevy 1ton cylinders on there, but it really doesn't change much braking wise the difference is only a 1/16 of an inch or so,, which translates to about 13% more force to the shoes. Since the rear only makes up 20-30% braking force, overall system change is less than 4% at best, at worst its 2% improvement. Not even worth the hassle, even if you're fully loaded and theirs a ton of weight in back, the front brakes are still the most time and cost effective way to improve braking.

Steel braided lines to replace the rubber lines will also improve brake feel, but won't change actual stopping power until you're past about 60% pedal travel. Of course if your old rubber lines are worn and cracking, the improvement is much greater.

The cheapest way to improve stopping power is to get a more aggressive pad, it will eat the rotor a bit faster, but it will also improve braking. I'd also never get organic pads, ever. Ceramics are fine until they get hot or wet, then they lose braking power, it takes a ceramic pad about 3 times as long to dry out than a semi-metallic pad, which isn't a big deal you just have to ride the brakes a bit more when wet to dry them out.

There is a reason you'll never see anything other than semi-metallic pads on any commercial vehicle. But for moderate truck use, ceramics are fine, they cost a bit more, are quieter, last longer and wear the rotors a bit less, they just about balance out with semi-metallic pads cost wise in the long run.

I have 2500ld calipers/pads and gm 1ton rear cylinders. Stock 1/2 ton single piston calipers are 75mm and 2500ld are 80mm piston diameter with the same casting. 1500 rear cylinders are 24mm, ram 2500/3500 are 28mm, and gm 1ton are 30mm bore. 00+ have 2 piston calipers and have rear bosch brakes with a different casting wheel cylinder than before/gm.

I did the gm 1ton cylinders first when the old ones started leaking, big change in the rear braking. I wish I went with the ram 2500/3500s instead since I bet they would be less dramatic. The 2500ld calipers/pads barely made a noticeable difference besides making the rear brakes much more manageable.

00-01 Dual piston calipers require you to change the knuckles.

00-01 knuckles and brakes is prob about the best upgrade you can easily do