Front Brakes For Heavy Towing? Mine Failed.

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winesalot

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2001 Dodge Ram 2500 4wd 5.9 Cummins

I replaced the front rotors and pads less than a year ago with, what I thought, was a high quality product. My right front has gone metal to metal on just the inner pad. What would cause this? I have a winery and we are hauling seriously heavy loads this time of year. (Grape harvest)

What is the best brake product line out there? I looked at Rock Auto and other web sites and the Power Stop products show up often under the heavy duty towing selection but, of course, it is out of stock for my truck.
 

Scottly

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You spent money on pads and rotors...and left your old, worn out calipers in place. The square cut seals on a caliper are what retracts the brake pad when you let up on the brake, and when that seal wears out/stiffens from age, it doesn't retract and guess what? Pads wear quicker. Buy some good quality, American-made (not ching chow choy FleaBay shizit) loaded calipers, resurface your rotors correctly, flush your brake fluid and use new fluid from a sealed container, and all your troubles will go away.
 

crazykid1994

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Seized slide pins are what cause one sided wear. Always pull out to clean and regrease slide pins and replace if corroded. That’s usually due to lack of maintance. During tire rotations inspect the brakes for uneven wear and this could be avoided in the future.
 

69_XS29L

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'95 2500 4x4 '03 OffRoad 1500 '85 W350 4spd
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8L V-10, 5.7L Hemi, 360 4bbl
100% on the calipers. That big single puck/caliper piston (which the Dodge shares with the similar year Chevy) seems to stick/turn in the bore when worn, maybe from excess heat. You'll know when you try to compress it to squeeze pads in. Brakes on these Rams are weak point and it is not the slide pins.
If you've gone to metal, the puck seal is toast and your rotor will not machine to specs.
Brakeperformance.com has US made dimpled/slotted rotors and rebuilt calipers for the 8800 GVW 2500 Ram. Jegs will sell you the PowerStop stuff for the same money. As far as I know, PowerStop imports their parts. You'll be in 400+USD either way.
I tried some EBC stuff and Chinesium slotted rotors. They worked very well, but wore the expensive pads way too fast and the 'drilled slotted' rotors were much thinner than stock. Brakeperformance rotors are the full monty thickness, 1.5 inches. I bought some pretty powder coated calipers from Jegs they no longer sell. We can argue all day about dimpled rotors or whatever, but my brakes work. No more stuck calipers, no more warped rotors on long downhills.
 
OP
OP
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winesalot

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I made the decision to take the truck in and have new calipers, rotors, and pads put on. It kills me to pay someone to do work I am fully capable of but the whole time vs money thing is chewing on me and I needed the truck functional. THere is a 25,000 mile 36 month warranty on their work and parts so that is some comfort.
 

Sherman Bird

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You spent money on pads and rotors...and left your old, worn out calipers in place. The square cut seals on a caliper are what retracts the brake pad when you let up on the brake, and when that seal wears out/stiffens from age, it doesn't retract and guess what? Pads wear quicker. Buy some good quality, American-made (not ching chow choy FleaBay shizit) loaded calipers, resurface your rotors correctly, flush your brake fluid and use new fluid from a sealed container, and all your troubles will go away.
A restorative brake job is the best. Along with calipers, he should go with new flex hoses as well. Another overlooked thing is the air gap between the pushrod of the power brake booster and the rear of the master cylinder piston. MANY MANY times, I've seen high end brake jobs from other garages go bad sooner than they should have due to this anomaly. Seems that the wear on the booster is as real as wear on other items.
 

pacofortacos

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I have been using NAPA coated semi loaded calipers lately, seem to be working very well and actually very inexpensive.
 
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