Do I need to upgrade my brakes?
The short answer is YES!
I'll be 100% honest up front - this is a personal pet-peeve. So many people spend big money on performance upgrades (power adders, larger wheel and tire combos, bumpers, winches, skid plates, lights, etc), but rely on stock brake systems with stock-style brake pads. A lot of people never consider if their stock braking system is adequate and able to compensate for their other modifications (hint: most of the time it's not).
Brake upgrades should absolutely be something that you consider when planning out a build. Brake upgrades are something that we recommend to anyone that comes into our shop, but are too often overlooked. As soon as you start adding weight and larger tires, your vehicle simply won't stop as quick as it did (and sometimes it didn't stop well before off-road upgrades).
But why?
It is simply not worth putting you, your family, and others at risk because you took a shortcut on brakes. If you weigh the cost of adding a set of better performing brakes to your build vs the total cost of your build, the difference is negligible.
Trust me when I tell you that a Jeep with steel bumpers, a winch, skid plates, and 37" tires doesn't stop as quickly as it did from the factory -- I am saying this from personal experience, observations, and research. If you don't want to take my word for it, spend some time reading the science and studying the testing on vehicle stopping distances, clamping force, brake fade, unsprung weight, rotating mass, etc.
Whether on-road or off-road, your brake system can see a lot of abuse.
What are your options?
Overall brake performance is made up of many factors - braking components condition, size of the braking components, brake pad materials, etc.
Luckily there are a lot of options to improve your stopping power. One of the best and easiest options is a set of performance brake pads paired with good rotors (please skip the slotted and vented rotors). Depending on the vehicle, a set of upgraded pads and rotors usually runs around $300-$500. There are a lot of options for performance brake pads - EBC, Hawk, Power Stop, etc. The performance improvement in this category it largely from the better performing pad compounds. Upgraded pads and rotors provide a big 'bang for the buck' and are what we recommend for most builds (we also recommend this upgrade for stock vehicles).
There are also the 'Big Brake Kit' or 'Big Rotor Kit' options - certain vehicles have "Big Brake" kits that are available from aftermarket companies that increase the size of the rotor, and often times provide larger calipers along with performance pads. This option is obviously more expensive, but also provides an even bigger increase in stopping power. There are still a lot of options depending of the vehicle - Dynatrac, Teraflex, Alcon, Power Stop, and even Mopar.
Pump the brakes:
Please don't skip out on adding 'brakes' to your list of upgrades -- Its 100% worth the investment. Contact us if you want some help on deciding which brake upgrades might be the best for you.
If you have any 'brake' related stories, throw them in the comments below.
Comentários