I hate to bring up the C word, Chevy, but my 1974, and my 1977 Chevy trucks both have WAY better brakes than this truck! Shoot, the ones on my old 77 were like race grade! (not but close) This truck feels as if the brakes are made of cheese. I am sure the PO being a cheap *** replaced the pads with the cheapest chicom units available so want to do something super bitey. Something like EBC green or red stuff pads if available. What has everyone used to make these brakes work well?

 

i use cheap pad on my truck. i think if you are looking for different types of shoes and pads you may want to check out rockauto. i know they got lots of different types of brake pads and shoes.

 

I must have some sort of super truck. I know I have a 3/4 ton, so my brakes are a little bigger, but even the diesel guys complain about the brakes on these things.

I have had to lock up the brakes more often than I would have liked, faster than I would have liked, with bigger loads than I would have liked. I have the ABS unplugged, but I don't think it was working in the first place.

I'm running standard NAPA brand pads and shoes, just the mid-line semi-metallic stuff. Not the $20 cheap ones, and not the $80 premium ones. The pads have lasted about 20,000 miles so far and still have some more left in them. The cheap ones from autozone I bought before that only lasted me about 10,000 miles. I don't really get any fade at all until I'm trying to stop a total of around 8,000lbs, whether its all truck, or truck+trailer. Around 9,000 lbs is where I start really really wanting more brakes (and I usually have them, thanks to the miracle of trailer brakes). Again, these are total weights of truck plus load. I'm not claiming that I pull 9k with my truck. Poor old 318 would poop the bed.

I'll be replacing my brakes with NAPA ones again when I need them. Traction is almost always an issue for me before brakes.

Two last things:

Are you running oversized tires? Just like gears, your brakes get less leverage as your tire size increases. If you have the stock 28" tires, your ~11.75" rotors should be providing you with similar leverage as my ~12.75" on my 32" tires.

Are your auto-adjusters for your rear drums working?
It's easy to overlook, and an easy fix, but it makes a huge difference.

 

My adjusters are working ans yes I am using a slightly barger tyre in that they are a 31 10.5, instead of stock. But my Chev even with the larger 33 12.5s and a lot more miles on the brakes was far superior. I think I'll try those Napa units like yours since I have heard nothing but good stuff about them.