I just bought some 20" rims and tires. Installed thm. Stock was 16" and I'm selling them with 285/75 AT tires in great shape.

But can I upgrade my breaks with bigger disks or a rear drum? Wouldn't mind going disk all the way around either.

Thanks.

 

dunno about larger disc brake I know that egr carries a conversion kit for the rear drums in order to make them disc, as well as heavy duty calipers, didn't really look into the disc bit.
also a write up with pics on how to install on pavement sucks
http://www.egrbrakes.com/index-main.htm theres the site/

 

Ouch, looking for something a little less expensive. Are the 3rd gen disks bigger?

 

They make kits to upgrade your brakes/rotors to larger sizes, but what you should probably look at doing is simply replacing your brakes and rotors.

Larger wheels, especially 20" or larger, are generally heavier and more difficult to stop. Your front brakes do about 65-70% of your braking, so it may just be in need of a replacement up front. The difference in wheel size often will let you feel differences in your brakes that you arent used to feeling...

 

Well, I actually weighed the wheels and tires verus the ones I took off. And they are about 5 lbs heavier per wheel. I really thought they'd be lighter with the smaller tires and less inner material on the rims. But the new ones are wider and overall, 1" shorter.

Went from 285/75/16 AT tireto a 295/50/20 street tire.

I do need to replace the breaks. Just wanted to upgrade as well.

 

You can swap out the rear wheel cyclinders with ones from a 1 ton.

 

you dont need bigger discs, they will warp if you keep them the same but just get the drilled or slotted rotors to withstand the high heat

 

i disagree. The drilled holes in stock size (non treated) rotors cause areas of weakness and end up causing cracks and warpage much faster, and the slots are nice for moving gasses out of the pad's clamping area, but ultimately they end up as less surface area for pads to grab, and stress risers for rotors to crack or break under extreme braking (towing, road racing, etc).
The best bet for better braking power is always bigger discs with more brake pad surface area. Bigger discs, with the rotor mounted further out acts as more braking leverage (kind of like a longer wrench will break a bolt loose easier than a shorter one, but the other way around). More pad area, and more clamping force (more pistons spread out over more area) will also upgrade your braking. There are a few "big brake" kits sold, but they don't add much in the way of actual diamater (less than 1/2 inch bigger for $4-600 bucks). I have stock fronts with good pads, and the 1 ton GM cylinder in the rear of my ram, and it's not too bad, although I don't have 20" wheels to fill.

 

Just seems like you could get a bigger rotor from either a 3 G truck that comes with 20" wheels or a viper or something. I realize a viper's hub would be different. Just throwing it out there. There's got to be something that fits.

 

Looks are deceiving, and wider rims account for the gain in weight. You did right in asking, because instead of wasting money you can now do an informed search and purchase the right things.

Nothing wrong in getting opinions.....



The whole regularrotors vs. slotted/drilled rotors arguement gets old eventually.....and people continue to believe the hype....

With any rotor, especially the slotted/drilled kind, they MUST be seasoned before you do normal driving with the car. This involves a process of specific speed starts and stops. This is very important to do. Not doing this can cause rotors to warp, crack, or wear out before they should. This is why MOST daily driver drilled rotors crack, because they are not properly seasoned.

If solid rotors were better, they wouldnt put slotted/drilled rotors on any single performance vehicle. However, they do. Why? Because they DO offer better performance and function. That being said, it's being put on a performance vehicle, not a 2.5 ton truck....


Bottom line, regardless of the rotor/brake combination you purchase, you need to remember to properly season the rotors and bed your pads...

Rotor Seasoning 101 - courtesy of Baer Brakes

Brake Pad Bedding 101 - courtesy of Baer Brakes


Please note, they offer multiple options for the style/use of driving....