My problem is that the stock brakes are insufficient even when perfectly tuned. I run a larger wheel tire combo and will carry a 3500 lb plus load in the bed along with a cargo trailer filled with crap towed behind it all. When I'm doing 80mph down some mountain pass out in the boonies with my family loaded up and an unexpected sharp corner on a 1000 ft cliff appears, I want to know my brakes are going to perform. I'd like to have enough overhead for if and when the trailer brakes fail so the truck has enough in reserve to keep everything under control.

Now I have dealt with it by keeping my speed down and following distance large. That still doesn't mean I'll never encounter a panic stop scenario. Right now, if I had a panic stop situation, one thing is for sure: I can panic all I want but the truck will stop when it's good and ready even if Hercules is in there mashing on the brake pedal.

To complement the rear brake cylinder upgrade I'd like to add some beefier front brakes. What are my options? In searches I've seen talk of big brake upgrades but haven't found any myself. Is there some medium duty truck axle upgrade that would make sense for our trucks? say RAM5500 front axle? Ford super 60's?

In this case bigger is better. Bring on the big brake discussions. I'd eventually do a manual hub conversion and would have all these details sorted before making any moves I might later regret.

 

I think if you get a couple steering knuckles from a 2000 or 01 , you can use the dual piston caliper setup.

 

The dual piston caliper setup is pretty nice too!

 

I don't have any direct experience with this, however, I might have some input.

On your '95 2500, you have front and rear D60s, right?

If so, then the idea situation is swapping that front to manual hub conversion. Assuming you are big on DIY, there is a great couple of threads (plethora of info/detail) in pirate4x4 Dodge Section for such job.

I'd second the look at possibility to swap in the dual pistons from later year Dodge. I believe only limitation would be if you have 16" wheels. Starting in 2000, like zman said, is when dual pistons were available for 2500s.** You probably knew this, so I'm just repeating zman, which he adores.

Probably my last input would be about your rear brakes. Are they drum or disk? If the former, then any thought to swap to disk? I believe I just found a site with decent prices on kits.

http://www.tsmmfg.com/Dodge_Truck.htm

I'm interested to know how this progresses. I did find, what I think, are possibly useful threads on pavementsucks.com.

Edit*** Couple other links for reference that may/not help.

http://www.ssbrakes.com/ssbc-product...-stop-program/

http://www.egrbrakes.com/rear%20brake%20conversion.htm

 

Do you have the single piston calipers on the front currently? (My 96 does....) I would think upgrading to the dual piston calipers up front would make quite bit of difference. Or, as suggested above, doing the manual hub conversion, and having ford parts on the front brakes...... Don't know if they used the same style as dodge or not. That IS something I want to investigate, but, couldn't come up with the scratch this summer. Maybe next summer....

 

Why are you doing 80MPH down a mountain pass with a camper and a trailer? No offense but you're hauling ***. I'm all for speeding, but hauling campers make me nervous enough as it is. You've got a 5 speed, use those gears.

 

Sorry for the late reply guys. We had two different turkey feasts to attend to. Oh yeah. Happy turkey day everybody!

I'm glad I asked this because my calipers are single piston version currently and I didn't even know there was dual piston calipers that fit the newer trucks. Dual pistons calipers would be a sweet upgrade and just the type of thing I was hoping to hear about. I may have to go crawl around under the trucks at the u pull it yard and see what there is.

Wh1t3, I'm running rear drums now. I'd like to try the 1 ton cylinders rather than pony up for rear disks as a first step to see if that will be sufficient. Not that I don't think the rear disks would be better just that I'm no rich guy and if the bigger pistons turn out to be enough with whatever front brake upgrade I can manage I'd appreciate keeping the extra cash. I plan to filter through those links you gave me (and pirate4x4 searches) since I think there must be a ford axle that would be the ideal budget manual hub / big brake upgrade.

Hahns, trust me when I say I got a wake up call that day. Not a great excuse but, the mountain pass I was talking about in this case happened to be about 80 miles south of Kalispel montana. There is literally no one else around to crash into and hurt out there and there is just so many miles to travel between destinations it is very hard to not do 80mph plus. I don't normally drive like that but didn't even notice my speed had gotten that high when I saw that corner coming. With the way the truck is set up you can be doing 80mph with everything loaded up and the ride is very nice. There is no drama alarming you that you are driving at a speed that will raise issues when it's time to turn or stop. I was likely trying to push the speed due to impatience while at the same time perhaps a hair too inattentive due to the long boring roads.

Bottom line is that better brakes are going to help you out of bad situations whether they are self inflicted or not. For the loads I'm running and the speeds I've hit the stock brakes are weak.

 

I would have mentioned the economical 1-ton wheel cylinders, but really thought that should have come from Mastah zman. From the recent thread where I was looking at those, I would agree much more applicable for your rig setup.

cheers!

 

my truck does pretty decent...if u can do the dual pistion do it... i'm glad my ram has them..

 

You could get some high quality drilled/slotted rotors and high quality pads