I have had two recent panic-stop situations where I felt the brakes were not good enough. My rear anti-lock triggered but the fronts didn't seem to be stopping well enough. I think this is due to inadequate rotor/pad size rather than any malfunction.
Does anybody know of a reasonably-priced brake upgrade for the 05-07 Daks ?

 

To upgrade the actual brake rotor to a larger one, you will be looking at a much larger amount of money. One way to improve braking and lessen brake fade is to buy some slotted/drilled rotors and ceramic brake pads. This will get your truck stopping a lot quicker and for a lot less than upgrading to a "big brake kit" as they are known. You can find both the slotted/drilled rotors and the ceramic pads on eBay.

Just my $.02

 

+1. I've thought about it in the past, to include a conversion kit for the back. At the sametime, I've had plenty of quick stops and haven't had a problems with stopping.

 

I've had some major problems with my brakes during the life of my truck, I am looking to upgrade my brakes as well, the fronts to slotted/drilled and possibly converting the rears to slotted/drilled rotors instead of drums...i hate the drums and sometimes during a panic stop my front brakes seem to...slip? i dunno how to describe it they half way fail a bit

 

if anyone knows if a drum to disc conversion kit for the rears tell i want one now please

 

stop tailgating and you wont have to panic brake.

 

lol good point

 

Try living in Portland. Sometimes you don't have a choice but to tailgate the way people around here cut you off.

 

Break pads will make the biggest difference for the least money, also try steel breaded break lines. A rear rotor conversion would look nice but I feel with a truck the drums are more then enough considering how little rear breaks work in stopping. I bet what your feeling is the ABS kicking in more then the breaks them self's, there just comes a point were the breaks just can't stop more or you will be skidding into the car in front of you. Remember this is a 2 ton truck it's not going to stop like a civic, I wish more people who drove truck could understand that, mabe they wouldn't tailgate me in stop and go traffic.

 

God, I couldn't of said it better myself.

2coff I agree with everything you said, except in one aspect. The steel braided brake lines will not make as substantil difference on a car as they do on a motorcycle. You have to take in consideration that on the dakotas the entire brake system uses hard lines all the way until it hits the 3/4 foot long rubber section which connects the hard lines to the brake caliper. Using steel braided lines here will make a difference, however, making enough to actually differentiate between the rubber and steel, I highly doubt. Just keep in mind that 95% of the brake lines in the truck are already hard lines. The biggest improvement one can do for overall braking performance would be to upgrade your front rotors to slotted/drilled ones and swap in ceramic brake pads.

People need to keep in mind that the rear brakes only account for maybe 25% of your braking power. To spend the money on a rear rotor swap would look very nice, but produce very little positive results in actual functionality.