Brake upgrades?

oops

Tremor Aficionado
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At about 1000 miles, my only major gripe with this truck is that the brakes feel extremely weak. Hard to say if the braking performance is actually poor without testing, but this is the least confidence inspiring HD truck I’ve ever owned under braking.

Any upgrades out there improving the stopping power or braking feel at least?
 
Can't speak to the brake feel, but I struggle to believe the stopping distance is limited by brake strength from the factory. My guess would be they are traction limited like most (all?) modern vehicles. Only way to change that is drop weight and/or change tires.

Suppose the easy way to test that is finding an empty stretch of road and slamming on the brakes. If ABS activates, you know you're traction limited. :D
 
I don’t have an answer for you, other than I’m sure there are better after market brakes options out there. With that being said. I’ve always felt that the 10 speed transmission changes the way the trucks slow down. There are a lot of gears to downshift through when going 60-0 in a short distance. The brakes seem to be doing most of the work vs the transmission. Braking feels the same (for the most part) in my 350 Tremor as my 17 150 did.
 
Was traveling down the road near a mall about 37 in a 35, some old lady in a sedan looks right at me and pulls out across the road to go the opposite direction as me - I was heading east in left lane of a 5 lane road (two each direction and turn), she pulled north out of the lot to head west.

I stood on the brakes and left tire in the road on both sides, but just fronts. There was a small break in the black lines, not sure if it was ABS kicking in and then brakes regrabbing or a hop, but I did stop in time. The old lady just looked up at like WTF was I doing driving down the road in her way. They did their job, but am thinking about upgrading to Powerstop rotors and pads. If I had a load or was pulling the trailer, even with the trailer brakes, I would have driven right through her.

Erik
 
Was traveling down the road near a mall about 37 in a 35, some old lady in a sedan looks right at me and pulls out across the road to go the opposite direction as me - I was heading east in left lane of a 5 lane road (two each direction and turn), she pulled north out of the lot to head west.

I stood on the brakes and left tire in the road on both sides, but just fronts. There was a small break in the black lines, not sure if it was ABS kicking in and then brakes regrabbing or a hop, but I did stop in time. The old lady just looked up at like WTF was I doing driving down the road in her way. They did their job, but am thinking about upgrading to Powerstop rotors and pads. If I had a load or was pulling the trailer, even with the trailer brakes, I would have driven right through her.

Erik
Glad you were able to stop in time!

Honestly curious, because I could be missing something, but how would upgrading your brakes help in a situation like that? Based on your description it seems like the OEM brakes had maximized the available traction in the tires, so adding braking power would have the same result?
 
Glad you were able to stop in time!

Honestly curious, because I could be missing something, but how would upgrading your brakes help in a situation like that? Based on your description it seems like the OEM brakes had maximized the available traction in the tires, so adding braking power would have the same result?
They may have, first full quick stop in the SD. Thankfully lower speed and positive outcome. I know the advantages of the ABS, as the goal in stopping is to not lock up the tires as the loss of traction actually increases stopping distance. The distance traveled until stopping was a lot farther than the rubber left on the road.

I will do some more driving in the SD, about 6.5k on it so far. I just know that often OEM is not the best and for the small price of the upgrade, if it helps in any future incidents, it is well worth it.

Most of my brake upgrades in the past have been on my motorcycles, including my Hyabusa that I road, tracked and used to teach MSF courses for the AF when I road still and my Jeep build which was a necessity to upgrade when I jumped up to 37's.

I see it as not much different than upgrading tires. They all roll and stop, but if a different tire provided better traction, it would be another area to upgrade. And yes, that is on the radar too, but so far I've been impressed with the Duratracs through the winter, towing and DD. Previously have been a BFG guy.

Erik
 
OK, drove a couple of hours today and paid closer attention to this. No emergency braking situations today but under normal conditions, two things jumped out that reduce braking confidence:

1. The pedal requires what feels like an excessive amount of force to really bite. It's possible this is due to a long bed-in time on these rotors: Looking around on other forums and some older threads here people say this braking gets better after a few thousand miles. May have to try an active bed-in procedure. I don't think I can wait for this thing to start braking properly on it's natural time scale…

2. It feels like the motor is fighting against braking. This is compounded by the heavy foot required to apply strong braking force. This seems like it relates to @DIG's comment about the 10-speed. This also correlates to various reviews out there that say that braking got worse from 2019 to 2020.

Going to try to purposefully bed-in the rotors and report back. May grab those Power Stop's too. Seems like fairly inexpensive peace of mind.
 
They may have, first full quick stop in the SD. Thankfully lower speed and positive outcome. I know the advantages of the ABS, as the goal in stopping is to not lock up the tires as the loss of traction actually increases stopping distance. The distance traveled until stopping was a lot farther than the rubber left on the road.

I will do some more driving in the SD, about 6.5k on it so far. I just know that often OEM is not the best and for the small price of the upgrade, if it helps in any future incidents, it is well worth it.

Most of my brake upgrades in the past have been on my motorcycles, including my Hyabusa that I road, tracked and used to teach MSF courses for the AF when I road still and my Jeep build which was a necessity to upgrade when I jumped up to 37's.

I see it as not much different than upgrading tires. They all roll and stop, but if a different tire provided better traction, it would be another area to upgrade. And yes, that is on the radar too, but so far I've been impressed with the Duratracs through the winter, towing and DD. Previously have been a BFG guy.

Erik
Agreed on it being relatively cheap insurance, and definitely agreed that OEM isn’t always best. Can definitely see how you can’t know for sure if you were traction limited. The fact the rubber marks didn’t last as long as the stopping distance means it could go either way.
 
The original pedal feel on my 6.7's felt soft compared to this 7.3 Tremor. In the first month of owning my 17' 6.7 350, I replaced the ft disc pads. Only because of Brake Dust. But, I got more than I bargained for. Virtually no Brake Dust, and a Firmer brake Pedal. I believe they were EBC Pads .. Green/Yellow ?? Yeah, because IBC is Root Beer, pretty sure thats not it.
 
Definite upgrade in performance
 

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Hmmm.... The brakes are one of the things that I was most impressed with on my Tremor. Super smooth, even, and effective, or so I thought. Maybe I'm just out of touch with what a modern vehicle should feel like.
 
I put the PowerStop brakes on my Raptor and was amazed how good they were. Then with my 16 6.7 Superduty went a no name cheaper drilled and slotted set all the way around and it helped some, but live and learn, you get what you pay for. I will be upgrading to PowerStop soon on my Tremor.
 
I did just the power stop front pads ... And saw a huge difference in stopping distance and just how the truck will stop if you hit the pedal

I replaced mine after a car accident that I should have been able to stop form 60 to 0 but couldn't in time ...
 

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I did just the power stop front pads ... And saw a huge difference in stopping distance and just how the truck will stop if you hit the pedal

I replaced mine after a car accident that I should have been able to stop form 60 to 0 but couldn't in time ...

Sorry that happened. Selfishly happy to hear my fears are not unfounded and that there’s an easy improvement to be made.
 
I like the factory brakes on the SD better than I did on my f-150. I'm not saying that the Super Duties are bad, but when it comes time to change I will put the Power Stop on.
 
Sorry that happened. Selfishly happy to hear my fears are not unfounded and that there’s an easy improvement to be made.
also when i was towing the truck and trailer and jeep on the back weighted in at 16k lbs i didn't feel like i was always going to stop when exiting the highway at 70 plus mph so the car accident was the final ticket that i was replacing them, but i only did the pads as the rotors were brand new and didn't want to replacement if they didn't need it but i am one of those guys that replaces one piece at a time and i am going to be towing around 15k lbs this weekend and really see how they do after changing them but the accident i was empty and i didn't feel good but empty i can stop on a dollar .... it is a HD truck but my f150 will stop on a quarter
 

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