Rotora Big Brake Kit Product Review

Which BBK did you go with? With my latest overdriven supercharger power upgrades, I’m kicking the tires on a BBK. If I go BBK I’d really like multi-piece directionalized cooled rotors instead of basic straight vein, but StopTech only seems to offer that in sizes that require 18” wheels.

 

Stoptech 6pot with 340mm slotted.
Was suppose to fit under a 17”, but now I’m going to 18” so maybe can switch it to 355.

 

355s get the 2 piece aluminum top hat with directional cooling. Far better and lighter than straight vein.

OP it looks like your 14” Rotora discs are also 355s and require 18s, is that correct?

 

If your 6 lug Rock Warrior wheels have the same internal dimensions as those sold for the 5 lug Tundra/200 Series Land Cruiser, a 355mm might fit. They clear the 354 x 32mm Tundra rotors with largish iron calipers.

I'm working on a 340-ish x 32 or 34mm rotor with hat. Drop me message if you would like some info.

OP, thanks for the review!

 

Correct. Per Rotora’s recommendations, their 14” rotors and calipers require 18” wheels. However, they have multiple rotor sizes to accommodate 16, 17, 18, or 20” wheels. Also hats can be made out of steel for the hardcore off-road guys wanting needing more strength.

No problem. I owned a 3rd gen taco briefly before I switched to a 5th gen 4Runner. Love these trucks. If it was feasible I would do a front end Tacoma swap on this beater 4th gen 4Runner in a heart beat.

 

I noticed that you just got the TE37s which I assume were not only for their looks but also to shed some weight. It should be around 6 pounds a wheel which is 24 pounds total. My Wilwood BBK shed over 26 pounds with their forged aluminum hats, calipers, and brackets. Wilwood's specialty is making racing brakes so they know how to shed maximum weight. This would help to compensate for your big fat tires. Just a thought.

 

Everything is good except for your lever arm point. None of that is true lol.
Your vehicle stops simply because you are turning one form of energy into heat. The amount of heat generated is a function of pad size, pad material and clamp force.

The pressure required to actuate the pistons is a function of piston area. More or bigger piston means less pressure means less pedal force.

Everything else is good!

 

Yup, trying to shed some weight.. especially because moving up in tire size.
I took @crashnburn80 advice and moved up to the 2pc 355mm rotors now I can clear them with 18’s.

 

That will be a better setup if already going to 18s. I was checking out the Wilwood’s earlier today as they do offer a BBK 2pc design that will clear 17s, at about 330mm. I may consider going that route next as I don’t want to exceed the 17” wheel size for my tire selection and off road use.
https://www.wilwood.com/BrakeKits/B...oyota&model=Tacoma&option=4+x+4+(6+Lug+Wheel)

 

I’m a physician but I’m no mechanical engineer so someone with more physics background can probably explain this better than I can. The way I figure, consider the following scenario albeit exaggerated a bit to make the lever arm point. Imagine trying to stop two spinning bicycle wheels with your bare hand applied to the tire. One is half the diameter of the other. Both are the same weight and spinning at the same rotational speed. Which takes less effort to stop? I assume it’s the one with the larger diameter but please correct me if I am wrong. It won’t be the first or the last time!

Agree. You are transferring the vehicle’s kinetic energy into heat. Hence the heat sink point.

 

Very nice! Clearly Wilwood makes an awesome kit as well. What is the weight of those rotors?

 

You have greater mechanical advantage further from the center of rotation with a big brake it. You also have more rotor surface area for contact and cooling.

Lots of braking info in this thread:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/brake-upgrade-stoptech-rotors-trd-performance-pads.523829/

11.9lb rotor, 1.9lb top hat.

 

Nice write up OP. Glad to see these "tuner" companies slowly start making their way into the truck scene. Glad to know there's another option to Wilwood and Stoptech now for a BBK setup

 

I’d never go drilled. Off gassing wouldn’t be an issue for you, but in a certain time frame, rotors cracking from the drill holes will be. I’ve seen it in EVERY SINGLE cross drilled rotor ever made after a certain time. That’s why most companies that used to make drilled a lot, are switching to slotted or plain rotors.

And yes I understand that some people don’t mind that because everything breaks over time. But I’m not into spending over 1-2k for brakes that will need to have rotors replaced in the same amount of time that most other rotors would be

 

Thank you. I figured leverage and torque. Another example is using a breaker bar to loosen a tight nut. The link you provided has a TON of info. Wish I read that prior to purchasing cross drilled! LOL

13.8 lbs! Awesome. Are those also 14” rotors? Rotora 14” are 19.4 lbs for comparison.

 

Those numbers are for the 12.88” BBK. The 14” kit is 14.5lb rotor and 1.9lb top hat.

 

That’s a big difference in weight. The aluminum hats are probably comparable, so the difference is in the rotor thickness and cooling veins.

Considering how much larger they are than OEM weighing in at 19.6 lbs that is an impressive amount of rotational weight reduction!

 

The kit looks FANTASTIC! Is there a link to the kit?

I'm been contemplating a BBK kit for a very long time and it seems the Stoptech, Wilwood, and TRD kits are the only ones available. Glad to see another option on the table.

What was the cost?

-B

 

I saw some of the cracked drilled rotors on the internet before I bought my Wilwoods so I called their technical support before ordering and found out that unless I was planning on racing and keeping my rotors at high temps for hours on end then I would have no problem with cracked rotors. Their specialty is producing brakes for race cars and have 40 years experience in this area so they would know. They use a proprietary alloy for their rotors which are safe at very high temps. Unless you are planning on racing your truck I don't think you will ever have any problems with a cracked rotor. Remember that Mercedes Benz AMG and BMW M series along with many other high end sports cars use drilled rotors. If they had problems with customers having cracked rotors then they would switch to slotted rotors instead. I am happy with my decision to go with drilled rotors just for their appearance.

As far as weight goes, I weighed my unopened box of Wilwood brake parts at 47 pounds and then after taking off all of the OEM brake parts I put them in the same box and it came out to 73 pounds. It would have likely been 74 pounds if I would have added all of the packing materials back in. I saved 12 pounds on the rotors with the aluminum hats and 14 pounds on the calipers.

BTW, I have 2 children who are physicians. One of my advanced degrees was a MS in Physics and completed the course work for the PhD but never finished the dissertation so I didn't get that degree but I still have a pretty good understanding of the thermodynamics involved in brakes.

 

IMO, the rotor ring is not the place to save weight, not that anyone is necessarily suggesting otherwise, but more iron = more better in that particular area. This is a relatively heavy application, high vane counts and thick walls should be high on the list.