Advice: Brakes or Gears

Yo, TW, help me spend my money.

I've been want to do a regear for awhile. But lately started thinking I might want to upgrade my brakes. My truck is getting pretty heavy (with plans to make it heavier) and wondered if I should just spring for better brakes. I haven't had problems with my brakes, but I also don't want to have problems -- especially on trails.

What do you all think? I feel like most folks go for gears before brakes.

The price to have either installed is pretty similar, so that's what makes me wonder which would be the best.

 

Interesting question. I personaly think the ability to stop trumps the ability to go faster, but that's just me.

 

Exactly. I feel like that's the grown-up choice to make here.

 

Do both! I've got 5.29s and a Wilwood BBK - can confirm they are great upgrades

 

It's important to remember the limiting factor on a stock truck's braking are the tires. As long as you can activate the ABS under the hardest braking there is no real performance left on the table for braking hardware upgrades as far as properly stopping the truck and/or its load.

Having said that what you can improve is brake fade under extended braking situations with excessive heat build up or you can attempt to change the braking "feel".

I prefer to keep brakes oem and in good working order (rotors, pads, shoes) until they're incapable of out-braking the tires, which for me typically means when tire size gets too tall and the oem braking system's mechanical advantage is vastly reduced.

 

I think I will do both... just not sure I want to pay for both at the same time.

 

You know, I've read this a number of times and wonder exactly how true it is? Maybe it's a faulty butt-brake-dyno feeling, but is there no advantage to having more clamping force for each ABS braking cycle? Again, I have nothing technical to stand on here, but my feeling is that the bigger rotors and calipers, additional pistons do decrease my braking distance. I put on the new brakes at the same time that I went from 33s to 35s and the feel is so much better that my confidence in the brakes is much improved.

Again, not challenging this exactly, but my little brain has a hard time making sense of it.

 

Whats ur tire size?

 

33s (285 70 R17, KO2s). So, not too much bigger, but larger than the brakes were designed for.

 

Stock brakes will always out-clamp any tire you can put on there.

Bigger brakes can do the same thing at a lower temperature. And that's where it gets important.

It's your master cylinder that makes the clamping force. It's the surface area of your brake that determines heat generation. Therefore:

Emergency 60-0 stop - no difference. Both big and little will stop the vehicle at the same rate.

Gradual downhill stop that takes 30 seconds of braking (despite this being a bad practice and something that is considered a dumb rookie driver move, but even I do it sometimes.) - advantage goes to big brakes every time.

Stop and go traffic in summer and you're caught in it pulling a trailer (again, if you cook the stock brakes it's your dumb fault, but again-again, I've done it once or twice) - big brakes also.

 

It's the normal braking conditions that really bothered me with the OEM brakes, but then again I don't drive very fast and rarely need to jam the brakes super hard. Coming to a downhill stop sign or red light always felt pretty sketchy and occasionally like a normal stop could've turned into a damn near emergency. I'll just say I feel a lot more confident driving around with the BBK.

 

I would think in the situation where you’re driving around town, say going 30mph, and the car stops short in front of you and you slam on your brakes, bbk would help if you have a fat taco but idk im not an engineer

 

I believe the 3rd gen ORs have the same electric/hydraulic brake booster as the 2nd gens like mine. If you can lock your tires then you dont need bigger brakes unless you ride your brakes down long grades.

 

Do a test to see if you can lock up the tires. If you can, and aren’t doing long coasting stops downhill as stated above, then you don’t need more brake. Stock brakes on modern vehicles are usually only subpar when the tires are significantly larger than stock. 33’s are not really to that point and even some added weight isn’t really either. I’d say 37’s would be the point where I’d look for more, simply because while you could probably still lock them up with the stock brakes, they would likely fade pretty quickly as well.

I also am not a fan of upsizing any brakes that require larger wheels than the OEM that came on the truck. There are plenty of aftermarket wheels out there but not being able to go back to stock because larger brakes are on is annoying. The next owner might want to put it back to original and then get hung up on that. It’s his problem, but nice to keep things original when it’s possible.

Plus gears are really enjoyable.

 

Id go the path of stopping, especially if you're adding weight.

 

Did you have to get 18" wheels to fit those or did you get by with 17s? That's another thing for @lupercal to consider if he doesn't already have 17s at least for the BBK.

 

I got 17" wheels too. So, I should be okay for most kits.

I think the wilwood kit has a 17" and a 18" size.

 

Yeah the kit @SoCaltaco65 has is a bit bigger than mine, more lightweight I think, and has better venting rotors.

 

yes, and man does it stop and after long periods of braking at speed the almost 0 brake fade is magical!

 

Trail work is most often slow with intermittent use of brakes. Your tires will loose traction with the ground (rock, gravel, mud, snow) long before your brakes stop working. As has already been stated those long and hard braking sessions on road are a concern. I'd go with the gears (5.29) and will do so myself when I get to that stage of my mods.

I have found my Tacoma requires very strong foot pressure, much more so than any other vehicle I've had to stop, but I have gotten use to it.