TRD Brakes

I am looking at upgrading my brakes, I have a DCLB with quite a bit of extra weight, and I noticed mine are burning up coming down the mountains here in Colorado.

Is the TRD high performance brake kit worth it?

Is there a better option?

would they even fit with my 16" wheels?

 

They probably won't clear your 16s, but yes I think they're worth it. They're made by Stoptech with TRD branding.

 

Is there an option for 16'' wheels that you might know of?

 

Upgrading your stock brakes with new pads and lines is about it

 

Which pads and lines are best?

 

downshift ....

 

and the other question…does drilled and slotted make a difference in helping to keep the brakes cool?
my brother ordered his thru earls brake center, but I have no idea if its a difference..he doesn't tow or have any extra weight

 

The major problem here is the fact that regardless of brakes... Stock or fancy drilled and slotted guys with fancy pads. They all will burn up if you ride them going downhill plain and simple. This is why they make a gear selector. Learn to use it and engine braking.

 

brakes are cheaper compared to replacing a transmission(coming from the non-mechanically inclined, brand new replacement a shop puts in). Towing things, down hill, I do use gears, but 3rd and 4th aren't really doing shit when you're trying to keep it at 25-45mph. And then you drop it in 2nd and you're riding at a high rpm.

 

I pull my 7x12 trailer regularly through the mountains here in Colorado and I've never had my brakes heat up. Frankly, I hardly touch them and I have an auto.

 

Cool Cool, good to know, I use my engine as a brake sometimes as well. I probably still need to upgrade my pads and lines, any recommendations?

 

Ok folks, back to brakes......

 

while this is true that the trans is more expensive then brakes. Simply putting the transmission into 3rd or 2nd to do some engine breaking does nothing to harm it or the engine. and its much safer as you arnt going to overheat the brakes.

There is a reason why the logic of the transmission is to downshift if it senses you are riding the brakes and not slowing down / possibly speeding up. Hell, my truck auto downshift to 3rd on a pretty steep hill coming home from work at about 40mph or so. This also saves gas as it puts the truck into fuel cut.


These trucks have about as big of a rotor that you can possibly stuff inside a 16in rim.... and like stated even if you did somehow go with a bigger rotor, wether it be thicker or bigger in diameter. It will get heat soaked just about as quick as stock if you are riding it down a hill, rendering them useless.


Where downshifting will hurt a transmission wether it be auto or manual is if you are coming to every stop and manually banging down gears, causing clutch packs / main clutch wear due to excessive shifting. This is also the same thing on the other end... if you find your auto hunting between say 5th lockup, 5th unlocked and 4th.... just put it in 4th... this saves everything.

 

yep

 

I have dimpled and slotted with their performance semi-metalic pads from these guys: brakeperformance.com

they work better than centric fleet pads with stock blank rotors. I am very happy with them. A heck of a lot more stopping power over stock and even the centric pads. And also way better pedal feel.

 

awesome, mine are super soft right now, I had to slam it down while I was stopped on a hill waiting for construction, and the damn truck felt like it wanted to just keep goin!

 

yeah I used to flat tow my TJ (with the stock brakes) and they would fade really badly coming down a pass. Also try bleeding the brake system should help alot if not done recently.

If I were to do it again I would go with either just slotted or blanks. I went mudding last weekend on oldstage rd. and some pebbles took a ride in the dimples and made some nasty groves in the pads. Just sanded them down so they would mess up the rotors and they still work great.

I've rode these brakes down 24 (from woodland park), to see what they would do, and they never faded on me and I could still lock em up at 60+.

 

Slotted discs only seem to eat up brake pads. I'd stick to blanks.

 

Check these out. These will be my next brakes: I'm thinking Stage 4.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/gr...l-ebc-brake-parts-heavily-discounted-tap.html

 

Swapping the rear drums out for disks would be the first step if I were to upgrade.