Brake Pads for Overweight Tacoma

[wicked1]

I've got a heavy rig.. 7000lbs. Stock size rotors. I want better pads than the ceramic OEM pads. I see plenty of marketing from aftermarket companies about better coefficient of friction. More stopping power, etc. I see posts from people saying almost anything would be better than ceramic for stopping power.. Will wear faster and have more dust but be better.

However.. the DOT tests every batch of brakes, and the manufacturers have to put on a friction code. 2 letters, first is cold friction, second is hot friction. Higher letters are better. (g is better than e).
I thought I'd try Hawk LTS pads. Old hawk LTS pads were FF friction. But the new ones I just got are FE. E is the friction coefficient of bare steel, so not great. And the stock ceramics have a friction code of GG, so better than anything I have seen aftermarket. But otoh, everyone swears their aftermarket pads have more stopping power than OEM.

I don't know.. It's been quite a journey, and I'm more confused than ever.

As it is, I cannot lock up the wheels.(on dry pavement.. Mud, snow, etc, I can). At 90k miles Toyota installed a new master cylinder and new brake pads, and it was no change from before.. They say it's fine. This is just the stopping power available to me, w/ factory components, apparently.
Anyone have any recommendations for good brake pads, for a rig that's way heavier than factory?

 

[mep1811]

You need to upgrade more than the brake pads. At the very least ,upgrade the pads and rotors. A simple Internet search will reveal all sorts of upgrades.

 

[Regcabguy]

Powerstop might have an application for you.
The pads and rotors made a seat of the pants improvement in my '07 2500 Ram Cummin's already great brakes. Low dust and silent. I have a manual and the stock pads were only 30% worn and the stock rotors are great. I'll see how these Powerstops last.

 

[tacollie]

Powerstop. We ran them in our overweight Tundra and they rocked.

Edit: If it's a first gen Tacoma do the the Tundra brake upgrade.

 

[wicked1]

I have 16" wheels, so the tundra upgrade isn't an option.. I just got new tires, too.. Maybe I'll consider 17" wheels at my next tire change.. (I really like my 16" wheels and tall side walls.. But being able to stop is good, too).

So, for now... Pads are my only option. I did start to look in to the powerstop pads.. Now a couple recommendations here.. Maybe I'll use them. (Shoot, actually I was looking at the StopTech 309 pads, which people over on tacoma forums recommended..) anyway, I'll look in to the powerstops.. Do you know which pad of theirs you used?

Someone above said at the least upgrade pads and rotors.. And I am.. I have stoptech cryo slotted rotors I'm installing w/ the new pads.

 

[Snydmax]

I have 16" wheels, so the tundra upgrade isn't an option.. I just got new tires, too.. Maybe I'll consider 17" wheels at my next tire change.. (I really like my 16" wheels and tall side walls.. But being able to stop is good, too).

This is not entirely true… i am running late model 16in tacoma wheels on my 3rd gen 4runner with the tundra upgrade.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bkg]

two things...
1 - why so heavy?
2 - there's no real upgrade for stock rotors. I love frozenrotor/hawk pad combo... but that won't make up for size.

 

[tacollie]

I ran spidertrax 1.25" with the Tundra brakes and factory 16" wheels in my 02' Tacoma and 00' 4Runner. Those were two of my favorite upgrades for driveability. You really need bigger calipers at that weight. The first gen Tacoma brakes suck.

 

[MR E30]

This is not entirely true… i am running late model 16in tacoma wheels on my 3rd gen 4runner with the tundra upgrade.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to the guide/information you used to pull this off? I want this on my 3rd gen Tacoma.

Thank you.

 

[wicked1]

This is not entirely true… i am running late model 16in tacoma wheels on my 3rd gen 4runner with the tundra upgrade.

OK, good to know. I will look in to that some more.

two things...
1 - why so heavy?
2 - there's no real upgrade for stock rotors. I love frozenrotor/hawk pad combo... but that won't make up for size.

1, it's a camper rig. I updated my forum profile to show pic.
2, yeah..........

My truck is a 2nd gen, if that makes a difference to the tundra brake upgrade. I'll search over on tacomaworld forums for more info.

 

[nickw]

I've got a heavy rig.. 7000lbs. Stock size rotors. I want better pads than the ceramic OEM pads. I see plenty of marketing from aftermarket companies about better coefficient of friction. More stopping power, etc. I see posts from people saying almost anything would be better than ceramic for stopping power.. Will wear faster and have more dust but be better.

However.. the DOT tests every batch of brakes, and the manufacturers have to put on a friction code. 2 letters, first is cold friction, second is hot friction. Higher letters are better. (g is better than e).
I thought I'd try Hawk LTS pads. Old hawk LTS pads were FF friction. But the new ones I just got are FE. E is the friction coefficient of bare steel, so not great. And the stock ceramics have a friction code of GG, so better than anything I have seen aftermarket. But otoh, everyone swears their aftermarket pads have more stopping power than OEM.

I don't know.. It's been quite a journey, and I'm more confused than ever.

As it is, I cannot lock up the wheels.(on dry pavement.. Mud, snow, etc, I can). At 90k miles Toyota installed a new master cylinder and new brake pads, and it was no change from before.. They say it's fine. This is just the stopping power available to me, w/ factory components, apparently.
Anyone have any recommendations for good brake pads, for a rig that's way heavier than factory?

Out of curiosity, what is the GVWR of the rig?

 

[DRAX]

Out of curiosity, what is the GVWR of the rig?

Should be 5,450LB which at 7,000LB scale weight makes it 1,550LB overweight. Ouch. That's like...dangerously overweight, even with proper stopping power.

 

[(none)]

However.. the DOT tests every batch of brakes, and the manufacturers have to put on a friction code. 2 letters, first is cold friction, second is hot friction. Higher letters are better. (g is better than e).
I thought I'd try Hawk LTS pads. Old hawk LTS pads were FF friction. But the new ones I just got are FE. E is the friction coefficient of bare steel, so not great. And the stock ceramics have a friction code of GG, so better than anything I have seen aftermarket. But otoh, everyone swears their aftermarket pads have more stopping power than OEM.

I put EBC yellow stuff pads on my Frontier front and back. Like you mention, the friction letters show lower, but the difference is felt pretty quickly. Once bedded in, they stop much better. And when you get them hot, they stop even better still. No noise, but tons of dust. They won't last forever and i'm sure they will chew through rotors quicker, but there is no comparison.

Also, what size and weight tires did you go with? Heavier tires are not helping your stopping at all.

 

[wicked1]

Tires are 235/85r16.. skinny. Light-ish, for offroad tires, but definitely way heavier than stock. (Don't remember the exact weight.. But they're just AT's.. Nothing crazy).

And about 'dangerously overweight', every tacoma w/ a FWC is in the same place.... All I've got is the FWC, ARB bull bar, and heavier tires.. No armor or other weight adding stuff. Not even a winch.. (It's still in my garage, heh). But yes.. This tacoma/fwc combo is pushing the limits. I was quite surprised when I finally weighed it...
It has served me very well, though, through rough roads and 80k miles as a camper.

 

[nickw]

Tires are 235/85r16.. skinny. Light-ish, for offroad tires, but definitely way heavier than stock. (Don't remember the exact weight.. But they're just AT's.. Nothing crazy).

And about 'dangerously overweight', every tacoma w/ a FWC is in the same place.... All I've got is the FWC, ARB bull bar, and heavier tires.. No armor or other weight adding stuff. Not even a winch.. (It's still in my garage, heh). But yes.. This tacoma/fwc combo is pushing the limits. I was quite surprised when I finally weighed it...
It has served me very well, though, through rough roads and 80k miles as a camper.

I wouldn't be comfortable pushing limits like that, or even maxing out GVWR itself, but to each their own, not trying to give a lecture since you obviously get it but no brake upgrade is going to make it stop safely. I like the OEM stuff personally on my older Tacoma, once you start upgrading you start moving failure points to other areas that it wasn't designed to handle....

FWC's are what, like 1200 lbs....that should be within reason of GVWR, but you are another 1500 lbs on top of that. I honestly think you'd be better off streamlining your setup, sorry to offer advice you didn't ask for but there should be a lot of opportunity to cut back.