Larger rotors? Better braking options?

PriddyBoy

PriddyBoy

TJ Enthusiast
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Joined
Oct 16, 2017
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108
Location
Forney, TX, United States
With doing a LS swap I’m wanting to upgrade my brakes to larger rotors. What do y’all recommend and will I need to upgrade the calipers when going to a larger rotor? Sorry for all the brake questions. I don’t know a lot about brakes. I also rock crawl some. I have a 2004 rubicon.


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Black Magic.
By far best money spent.
And all I did was centric premium rotors and Black Magic pads. And aside from the awesome braking power. The hotter the pads get, the better they work.
 
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TJ_2000 said:
Black Magic.
By far best money spent.
And all I did was centric premium rotors and Black Magic pads. And aside from the awesome braking power. The hotter the pads get, the better they work.
Click to expand...

Have you ever smoked them lol? I was riding my brakes way to hard a few weekends ago coming down a very long and winding road, and got them smoking lol. For this reason I have been looking for some better pads and rotors as well


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Rubirob said:
Have you ever smoked them lol? I was riding my brakes way to hard a few weekends ago coming down a very long and winding road, and got them smoking lol. For this reason I have been looking for some better pads and rotors as well


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Click to expand...

I avoid riding my brakes. I also drive a stick so that helps. But I make it a priority to not ride them.

But if you ride your brakes, you not going to find anything that will help you. Unless you look into racing spec brake kits. Brembo comes to mind.
My advice? Don’t ride your brakes.
 
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Rubirob said:
Have you ever smoked them lol? I was riding my brakes way to hard a few weekends ago coming down a very long and winding road, and got them smoking lol. For this reason I have been looking for some better pads and rotors as well


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Click to expand...
Which pads did you smoke? How long have you had them? What size are your tires? Stock calipers or not?
 
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TJ_2000 said:
I avoid riding my brakes. I also drive a stick so that helps. But I make it a priority to not ride them.

But if you ride your brakes, you not going to find anything that will help you. Unless you look into racing spec brake kits. Brembo comes to mind.
My advice? Don’t ride your brakes.
Click to expand...

Our Vanco kits have been used and tested continually in racing applications simply to fully develop an understand of durability and performance. Look up Petty Cash Racing and they should have some info posted as to how well they do.
 
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PriddyBoy said:
With doing a LS swap I’m wanting to upgrade my brakes to larger rotors. What do y’all recommend and will I need to upgrade the calipers when going to a larger rotor? Sorry for all the brake questions. I don’t know a lot about brakes. I also rock crawl some. I have a 2004 rubicon.


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Click to expand...
If you look at the knuckle, it will be obvious in short order that there is no way a larger rotor will fit on there without doing something like cutting the sliders the ends of the pads sit on out of the way. Once you do that, you have to have a way to get the pads to react against the knuckle which is exactly how we came up with the design for the Vanco Big Brake kits.

They aren't the only solution out there, but they are one that has been designed and tested by someone who cares more about how brakes work than pretty much anyone else in the Jeep World.
 
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mrblaine said:
Which pads did you smoke? How long have you had them? What size are your tires? Stock calipers or not?
Click to expand...

No idea what pads, they were on the Jeep when I got them probably around 50% thru there life. Calipers are stock, and 31 mt tires..
definitely realized how important downshifting is haha. I was green to mountain driving, and chatting too much with friends! Didn’t seem to glaze them over, they never got mushy or anything.. just smoked when we stopped to cross a one car bridge haha..

It was my fault, no doubt. I am still interested in getting a better set of pads tho.



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mrblaine said:
Our Vanco kits have been used and tested continually in racing applications simply to fully develop an understand of durability and performance. Look up Petty Cash Racing and they should have some info posted as to how well they do.
Click to expand...

Wow! I knew your brakes where bad ass. Just didn’t know they where that bad ass.
 
Black magic brakes from Blaine in case there is any debate.....lol

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Most everyone I have seen recommend Black Magic, I'm still considering, but also currently run 35's on my TJ, back a few months ago had already put a new Bosch upgraded Rotors and Pads.....have really been solid (I'm not a hard braker), and dont do serious rock crawling, light rock/trail riding.
 

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