'15+ brake upgrade? OR upgrade to 2500 brakes

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kbuskill

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I have seen where guys upgrade the GMT800 trucks to the GMT900 front brakes.

My question is twofold.

1. Are the '15+ brakes any bigger/better than ours and will they bolt up, perhaps with a bracket to move the caliper out???

2. I was reading the GMT800 brake upgrade thread and read that the GMT800s run better rear calipers. If this is the case will the rear calipers bolt onto a GMT900 without much trouble???

I was looking at the '15+ section and read where someone said the brakes are 14" diameter but looking up the rotors for a '15 Tahoe I found conflicting info. Some said 13.5" some said 12.99".

I am very content with the cross drilled and slotted rotors and ceramic pads I am currently running but I am always interested in upgrading where I can. I just hadn't seen any discussion about this being plausible so I thought I would get the conversation started.

Any info is appreciated.
 
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kbuskill

kbuskill

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Really?.... Nobody?....

I figured I could at least count on someone to call me names if nothing else.


******* EDIT *******

I added to the title since we started talking 2500 components.
 
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Ilikemtb999

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Really?.... Nobody?....

I figured I could at least count on someone to call me names if nothing else.
So what I gather from looking at part numbers, from my 2010 to a 2016 Tahoe they use the same caliper and caliper bracket. Same with front rotors.
 
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kbuskill

kbuskill

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So what I gather from looking at part numbers, from my 2010 to a 2016 Tahoe they use the same caliper and caliper bracket. Same with front rotors.

Any thoughts on running the GMT800 rear calipers on the GMT900?
 

Ilikemtb999

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Any thoughts on running the GMT800 rear calipers on the GMT900?
You do get a dual piston caliper it seems with a gmt800 but the 900 has a .5” larger diameter rotor so you’d need an adapter bracket. Unsure you really want that much more pad in the rear if you’re not upping the front. Here are the pad differences too, I’m guessing all things considered it probably evens out (larger diameter vs more pad surface area)
Gmt800
8F198A2C-5466-4907-B117-EDEFE70B824A.png


Gmt900
2D043591-ACFE-4272-84DC-59B4C4ACE1ED.png
 

Ilikemtb999

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I think the coolest upgrade would be to 2015+ 2500hd brakes front and rear. Large calipers and larger rotors (and much thicker). The ones on my gmt900 2500hd were awesome (same diameter as my Tahoe but much thicker with bigger calipers). The rear calipers were actually the same as the front calipers on my gmt800 truck. One day I’ll mock up some brackets to put a set on my k5 blazer as the Dana 60 front calipers are pure trash.
 

intheburbs

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I would go with this^^^^^

I've always felt the half-ton GM trucks are underbraked. Both my '01 Burb and '09 Denali have had chronic rotor warping problems, and seemed to need new pads more frequently than usual.

Contrast that to my 2500 Burb. I bought it with 100k miles, it now has 185k miles and hasn't even needed a brake job yet. That includes at least 20,000 miles of towing really heavy stuff. Also includes my stint in Ann Arbor as an Uber driver - lots of short trips and tons of starts/stops. When I rotated the tires back in October there was still plenty of meat on the pads. Never have had a warped rotor, and when you hit the brakes even at extralegal speeds, she stops smooth and sure.

If you're going to go through the effort/expense, I would definitely upgrade to bigger and better.
 

Ilikemtb999

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I would go with this^^^^^

I've always felt the half-ton GM trucks are underbraked. Both my '01 Burb and '09 Denali have had chronic rotor warping problems, and seemed to need new pads more frequently than usual.

Contrast that to my 2500 Burb. I bought it with 100k miles, it now has 185k miles and hasn't even needed a brake job yet. That includes at least 20,000 miles of towing really heavy stuff. Also includes my stint in Ann Arbor as an Uber driver - lots of short trips and tons of starts/stops. When I rotated the tires back in October there was still plenty of meat on the pads. Never have had a warped rotor, and when you hit the brakes even at extralegal speeds, she stops smooth and sure.

If you're going to go through the effort/expense, I would definitely upgrade to bigger and better.
My 2500hd had its first brake change at 120k. Was still wearing factory rotors and pads (pads were cracking and almost to the wear bars). Replaced with new centric stuff and ac delco pads and good as new. Huge difference in just size and stopping power compared to 1/2 ton stuff. The 15+ looked like it’s got almost 14” rotors with similar looking calipers so can’t imagine how much better it stops too.
 
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kbuskill

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You do get a dual piston caliper it seems with a gmt800 but the 900 has a .5” larger diameter rotor so you’d need an adapter bracket. Unsure you really want that much more pad in the rear if you’re not upping the front. Here are the pad differences too, I’m guessing all things considered it probably evens out (larger diameter vs more pad surface area)
Gmt800
View attachment 213882


Gmt900
View attachment 213883

Thanks for the info...

This is why I asked.

On my, 1st gen, 2000 Escalade (basically a '98 Tahoe) I upgraded ALL the brakes.

I used the master cylinder from an '03-'06 Tahoe (If I remember correctly) along with 1 Ton rear wheel cylinders (bigger diameter) and I believe it was the (bigger) PPV front calipers. It has been so long ago that I forget all the details.

Anyway, prior to the upgrade the pedal always felt kinda soft even with brand new stock parts.

Afterwards the pedal was nice and firm and it felt like less effort was needed to stop.

The only issue I had with brakes on that truck was the drum brakes just would not stay adjusted. I would have to back up to self adjust the brakes every couple days.

I changed all the hardware inside several times to no avail. The worst part is it was my wife's daily and she wouldn't do the backing procedure to adjust them because it made her sick... I used to do it with her in the truck just so I could pick at her, she will ride roller coasters all day long but put her in a vehicle and back up quickly and hit your brakes a few times, or do some donuts on a dirt road, and she's ready to vomit.

Any way, when she would let the rear brakes get out of adjustment and keep driving it like that it would end up shearing the brake shoe retainer pins off. If we had kept the truck, I was seriously considering swapping over to disks on the rear.

I had read that the drums not staying adjusted was a fairly common issue on those but not entirely sure.

Any way back on topic.

I haven't really researched any of the possibilities for upgrading the GMT900 so I thought I would ask in case I just missed it.

Thanks for the help so far.
 

Ilikemtb999

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You could always do hydroboost. That’ll get a firm pedal and lots of stopping pressure going.
 

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