Need help with brake replacement

[Jeffwiz87]

Newbie here! I have a 2008 Yukon Denali and looking to replace the brakes on it. I do tow with it and drive it like I stole it. Was wondering what people suggest for good parts for this sled. I was thinking drilled or slotted rotors? And what are good pads? Definitely want to upgrade for better stopping power. Any ideas would be great! Thanks again guys!

 

[Fifty]

Having raced with wilwood, brembo, stoptech and AP
I'd go with stoptech, or a properly sized brembo or AP...
Some of the AP and brembo are generic what ever they find calipers (sometimes they use rears for fronts as they are skinnier frames), and wrong sized Pistons.
Being a big truck you're going to want to make sure the caliper is a wide frame, meaning that it is for 32+mm wide rotors.
You are going to have your work cut out.
A good caliper and rotor set up that will perform better than a stock caliper and rotor is going to cost you $6k and up for the fronts and rears.

People exhaust this recommendation, but have you already tried higher quality rotors and heat/load specific pads

 

[Fifty]

I just reread this.
Call kns brakes. They will set you up. Stay away from drilled rotors on our sized vehicles unless you want to replace often.

 

[Jeffwiz87]

I really don't want to go crazy with it just tired of using rotors that rot out in 6 months. Was thinking of stepping up to drilled or slotted rotors but sounds like fifty has had some problems in the past. Mainly looking for a good quality pad and rotor combo that will last a little while while giving me more stopping power when pulling the boat around.

 

[Fifty]

Going to a better rotor (that doesn't mean slotted or drilled) will get you a rotor that is made of a different material that will: dissipate heat evenly due to better vane design, material makeup that holds and handles heat better, and is tougher when it comes to friction (wear) resistance.

Rotors like DBA, real brembo blanks, the higher quality stoptech/centric rotors and some others will help this.

I believe in cryo treating rotors on daily drivers.

Pad wise, carbotech are pricey but awesome.

My favorite daily driver pad is a hawk hp and the hps (in that order).
I'm not a fan of anything else hawk makes until you get into the really expensive ultra race endurance pads which are not applicable to this.

I hate ebc junk. Some people love their yellow stuff for big vehicles. I've thrown away a set of their green stuff pads with about a thousand miles on them. So I tried their yellow stuff on a f350 that I beat on, with really nice cryo rotors. The yellow stuff pads were pine blocks that never evolved into communicative pads. Scraped rotors and tried to Re bed them again. So I tossed them as well.

At the end of the day, call kns, get the most quality rotor you can find and then a set of hp or hps pads, or the carbotech 6's or 8's (8 at most)

I love stainless line upgrades and fluid flushes (so many cars come from the factory still with tooooooons of air in the system.)

 

[Jeffwiz87]

Hey fifty thanks! That's deep down what I was thinking but the itch to be fancy almost got the best of me. Lol. I just got to keep it in my head that this is my daily driver and I don't need 2 race cars. Lol. (Have a grand national for the fun). Looks like I will be taking you up on your suggestions! Thanks again!

 

[Fifty]

By all means, go big! I'd love to see a set of 400+mm slotted 2 piece rotors and a massive caliper! I just hate seeing people buy crap. Or expensive but mis sized pieces.

There is an importer for AP right now that has a front 4 pot kit that they are marketing as an upgrade for tons of sports cars. Even advertised as lightweight race bred replacements for the "mass produced factory brembo's"...
Problem is they are the rear 4 pot caliper from AP 6/4 kits. The rear 4 pots are about 75% the size and weight of their front 4 pots. It doesn't have the thermal capacity nor the correct Pistons for any car. (Maybe a lotus 7) It's probably just the cheapest 4 pot that AP hand hundreds of.

So for bling yeah it's great, even has pedigree, but it will kill you on a race track.