Has anyone upgraded their brakes? Which company did you go with? If not which brake pads have you guys used to replace the stock pads and why? Thanks for the info.

 

Raybestos makes some type of ceramic pad I think I paid appoximately 60 bucks at Pep Boys. I haven't had them long enough to comment on dust (that's a big reason I bought them). But they do seem to stop a little better.

 

I have the EGR's and think they're great. I can't remember who, Pistol or Hohn, but one of them mentioned that they didn't notice much difference in EGR brakes over the stockers. Maybe they didn't the entire package that I do, just the pads or shoes. With blueprinted calipers, kevlar stainless braided lines up front, and the larger rear wheel cylinders my truck stops like a Ford with a pedal that is rock solid. At almost 200K I've had almost all the mainstream pads on the front with the exception of Hawk before sacking up and getting the EGR's. With a little over 60K on the EGR's and still at 50% front and 80% rear I won't be worrying about brakes anytime soon.

 

I just picked up some Ceramic pads for my 05.....Just hit 3000 miles and am doing the first service. When I had my 03 Hemi I took the truck into the body shop to have some minor deer damage repaired on my front drivers door. When I brought it in I asked the body guy what I could use to get what seemed like tiny bits of hard tar off of the sides of my truck. He told me it wasn't tar but brake dust. He said it seems to happen more to Chysler products than other makes. He said the lava hot brake dust embeds itself into the paint and the only way to get it off is to claybar it. He said it is more noticable on white and silver paint and it actually looks like minute rust spots. I changed to ceramics on my 03 and claybared both sides of the truck and I never had the spots again and I never had brake dust on the wheels. The truck did stop better also. Soooooo I just got a set for my new 05 CTD to stop the paint damage and the abnormal amount of brake dust on my wheels......Just my take on ceramic pads

 

On my last truck (Ford Powerstroke C/C F-350 Western Hauler Dually) I replaced the stock front rotors with a set of slotted and cryogenic frozen rotors from Advanced Rotor Technologies. I had to turn the stock rotors every 10,000 miles and after 2 times they were to thin to turn again. I put about 100,000 miles on the ART rotors and Performance Friction pads without having to replace them. I sold the truck to a friend a little over a year ago and the braking system is still working great! The cost was about $500.00, but when you can put that kind of mileage on a set of rotors and pads who can complain about the price.

I was very leary about the cryogenic process until my dentist told me that he had a set on his 911 twin turbo Race Porche. To say the least this car get pushed very hard on the tack and he has almost zero brake fade even after a long day.

I couldn't find a website for ART, but it looks like a bunch of companies are now in the business. Some of the other Ford guys use a company call Carolina Clutch that is supposed to have good brake systems for HD truck.

I hope this helps.

 

guys, Check out frozenrotors.com . ks

 

Guys, I just got a quote back on the brake rotors and pads. ks

Thank you for your interest in the brake rotors we offer at diversified
cryogenics. We offer the best replacement brake rotors on the market.
Pricing for rotors for your car are listed below.

2003 Dodge 3500 DRW 4X4:

Front Frozen rotors $166.50 ea.

Rear Frozen rotors $175.60 ea.

Front performance friction pads $61.49 set

Rear performance friction pads $75.95 set

Kerry, I'll need five business days to process this order. If you have
any questions or if you would like to place this order feel free to
call
me at 888-323-8456.

Thank you,

Mark Link
Diversified Cryogenics, Inc.
Sales
ml@frozenrotors.com
http://www.frozenrotors.com/
888-323-8456

 

Performance Friction probably makes pads for these trucks. I can't see spending the $ on fancy cryogenic frozen rotors (snake oil) when the stockers will last to at least 100k miles on these 3rd gens. Hell the pads even last that long now, but they are really quite dusty.

Andy

 

For those of us that haul big and heavy you can never have too much brake at your disposal. I'll be installing a pac brake asap so my next set of pads will last for a while. I'm over half way through my second set of rotors and 3rd set of pads. I don't know the history on cryo rotors but it is a plausible metal treatment the opposite of heat treating. The people that race seem to use them almost exclusively to avoid warping and fast wear. ks

 

Try centric high performance, at Phil's

I just put a set on my '03 Dakota; I have similar on my F150, my buddy's F150, and my brothers' Dakota (all Power Stop).

I highly reccomend the cross drilled (and chamfered) rotors with the Axxis pads...great for daily driving and towing.

The nice part...
Originally, I would push the pdeal more but not feel like I was getting any more braking. Now I push more on the pedal and get more brake. I feel like I took a good 10-20 feet of my stopping distance.
The power stops are also putting up with the towing a LOT better. The road to Canyon Lake used to warp my rotors after a few trips...I've got >30k miles on my set and still have ~30-40% wear left. I am expecting the same performace out of the centric's/

Unfortunately, Power Stop recently went under. Rumor mill has it that they ran the business side into the ground....no product issues though.

Depending upon hoe the factory brakes feel when I buy the '06, I do plan on putting the Centric Rotors and Axxis pads on.

HTH

Tony