Better Brakes?

[mountie]

I hauled many boats in my time.... Cigarettes, Scarabs all over 30'.
Granted I used a dually......
Going down hill,...... Apply the brakes FIRMLY - Then OFF the brake in 5 seconds - Firmly again - Then off. The reason is to not ride the brakes to over heat the rotors. " The off is to cool ".

( Note) Many times, 'upgrading' your brakes may be as simple as new calipers. ( If you replace both calipers & rotors, you may think the rotors are the improvement.

>>>>> Clean brake fluid <<<<<<

 

[mountie]

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[Alex_M]

The biggest and most important thing you can do is adjust your driving style while towing. I [should, but] don't have trailer brakes on any of my vehicles. I've had 9-10k lbs behind my Tahoe. Same with my NNBS I just sold.

In was always more impressed by the NBS brakes than the NNBS brakes while towing. The NNBS brakes hold better, yes, but the NBS brakes seem to handle heat better.

Fantastic advice on pulsing your brakes down hill. another thing you can do, and this was eluded to above - braking performance improvement seen when replacing brake caliper are seen (assuming old caliper was functional) because of the fresh brake fluid in the system. Could be time to have your brake fluid flushed out with fresh. New caliper is not necessary to see this improvement. If the bleeders are stuck, just crack the banjo bolt connecting the hose to the caliper instead.

Just a side note, if you replace the caliper always go ahead and replace the hose at the same time. Often times if you have a sticky caliper, the hose is actually the problem due to breaking down internally. This often causes the hose to act like a check valve - allowing pressure to be applied but not allowing it to be released.