2011 Ford F-150 - Brake Upgrade Made Easy
| 1301tr 01 2011 Ford F 150 Lift
Adding larger wheels and tires to a truck can improve the look and function almost instantly. But most people forget about the brakes. From the factory, the brakes are optimized to stop the size of tire that the truck originally came with. For example, this 2011 F-150 originally had 265/65R18 tires on it, which are 31.5 inches tall. The 34-inch tall BFGoodrich tires that were added are a full two and a half inches taller than the factory tires, meaning that the rolling mass is further out from the center. This causes the brakes to have work even harder to stop the truck. If I lost any of you, I will try to explain it in simpler terms. Adding larger wheels and tires means the brakes aren't as effective as they used to be. This makes your truck not as safe as it could be, but fortunately the solution is easy and inexpensive.
| 1. The owner of this truck upgraded the wheels and tires to larger diameter versions after installing a leveling kit on the truck.
Luckily, upgrading to a larger rotor and pad can be done in your driveway in an afternoon thanks to EBC Brakes. Available at Auto Anything, the EBC Sport Rotor Kit is a direct replacement for the OEM rotors. They're drilled and slotted to help eliminate brake fade caused by excessive heat, and also sweep dirt, water, and brake dust off of the rotor. For brake pads, we again ordered EBC Yellowstuff pads from Auto Anything. The Yellowstuff pads have a larger surface area and are thicker than the OEM pads. Follow along as we upgrade the brakes on this lifted F-150.
| 11. Finally, the rear calipers were bolted to the axle and the job was complete.
With all said and done, the job only took two hours. We installed it in our tech center for the purpose of getting the photos we needed, but the job was easy enough to do in a driveway with a floor jack and ratchet set.
