Powerslot Cryo's/Hawk SUV's or EBC?
 

Burned down the front brakes on my truck after losing my trailer brakes (bad lockout solenoid). After repairing the trailer brakes, it is now time to repair the truck brakes. '06 Yukon Denali XL with factory 20's. Stock brakes have always sucked so looking to upgrade. Opinons one way or the other on going with Powerslot Cryo rotors/Hawk SUV pads vs. EBC rotors and yellow pads? Other options? Thanks!

I ate up poweslots on my Excursion in 35000 miles. Switched to cheapo Autozone chinese rotors and EBC green pads. No pulsation and the pads are at 50% at 45K/mi.

I put SBC brakes and slotted rotors all around on my Silverado. Work great and I feel more at ease with better brakes. These have 3 pistons/wheel compared to the one (?) on stock truck. Ken

I have the hawk ceramics on stock rotors........no fade......Im happy with them

So, don't waste my money on aftermarket rotors and just go with an upgraded pad from Hawk or EBC? I can get stock Raybestos rotors at the local Farm and Fleet for about $50 a rotor. My current rotors are warped and glazed from all the heat generated from stoping 8,500lbs. of boat/trailer by themselves.

Ever had the brake fluid flushed? Make sure that gets done also. And make sure the whole system is flushed, not just bled at the calipers.
I'm actually pretty impressed with stock parts on these trucks since the new body style. Stock rotors with an aftermarket pad might work for you.

Mine is an '06...old body style.

I mean since '99-00. Should've said since new "platform" change. Lots of stuff changed, including a huge improvement in brakes.

I always get the stock replacement genuine Raybestos rotors......good quality, great resistance to warpage and not that much more than the cheapo chineze stuff......my mechanic turned me on to them.

its ALL about the pads.....!!!!

Save your money and invest in a better working trailer brake setup. (assuming I'm misreading your post and that you have trailer brakes- not just using the truck)

I have four wheel disc brakes on my trailer and when they work, they work great. What happened was on a trip to LOTO late last year the trailer brakes stopped working. I found out the hard way coming down a big incline at an off ramp at Hannibal. I damn near didn't get stopped before hitting the vehicle in front of me at the stop light. Brakes got so hot it smelled like the truck was on fire. I traced the trailer brake problem down to a faulty reverse lockout solenoid and all is good again with the trailer brakes. Since that incident warped the stock rotors, I'm now getting around to fixing the front brakes on the Denali. I only use it as a tow vehicle anymore so there was no hurry to address its brakes. They still work, they just shake bad once you get any heat into them. Pads are fine as far as thickness with only 25K miles on them but they have to be glazed from all the heat. I've never been impressed with the stock brakes from day one with the truck having 20's on it. Just looking for alternatives over stock that might offer better braking with the larger wheel/tire combo and when I tow. Might be a mistake, but yesterday I went ahead and ordered a set of slotted Brembo rotors and some Havk LTS/SUV pads. I'll report back how they work once I get them bedded in. Thanks for all the responses!

Jeff

The Brembo rotors aren't a mistake, but they'll provide you with little if any noticeable benefit.

You really need to change over to EOH on that trailer. Simply put, you got really lucky. At some point, brakes get so hot they become totally useless. If they reach this point, you'll end up with a runaway. Surge brakes need surge to activate them and if you get that long downhill that cooks the truck's brakes, your trailer has no way to activate surge brakes. Plus the EOH is much smoother and reliable. and you can control the trailer independently. Cheap upgrade but worth every nickle.

I've never tried slotted rotors so I thought WTH, might as well see if they make any difference. In the end it only ran me an extra $100 total over going with stock rotors.

I've looked into EOH. I agree surge alone is not the best route to go. In my case of losing the trailer brakes EOH would not have made a difference as the lockout solenoid was either bypassing fluid back into the master cylinder or blocking the flow of fluid back to the calipers. This would have occured whether the surge actuator was deploying the brakes or the EOH unit was deploying them. Scary stuff for sure as I've never had this happen in 10 + years of boat towing. I always make sure my equipment is working properly before towing and they worked fine when I retrieved the boat from my slip for the trip down. I just about put a load into my huggies when I felt the boat/trailer pushing me forward under heavy braking!!!

EOH gets rid of the lockout solenoid.

"Cheap" is a relative term IMHO but there's no question that changing to EOH is a worthy investment.

In my best Johnny Carson voice, "I, I did not know that. That is wild, wacky stuff!" I will definitely look harder into EOH then as I'm not a fan of the lockout.

Update. Thought I would post my experiences with the route I took. Added Brembo Sport slotted rotors and Hawk LTS/SUV pads to the front of my '06 Yukon XL Denali. Man, what a difference. I would highly recommend this upgrade to anyone looking to get better braking performance over stock. The only PITA in the swap was GM using torx bolts on the calipers. Took a T-55 and the biggest I had was a T-50. BTW, anyone know what the torque setting is for those caliper bolts? I just took a guess. They were a mother to break loose.

Let us know on pad life. My experience with slotted rotors was better braking but they really gobbled up pads.

Will do. My guess is 99% of the feel good of the new brakes is the pads alone. The non-slotted Brembos, which cost the same as about any other standard rotor for this application, would have probably been fine. I do like the Brembo rotors and their finish. After bedding the pads in and letting them cool, I made a couple of "panic" stops. Compared to the factory junk, these pads make you feel like you are going through the windshield.

Can you convert surge brakes with drums to electric over hydraulic?

Absolutely- with great results. All You're doing is replacing a manually operated pump (the piston in the surge coupler) with a remotely-operated electric pump.

Then later on, you can do the swap to discs.

Would I have to change the coupler out that I have on there now or just bypass the piston on the coupler, also any recommendations on who makes the best systems