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Best Heavy Duty Brakes?

Serotonin

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Joined
October 25, 2024
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City, State
MN
Year, Model & Trim Level
2016 Explorer XLT
My dad has a 2016 Explorer that he uses for rural mail delivery. He has gone through a set of brakes in a short amount of time. We're curious what options there may be for the heaviest-duty use case and last as long as possible.
 






Welcome to the Forum. :wave:
I did a quick search and found several threads on brakes that may be of help.
Here is a post with a link to PowerStop brakes; Standard duty brakes upgrade to heavy duty You can check out the entire thread as well.
I believe that your Explorer came with the HD brakes.

Peter
 






If "gone through a set of brakes in a short amount of time", means they wore normally but wore out too quickly, then consider this: Heavy aka severe duty brake pads provide extra friction and/or reduced heat fading. They do not last longer before worn out, instead tend to eat up rotors faster, and the paint/clearcoat on the rims.

Even so, if one of the problems is brake fade from overheating, that is unacceptable and (assuming it is not due to excess water/vapor in the brake fluid) then you should get heavy duty pads despite their down sides - which is why heavy duty pads aren't used on everything!

Regular, not heavy duty, ceramic pads tend to last longest and eat up the rotors least. I'd get Autozone Duralast Gold ceramic if the only problem is rate of wear for pads and rotors, and they have a lifetime warranty including wear. IDK if that warranty applies to commercial use vehicles, just something to keep in mind.

You might also want to reassess whether the brake jobs are thorough enough. Some shops, and even some DIYers, will just do a simple "pad slap" where all they do is put new pads on, but neglect to clean the caliper slide rails, and regrease the caliper slide pins as needed, which can cause binding and irregular or accelerated brake wear, particularly in the rust belt where roads are salted in winter.
 






Some useful information. :)
Like J C brought up with ceramic I would look for a top quality name or semi metallic which was the standard for years in severe duty use with long life and excellent stopping power. When I was working on H-D trucks some of them would be overweight at times and needed an upgraded friction lining due to brake fade. Your service can be compared to school bus with juice brakes and refuse truck with frequent stops where a semi met pad/lining is recommended.


DOT brake lining codes.jpg
 

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