Truck owners are often hauling or towing heavy loads, and/or adding upsized tires and wheels to their rigs – for performance or strictly for looks. But without an accompanying brake upgrade, the heavier load and/or the tires’ larger rolling circumference and weight reduces the overall effectiveness of the vehicle’s brakes. There is no shortage of aftermarket brake kits to choose from but, amidst the common claims of shorter stopping distances and reduced brake fade, independently verified test results are thin on the ground.

Now, Baer Brakes has released the results of before-and-after comparison testing on its Big Claw brake kit. Independent tests on a fully laden, 2022 Ram 1500 pickup towing an unbraked, 2,000-pound (908kg) trailer – a total combined weight of 8,900 pounds (4,041kg) – revealed an up to 49% gain in braking effectiveness. There was also a reduction of as much as 200°F in rotor temperature with the Baer Big Claw system installed, which equates to a cut in brake pedal force and pedal-travel fade-resistance of up to 50%.

All tests were carried out using factory brake pads, however switching to a more aggressive pad is another way to generate added brake-performance improvements.

“As the performance brake market has grown, many truck owners just assume that the brakes they are buying will be better than stock,” says Rick Elam, Baer’s director of braking systems. “There are many unsubstantiated claims, but we wanted to stand behind our product with independently collected, real-world data for our direct-replacement rotors.”

Shop Baer high-performance brake products here.

Elam adds that Big Claw and Big Claw HD’s unique feature is the combination of larger-diameter rotors with caliper-relocation brackets. Featuring directional vanes and sized at up to two inches larger than standard, the Big Claw rotors reduce brake fade by more efficiently dissipating the heat generated during repeated, demanding stops – such as when descending in the mountains while towing a heavy RV or trailer.

Meanwhile, relocating the caliper further away from the axle center increases the brake’s leverage against the road, helping it to brake larger-diameter wheel-and-tire combinations. The braking force between the vehicle’s tire and the road follows the same principle of leverage that we use to increase the length of a wrench with an extension, to apply more loosening torque to a stubborn bolt.

To conduct the testing, Baer enlisted Link Commercial Vehicle Testing and Best Practices Engineering, two respected providers of OEM-style, independent test services. The auto-industry-standard, SAE J1249 Simulated Mountain-Brake Performance Test Procedure formed the basis of the evaluation program.

The J1249 test procedure has an effectiveness section that measures overall brake performance, modified here from the usual three stops to a larger sampling of six stops. All the effectiveness stops are made with a controlled initial brake temperature of 150 to 200°F and with an initial speed of 60 mph. The test driver applies the brake pedal to hold a stable deceleration of 0.5g (15ft/s2), which is a moderate slowing rate between normal driving and panic braking.

The other component of J1249 involves a Simulated Mountain-Brake Descent test, in which the brakes are ‘snubbed’ 80 times in just under 20 minutes, with a force of 0.25g (8ft/s2), to simulate brake-use driving down a mountain.

Each test was performed with the same Ram 1500, for each of three vehicle configurations:

• Baseline test: OE tire size 275/55R-20, and OE brakes
• Utilized the brake hardware from Configuration 1, but replaced the OE tire size with four new, larger LT275/65R-20 Falken tires
• Utilized the same, larger tires from Configuration 2, but changed to the Baer Big Claw brake kit on the front and rear axles

The tests were carried out at the Transportation Research Center (TRC) proving ground in Ohio, which is regularly used for testing by OEMs such as Honda, by tire and other automotive supplier companies, and by NHTSA for safety testing. The truck was instrumented with a professional-grade GPS and data acquisition system to measure parameters like vehicle speed and brake temperatures.

The temperatures themselves were measured by thermocouple temperature sensors in the brake pads and rotors, installed as per the SAE J 1249 test procedure. Further sensors monitored the position of the brake pedal, and the force acting on it. The results of the experiments are an eye-opener for any truck owner looking to fit larger tires to their ride, or wishing to upgrade the factory brake setup.

First, over the six measured stops, the larger tire’s larger mechanical advantage over the brakes resulted in a 5-7% reduction in brake-pedal effectiveness. That meant greater pedal force and displacement was required to bring the truck and trailer to a halt, and a longer stopping distance. Note that physics dictates that the situation only gets worse with a tire diameter even further away from the factory spec than the mildly upsized LT275/65R-20s.

Next, after installing the Big Claw brake kit before repeating the same 0.5g stops, the braking effectiveness with the upsized tires was improved by over 49%. Even compared with the same truck’s performance with the OE brakes and tires, the Baer brake setup improved braking effectiveness by over 30%.

Finally, during the Simulated Mountain-Brake Descent tests, the Baer Big Claw brake kit cut the front-brake-rotor running temperatures after 80 snubs from around 900°F to around 700°F. These substantially lower running temperatures resulted in a 50% improvement in both brake pedal force and brake pedal travel fade-resistance, compared with the OE brakes, providing a vital safety margin and peace of mind for the driver in a demanding towing situation.

“We’re delighted that the Baer Brakes Big Claw Kit has been proven to restore the brake performance loss that occurs after installing larger-diameter tires,” sums up Elam. “Even while retaining OE brake pads, the Big Claw’s larger rotor and relocated caliper provide the benefit of a big-brake kit at a fraction of the cost, with the improved thermal performance delivering notably reduced brake-pedal fade in high-demand conditions.”

Shop Baer Big Claw and Big Claw HD direct-replacement kits here.

Baer Brakes offers Big Claw or Big Claw HD direct-replacement kits for all popular truck platforms, from the Jeep Wrangler and Ford Bronco, via half-ton pickups like the Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra, Ford F-150, and Ram 1500, to hard-working ¾- and 1-ton HD truck models. New applications are being added to the range all the time.