Well, I just finished the "break-in" process on my new Vanco Brake Upgrade Kit on my '05 Unlimited Rubicon. This is NOT the Hydroboost-it is the NEW brake upgrade kit that Van and Blaine worked on together and recently released to the public.

Provided in the kit, you get 2 new beefed up knuckles, 2 new rotors, 2 new calipers w/ brackets, mounting bolts for calipers, new crush washers, 6 new cotter pins and two sets of performance friction carbon metallic brake pads.

Let me start out by saying that my rig is quite heavy with aftermarket skids, armor, OME HD lift, etc., etc. I am regularly loaded down and pull a 5x10 trailer with between 3000-3500 lbs. total. I am still running the factory 31" MT/R's. Prior to installing the kit, I could NOT stop my trailer in a panic stop situation. Just the Jeep, unloaded in a panic stop situation, the pedal would go clear too the floor and I'd slow down, but could never lock them up-the Jeep would just continue to slowly roll forward until it eventually came to a stop. Many times I'd end up swerving off towards the ditch and pulling up along side the rear of another vehicle to avoid a collision in crazy city traffic. Simply put, my brakes just plain sucked, I was never happy with their performance-even off the dealer lot when brand new a year and a half ago.

Again, my rig is an '05 Unlimited Rubicon. I did the install myself in the garage, following Van's directions he provides with the kit. Van was a HUGE help in the entire process-the directions were not complete when I got the kit, so we spent a fair amount of time on the phone back and forth, as well as emails back and forth for what to do here and there. As Van had not installed the kit on a Rubicon yet, I sent several pics down too him as well for different stages in the process.

Basically the install is pretty strait forward, fairly simple really. You start out by removing your factory calipers, rotors and knuckles, then installing Van's new knuckle which has been beefed up substantially, followed by the new rotor, and caliper setup. A few things that are different and unique too the Rubicon model is that the unit bearing must be shaved roughly .060" all together. This is easily done with an angle grinder and a flapper disc in just a few minutes. Regular TJ models will require the factory dust shield be trimmed roughly 1/4" total, but the good news is on my LJ Rubi, the dust shield is slightly different, and NO modification was needed here. The last time consuming part is the factory brake lines are round, with a flat edge that sits flush against a lip on the factory caliper. This lip/ledge is taller on the new caliper, so on my LJ Rubi brake lines, I had to grind down part of the round brake line fitting to provide a flat edge for the line to fit up against the new ledge on the new caliper. No big deal, just a few minutes with the dremel grinder is all it took for me. With the lines attached too the new calipers, the caliper bolted back too the bracket and onto the knuckle with the rotor in place, you're now ready to bleed the brakes, then follow the break in procedure Van provides.

Word of Caution: YOU MUST FOLLOW THE BREAK IN PROCEDURE EXACTLY AS STATED TO ACHIEVE MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE!!!

Now that it's finished, what do I think???


Holy Crap!!!

Braking performance with the new Vanco upgrade kit is absolutely incredible! I simulated a couple panic stops from 35mph to zero and damn-you'd better be wearing your seatbelt that's for sure! The nose of the Jeep dives so hard that it literally feels like the ass end is coming off the ground! Braking is absolutely incredible. Under normal driving conditions, they feel great-stop much better than before, and behave really quite nicely, with great pedal feel. Once you start getting cocky though and start mashing the pedal down a bit faster/harder is when you really start to unleash the beast within this kit, and where you'll see the biggest performance increase. I really can't believe it-FINALLY there is a bolt-on kit that address's the TJ's horrible brake issues from the factory, and does a great job at it at that.

I'd highly recommend this kit to anyone looking for better brake performance out of their TJ/LJ's.

THANKS VERY MUCH VAN AND BLAINE-EXCELLENT WORK!!!

Best of Luck,

Mike

I'm doing my install on Sunday. I'm very excited to see how much better these brakes are.

awesome news Mike...thanks for the writeup

Wow-Thanks Mac!

I have a few different sets of pics taken if anybody needs them for reference-nothing fancy, just clearance/gap between dust shield, caliper and rotor with NO modifications, and of the factory brake line connection where I ground it down to fit against the new larger calipers. The work itself is easy-just sometimes pics help explain things better than words. Not sure how to post here, but I can email if anybody is interested. Van should have them as well-I sent them down earlier today.

Ehirner-
Please update after you're finished on Sunday or whenever you have time-I'm curious to hear how your dust shield fit, and if you needed to trim it or if it fit fine as is. Clearance was tight, but enough gap to work without modifying on mine. Also, I'm interested to hear how your brake lines are setup-I believe Van has had 3 different setups now as far as lines go. Best of Luck with the install-I'm sure you'll love the upgrade, it's a HUGE improvement over stock!

Best of Luck,

Mike

I'll be installing extended braided stainless lines at the same time due to my lift height and long arms. I have a rear line also so I figure I'll bleed the system all at once while I'm opening the lines. I've been thinking about leaving the dust shields off entirely rather than modifying them.

I'd like to see the pix....if you email them to me (imran300zxt@yahoo.com) i'll post them up for all to see.
thanks

Sounds like an excellent kit, what about front/rear bias? Any changes to keep the balance?

Thanks,
Mark

Wow, that was fast. Sounds good.
And that's just with axle hardware improvements, nothing done with mastercyl/pump/booster/etc.?

"A few things that are different and unique too the Rubicon model is that the unit bearing must be shaved roughly .060" all together. This is easily done with an angle grinder and a flapper disc in just a few minutes."

I was on the verge of buying one of these kits, and while talking to Van, he mentioned the same thing. This is what made me stop and not buy until I saw a writeup on a few of these.

Can you advise as to the exact process you used. Pixs would be real helpful too. Im pretty handy with tools, but I dont want to get the front end of my Jeep torn up and not have a way to get it back together.

Many thanks in advance.


Doug

Rubi-Rock I sent you 2 pics he sent me, he sent me about 20 actually, those two where of the completed set up.

Eric- Check your rotor center to the caliper saddle when you remove the dust shield, should be ok but check it first. I'll be at the shop most of the day today if you want to call me.

Fyathyrio- Nothing changes.

rubianderson- Stock booster, master, prop valve, lines etc. Nothing changed except the knuckle, calipers, pads, rotors.

Dojo- He used a grinder on the outside of his unit bearing, then turned it and did that half, kept doing that until the rotor slipped on. The easiest way is to get the vehicle on a lift or 4 stands (strong safe stands) put it in gear and hold the grinding to the unit bearing for a couple minutes. Your just shaving a hair off so the rotor slides on. If you want to reverse to original Rubi brakes that mod won't affect it at all. There's nothing you're doing with this kit that stops you from using your old parts and putting it all back together as it was originally, it's completely reversable.

I can send pics of Blaine grinding on it if you give me an e-mail. I can send the instructions I have been sending (still working on them and tweaking them) to any who want to take a look. Basically your just swapping knuckles and doing a brake job. With a small gridning on the unit bearing.

Aside from the fancy pads, what gives the performance improvement? I'm not familiar with the kit.

We need to get some clarification going here on the actual part that needs to be ground down.

There are several parts that make up a unit bearing assembly. Bearings obviously, lug studs, 3 bolt housing for mounting into the knuckle, and the flange for the wheel mounting surface that the rotor hat has to fit over.

The issue is that some rotors and U/B's depending on who makes them, vary in diameter both internal at the hat and external on the flange. The rotor hat needs to fit easily and cleanly on the mounting flange that the lug studs press into. The outside edge of the flange sometimes needs to be reduced in diameter slightly for this to happen. There is excess material, so there is no worry of grinding it too far.

Test fitting of the rotor should be done to ensure that it is capable of and in fact does easily sit flat on the face of the flange that the lug studs press into. The outer edge of the flange will need to be radiused slightly to clear the radius inside corner of the rotor hat.

mrblaine,

Van emailed me a couple pics and to me your explanation clarifies this.

Im going to get in q for this for next month. Since Ill have the fronts torn down, Ill be upgrading to the cromoly axle shafts at the same time.

D

First off, the pads are not fancy, they just happen to work well. They are actually available at any AutoZone, are fairly economical and have been around a very long time.

The performance improvement comes from eliminating all the issues that show up when the stock braking system is taxed beyond it's design parameters including a poor pad retention system, uneven distribution of clamping forces, poor caliper design in that it's not robust enough, and generally just a design that was never intended for much larger than stock tire sizes.

The good news is that the booster and master are very high quality and capable of driving a much larger braking system than came stock.

Does this mean the kit has larger rotors and pads? I assumed that to be the case but didn't see anything about that.

Here's the kit installed, with the old caliper being held up for comparison.

Cool! I'll have to put that on my list.

Is this kit available now? I didn't see anything on the Vanco website about it. Would definitely be interested in it.

X2 great looking upgrade

It's not advertised anywhere. Just on the boards. We're doing 40 more sets that will be ready in about 2 weeks. Of those half are sold. I can't advertise yet because I can't even keep up without advertising. I am doing pre-orders. No clue if I can discuss price here, I am not a vendor. However, the price is known and shown where I am a vendor. Dave, Northridge will be selling these.

heres a link to macs thread in Vendors section about it.. the current price is probably close to the retail price mac mentioned there?

http://www.rubiconownersforum.com/phpbb ... hp?t=35971

It's in there.

Vancopbs

Ok, here's a stupid question (but not really stupid)
Can you have too much braking capability or too oversized equipment. How do you know when you've maximized your capability for the vehicle to the point that you have diminishing returns (efficiencies) or cause problems in other areas. I am in no way a vehicle brake design expert or any such thing, but you must of considered this stuff as you were developing the system?

So, have you maximized the brake hardware to the max point now and would be looking to improve other areas of the system (hydraulics/boost/etc.) if yu need more capability or could you still improve more on the axle hardware?

Here's a semi-appropriate analogy to help you. Toss another 150 horsepower in your rig that you can access at any point. Do you always have to leave at full throttle? Just because it's there, doesn't mean that every time you step on the brakes you will be doing so because you are in a full panic stop.

Two questions.

Question 1: Does this help out on the slow speed stops?

For example: Hells Revenge Moab... going down the long fins, will it actually have enough power to stop me in the middle unlike the stock system?



Question 2: Will the ORO U-Turn steering still work with your knuckle that is with the kit?