'98 Brake Pad Upgrade???

[Captain Kirk]

Gentlemen: Our '98 Suburban has served us well, but its brakes are its weakest feature. Now that its time to replace the front pads, I'm wondering whether anyone has discovered a type of aftermarket front pad that improves stopping power. I don't care too much about pad life, but I am very interested in more "bind" from my brakes.

Can anyone recommend a front brake pad that is clearly superior to the stock pad?

Thanks so much. Bob jrobertk@citlink.net

[unplugged]

I recently did a complete brake job on my 93 and I used the Duralast Gold pads from AutoZone. Lifetime guaranty and they perform well. Not much brake dust either. Complaints are common about the 90's burbs and 'spongy' pedal. During routine stops the brakes are unimpressive, but when I clamp the binders in panic mode, the ABS takes over and the thing stops, and so far I haven't hit anything yet. I did bounce off a curb during a panic stop last year that caused premature failure of the steering box, but I didn't take out the Buick in front of me.

[tbplus10]

I was at a parts show this weekend and talked with two aftermarket brake parts suppliers.
Stainless Steel Brake Corp. www.ssbrakes.com
Centric parts www.centricparts.com
I have a 97 2500 Suburban that I've always felt the brakes werent as good as they should be, I routinely pull trailers weighing between 2K and 12K some with brake systems some without.
The SSB guys wanted to sell complete brake kits, high perf. rotors, pads, lines, and r/r disc conversion kits.
The Centric guys were selling pads and rotors, but stated factory rotors would work great with their pads. They let me take their 2002 Suburban for a drive around downtown Dallas to test how well their brake pads worked, I was impressed I hammered the crap out of the brakes and they held much better than the last 02 Suburban I drove, all thay had was new pads, they had'nt put new rotors on yet. I placed an order for new shoes and pads for my 97, we'll see how good they are soon.