I'm going to be pulling a boat around with my XJ every once in a while. Total it weighs in about 3500lbs loaded with gear/fuel. Obviously, XJ brakes blow. I'm curious what sort of upgrades (aside from rear disc conversion) can be made to the braking system. I already have stainless brake lines, but is there maybe some other caliper/rotor setup for the front that is larger from another style jeep that I could swap on easily? Once I have the boat at it's storage spot I only have to tow it a couple miles to the lake, but every once in a while I'll want to take it to lakes further than that, and at highway speeds the Jeep really does not want to stop. The trailer doesn't have brakes on it either.

Any suggestions?

 

I'm interested too, but XJ brakes certainly don't blow! If your's do, there's something wrong with them! I've driven my buddy's XJ with 36's and stock brakes a few times and even with the big rubber it stops just fine, hell you can lock em up at 45 mph!

 

Let me clarify... they suck when you're dragging around 3500 extra pounds of dead weight

I can lock the brakes up on my 32's as well, but stopping the Jeep alone is different than stopping the Jeep PLUS something that weighs more than the Jeep.

I'm basically wondering if any other Jeeps or Chrysler products out there came with calipers that had more pistons than what the jeep has for more stopping power. Maybe someone knows of some better pad/rotor combos that are vented or something to reduce fade.

 

Rear disc brake conversion is a start, you can get kits to help you out or pinch some from a ZJ or WJ. I believe there's also some Ford application that's pretty close.

But at 3500 pounds I'd look into something like surge brakes for your trailer

 

Black Magic pads and Centric Premium rotors. Check out the site here:

http://blackmagicbrakes.com/

Amazing upgrade!

 

X2 on the surge brakes, and the ZJ or WJ disc conversion may only work if you have a DANA 35 rear, which if you do, ditching that for something stronger should be your first step anyways. Ford 8.8's out of 90's exploders can be found with disc brakes complete from end to end for around $150 at any boneyard and are far stronger than the junk DANA 35. Sorry about the rant, I hate DANA 35's!

 

Yeah I may do that. Problem is then I have to regear the front (which would be nice anyway). I just did some research on adding surge brakes... it'd probably end up being cheaper if I went that route.

 

Probably would be cheaper, I know the most common gear ratio for the 8.8's is 3.73 but I know 4.10's are out there also and i've been told they also came with 3.55's but i'm not certain about that. You didn't mention if you had ABS or not, if you do then you absolutely have a DANA 35 rear, if not check the bottom of the housing and if its the same shape as the cover it's a 35 also, the 8.25 (much much better!) has a flat bottom.

 

Yeah, mine is the D35... but no ABS. Some day I'll upgrade the rear to a Ford 8.8, but probably not until I shatter the D35