I want to elaborate on a few things I have learned about brands and brakes over the years for trucks specifically. First, to cover the Hawk pads? Send a message to Kanakry and ask him about running Hawks on a Raptor. They tend to be noisy as they can be, extremely noisy. EBC are good products, but the longevity on heavier trucks isn't always the greatest, especially if you put them through the ringer. As for the Posiquiet ceramic pads, I have sold literally hundreds of sets of those for 1/2, 3/4 and 1 ton trucks over the years, mostly diesels and have yet to have anyone complain of performance or longevity. MY personal experience? I was going through rotors AND pads on my Duramax (yes I know, I know) every single year due to the weights I hauled with it. I also didn't "take it easy on it" wen unloaded either. In Jan 09 I took a shot and installed R1 Premium drilled and slotted rotors and Posiquiet ceramic pads because of price and a few reviews I saw online. Well, I was hauling farm goods and Christmas trees during the season at the time and I ran that year and season, then the '10 year and season (when I quit hauling for medical reasons). Well, I have been extremely hard on the truck in general and today, those brakes are still on the truck with no signs of warping, cracking, they still have about 60-70% pad on all four corners. Now, over the years I have taken very good care of the brake fluid and power steering fluidn (the dmax has a hydroboost assisted braking system). But they are still performing great.
That being said. Let's cover the drilling process. Some drilled rotors are known for cracking and have actually given drilled rotors a bad name because of it. But the drilled options like stated help to increase the cooling ability during harder driving applications. The difference is this. First, R1 takes great pains to ensure that the actual placement of the drilled holes is done right in the first place. You see, when you drill the holes, there is a specific technic and placement to be concerned about. They must NOT be too close to the walls of the veins between the two sides of the rotor. If they are ten you wind up with cracking all the way through the rotor. The size of the holes, the actual shape of the lips of the holes and the actual way that the holes are drilled also factor into the process. R1 Premium rotors offer two rows of hols between every slot to increase overall cooling, but their manufacturing process is set up to maximize quality, cooling, design, performance and longevity.
Now let's talk slotting. There are as many different slotting designs as there are companies offering them so I will not go through them all. But, I will say that the design of the slot makes a difference as well. R1 offers an exclusive dual purpose "Diamond" slot design for their rotors. The diamond slot shape not only improves pad bite to improve braking performance overall, you know, so that you stop quicker, they also help to keep the pads clean as well to specifically help to avoid glazing, trash build up, etc. They are directional, although I have tested that by actually installing their rotors backwards on my wife's Yukon Denali because I had customers who did that before asking me about it so I wanted to test it. Well, they have been on it for almost two years now and look almost brand new with the slots pointing the wrong way. So the directional part is well, semantics really. The diamond slot design serves as a wear indicator as well. You see, the way the shape of the slots are designed, when you have eaten away enough of the rotors that the diamond pointed shape is gone at the end of the slots, it is time to change them, but you know what, the rotors on the Duramax aren't even close at this point. 4 years and close to 40-45K hard miles, about 20K miles of which were spent hauling loads that "averaged" 35K lbs TGCVW, and they are still in great shape. They don't "look" that great anymore because over the past year my son and I have torn the truck apart from stem to stern, inside and out getting it like he wants it since I am giving it to him and it has spent a lot of time over that year sitting out back in the elements. so I used de-squeak spray on them to help avoid rust. But they still perform flawlessly.
In the end, if you want EBC, Hawk, Stoptech or almost any other brand, let me know, I sell those too. But if you want MY recommendation, R1Concepts products are better than them all.
