Rear brake upgrade: 11” to 13”

[Larry]

Yeah I know, most people are busy jumping through their own pie hole junking rear drums for rear disk brakes but I don’t totally buy into the rear disk swaps especially with using El Dorado calipers. I hated working on El Dorado calipers when they were on El Dorados let alone bolt those turds on my toy. No way! The late model GMT800 rear disk swaps are worthwhile but the parts are too pricy.

Anyway, as you recall, I scrapped my dad’s K20 wrecker last week and plan to swap the wreckers axles into my Suburban but the wrecker had 13” rear brakes. My heavy K10 could benefit more from the larger 13” brakes than the Suburban so I renewed everything on the 13” brake system and swapped them over to the K10 today. WOW! With the combination of the hydroboost I swapped on a couple years ago along with these 13” brakes the big heavy truck stop on a dime now! The dang park brake finally works now too. Actually, it feels like it stops better than my stock Silverado HD with rear disks.

On with the pictures…

Off with the little 11”s

Check out the difference when the 11’s are laid next to the 13’s. I installed the new shoes, hardware and e-brake cable on the 13” backing plates last night so it make the job quick and easy today. That 13” drum is a heavy mofo!

The big 13” drums stick out much further behind the wheel. They land about 1" closer to the spring plate.

Rear view of the 11’s before tear down

The only downside is the truck gained more weight but on the other hand Sunday I replaced the rear winch cable with Viking winch rope so it somewhat balances out in the end.

 

[sweetk30]

if you dont play in mud then drum is still great in this size.

 

[454Sub]

Im swapping over to the disks using the 3/4ton calipers and rotors, but my 13in drums in my Sub never let me down, I replaced everything in them a few years back and have yet to touch them, and they work pretty good for what they are.

 

[63chevyll]

Nice pictures. I like how everything you do is so clean.

 

[diesel4me]

I had a '71 GMC K1500 with 10 leaf rear springs,that someone before me swapped into it...it rode like it had NO springs empty,like dead axles!...but I could load that thing full of sand when I'd plow, and it handled the weight easily,never sagged more than a few inches with over a yard of wet sand in it...it rode nice when fully loaded though...the truck had tired stock 2 leaf front springs too,when I lifted the Fisher plow up,the back wheels would just about come off the ground!.................................it had the 11" brakes though,and stopping it when loaded with the plow on was a butt clenching expeience...you had to leave lots of room between your truck and the vehicle in front of you,and pray no one made you stop quick!...