2009-2014 F150 & Raptor Performance Brake Pads

Choosing a set of brake pads for your F150

A lot of people dismiss brake pads as being not all that critical to their F150's braking performance and just go with boring OEM or OEM equivalent brake pads when the factory pads need changing. The fact is that aftermarket brake pads offer up a pretty big improvement in stopping power and come in several different varieties to get you the perfect set of pads for your particular application and braking needs. Even though we have F150 brake pads from a few different manufacturers, pad choices can be broken up into a few different categories.

Ceramic Pads: ceramic brake pads are your basic uprated replacements for most stock semi-metallic pads. Ceramic pads offer up a nice improvement in stopping power and overall braking performance while generating less brake dust, less noise, and less wear than your typical OEM or OES equivalent brake pads. While ceramics don't offer the most stopping power out of all the brake pad options out there, they are an excellent choice for daily-driven F150s, lighter-duty off-road F150s, and any other application where improved performance over stock is needed without anything crazy.

Towing Pads: purpose-built towing pads or light truck pads are the next step up from ceramic pads. These pads are usually made of a Ferro-Carbon compound and sacrifice some of the finer comforts of ceramic brake pads for a boost in stopping power, but more importantly, reduced fade. The thing with towing applications, especially when those hauls get extremely large, is that heat buildup under the kind of heavy and consistent braking that it takes to get a heavy load to stop causes some pretty drastic brake fade. The last thing you need is a huge stopping distance when you're pulling all your hardware. Towing and truck pads are your solution, though they will have a little bit more noise and brake dust than ceramic brake pads.

Performance Pads: these pads are built for maximum stopping power and brake performance. All other considerations are secondary. Performance brake pads usually feature an even more aggressive Ferro-Carbon compound than towing or light truck pads. While the up-gunned compound provides even more stopping power, bite, and reduced fade, it also causes more noise, more dust generation, and more wear than more standard brake pads. Still, if you want to maximize your truck's stopping power for the track or the trail, these pads are exactly what you need.