Rotating and unsprung weight in off-road brakes

We frequently get questions about the weight of our off-road brake systems compared to stock and aluminum systems.  The fact is that this aspect of the brake system is important, but not really a significant factor.

Looking at it two ways:

Power loss due to extra rotating weight is very small compared to the additional rotating mass if you have moved to 37" tires or heavy duty wheels.  . The rotors are very near the rotation center of the wheel and will have a negligible impact, especially compared to the tires. A general rule of thumb we use in the racing world is that you lose about 1 HP per 7lbs. That means in order to lose 100HP you would have had to add 700 pounds of weight. Our total shipping weight is 140# including boxes, pads, material, etc.. If that’s even double the factory weight – it means you would have added 70#, losing about 10HP. That’s 2% of a modded Raptor power.  The extra benefit of braking better and sooner adds 20% plus to your overall performance so your 0-60-0MPH times is dramatically better.

Where it DOES have a measurable impact is in the amount of energy the shock absorbers have to work with as they go over bumps. However what we found time and time again, and confirmed race engineers from a several pro racing teams (LeMans, Daytona, Grand-Am, etc) is that it is always better to have power, braking,  and reliability even at the expense of some extra unsprung/rotating weight,  because a good suspension can be tuned to work with that extra weight. 

In the "old-days" when brakes and shock dampers were more rudimentary the additional weight was a very significant concern in these areas. …but in todays era of tunable suspension, shock dynos, shaker rigs, etc.. the weight of the discs is not really a factor that needs to be fretted over, it is simply accommodated.

All we do at Alconkits is brakes, all of the time. Browse some of the technical articles on our website and I think you will see its all we think about..