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Source: Front Street Media recently posted an extensive look at the Alcon Components front-brake kit for the 2019 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor which is excerpted below. The post contains extensive photos of the installation process as well as comments from interviews with an Alcon rep. The entire post can be viewed by clicking HERE.
MOORSEVILLE, N.C. – It is no secret that big brake kits offer many advantages to the enthusiast: improved stopping power, longer pad life, and in many cases, vastly improved appearance, among other benefits. We recently had the opportunity to follow along as one of our Turn 14 Distribution teammates, Jeremy Sassaman, enlisted another colleague, Andrew Trujillo, to install a big brake kit from Alcon Components onto the front of his 2019 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor.
The kit consists of just a few pieces: new ductile iron caliper housings, fresh rotors, mounting brackets, pads, and ancillary hardware, and a new tie rod adapter kit from Addictive Desert Designs. Since the install is fairly simple, we invite you to follow along with the photos to see the process, and we’ll point out notable points of interest with respect to the install a bit further into the article.
But first, I chatted with Alcon’s Quinton Brantley about the kit’s development and design and learned a couple of things about Alcon as a company that surprised me. Specifically, Alcon Components has several military contracts, which help to drive the development process for the company’s products forward.
“This kit is derived from our military and armored business. What happens in the armored vehicle market is that when these guys do fitments on a vehicle to turn it into an armored vehicle, it has to look like the vehicle for the intended market. In this particular case, they would do the armored fitment and keep everything appearing as bone stock as possible, including the wheel size,” Brantley explains.
The stock brakes are adequate, but certainly not overkill. The Alcon Components big brake kit is used in those armored applications, so it must be incredibly robust and able to meet Mil-spec standards for performance and construction. To that end, the company selected a ductile iron, six-piston configuration for these Raptor calipers rather than manufacturing them from billet aluminum. The stiffness and rigidity give the caliper its immense strength, which is helpful when trying to harness the Raptor’s 5,700-pound curb weight and bring it to a stop.
One thing to note: Jeremy installed only the Alcon front big brake kit onto his truck, as Alcon’s rear fitment does not work on F-150s that utilize the electronic parking brake, like the brakes on the rear of his Raptor.
The entire post, with photos, can be viewed by clicking HERE.
