I have a 04 silverado 4x4 1500. It has had soft brakes eversince I got it. Its supposed to be rated at 10,000 pound tow capacity, but when towing half that braking power was really a joke, even empty with no trailer they barely have the capicty to stop the truck. I just put on new rotors n pads front and back , and bleed the calipers for good measure with very little improvement.   when off the brakes pump up hard n solid, doesn't feel like any air.

Does any one know if I could swap out master cylinders, say from a 3/4 ton or what ever to get more brakeing power.   For now my next step would be ss braided brake lines flush new fluid though the system, n have the abs bleed at the dealer n see what happens, but If thier is a way to increase the system or whatever I'd much rather be down for that.  

Anyone got any suggestions, experience with this prob. Thanks  

First of all, 1500 are LD and do not have a lot of extra braking capacity and you are supposed to have brakes on trailers over 2000 lbs or so in most states. Your truck was never meant to tow 5k let alone 10K with no brakes on trailer. Also if you are running over sized tire this REDUCES braking performance as well as towing performance too. Finally, that GM's to rating for that truck with a grain of salt because they are not very accurate as there is no science to them other than what rating need to say to help sell them. Real world figure about 60% of the rating as a more realistic limit on LD 1/2 tons.  

Yes the trailer had brakes on it too, which helped but even not towing the truck is horrible. Still running stock size tires. Just about every chevy i had , had braking issuse, similar to this, in one way or another. What I am looking for is to increase braking capacity without spending a fortune or increasing rotor or caliper size (would require larger wheels). I already figured out the truck is overrated. Next truck I get will def be 3/4 ton, n Im def gonna look at ford's n dodges alot harder this time. But for now, just tryin to make do.  

I understand your pickle. You could try this. GM uses very hard brake pad to extend their life and the result of this is that they can take higher pedal pressures to stop and they also wear and glaze rotor over which reduces braking effectiveness. Approx 70% of your average brake load is done with front wheels on a LD 1/2 ton. Try replacing front rotors and installing cheaper softer pad and that should restore your pedal. Granted that pads will not last 100K miles and you will have to change them more often but then you will have brakes too and not be wearing out rotors either.  

I just put on a set of hawk red box, ferro carbon hd truck fleet duty pads, with rotors n all, that helped alot, just tryin to squeeze every last braking power out of her what u think about ss braided lines for the calipers waste of money or helps abit  

thanx  

I used to play with hard pad long ago but got tired of changing rotors too. I have gone over 200K on rotors and I have a 89 4x4 that I bought new that has 180K on rotors and it has good brakes and rotors are in great shape too. I scraped factory hard pads after I got it. Braking creates a lot of heat and friction and something has to give and it either rotors or pads and pads are cheaper and easier to change.  

I have an '06 Chevy 1500 with 35" tires. I stepped up to cross drilled slotted rotors and good pads and got almost all my brakes back! If you think that a 3/4 or 1 ton truck is gonna stop faster, think again. And a Dodge certainly doesn't have better brakes! Been there, brother. You may need to seriously take a look at your driving habits. you are not driving a sports car, don't expect a truck to stop like a Corvette.  

I know it ain't no sports car, but it should do better than a "rolling" stop if i hit the brakes hard, I took a 3/4 04 silverado out for a test drive n it def had alot more braking capicity. It just about did stop on a dime . It the setup looked just about the same as the 1500 bigest thing I noticed was it had hydrolic booster instead of vaccum. I know I can't get that kind of performance with out spendin alot of money, so I'm basically just looking for all the small things I can do to help out whatever I can.