Tbss In Truckin Mag

[dancemfSS]

In the March/april edition of Truckin magizine they have a Trailblazer SS in the tech section.
The article is a 4 page layout on how to add Gm performance Brake Duct cooling kit.

[Hawaiian SS]

Expensive BS mod that does nothing. Money better spent on a CAI or tune.

[dancemfSS]

Results show improvement.SO spend money on the CAI,tune,brake ducts and exhaust.lol.:)

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b216/dancemf/lastscan-1.jpg

[Hawaiian SS]

Nice, but unless you autocross, how often are you going to do 10 full brake runs to warrent the $399 price tag.

[MajesticLT03]

alot more people would by it if they cut the price in half

[SSG_T37]

Nice, but unless you autocross, how often are you going to do 10 full brake runs to warrent the $399 price tag.

:iagree:
alot more people would by it if they cut the price in half

I still wouldn't buy it for half off! How many people are going to take a 5000lbs SUV and use it like an Indy car. And for every one who uses it at the 1/4 mile track I seriously doubt they'd need it. Good Idea on a GTO or Vette, but not an SUV. You can see it took 6 pulls to even to start to make a difference. that's not going to help any SUV when you need it in a real situation!

Like someone said before I would rather spend the money on something that uses the brake duct to ram air to the CAI.

[dancemfSS]

lol ok yes they are expense.Maybe they will have a sale.lol.
I just thought it was cool Truckin had a TBSS featured.
Maybe they will do more articles.:)

[SSG_T37]

lol ok yes they are expense.Maybe they will have a sale.lol.
I just thought it was cool Truckin had a TBSS featured.
Maybe they will do more articles.:)

:iagree: it's nice to see the TBSS featured, but I wish they would have done the article on something a little more useful (heads, cam, s/c, turbo, intake, headers, exhaust, upgraded tranny etc…), not brake ducts! That’s definitely not the coolest thing about the TBSS. I haven’t read the article but to dedicate 4 pages to just brake ducts, what a waste! Give us enthusiasts something useful and jaw dropping.

[Hawaiian SS]

lol ok yes they are expense.Maybe they will have a sale.lol.
I just thought it was cool Truckin had a TBSS featured.
Maybe they will do more articles.:)

I agree, great find. You don't really see any articles on these trucks, would be nice to see more.

[travd]

:iagree: it's nice to see the TBSS featured, but I wish they would have done the article on something a little more useful (heads, cam, s/c, turbo, intake, headers, exhaust, upgraded tranny etc…), not brake ducts! That’s definitely not the coolest thing about the TBSS. I haven’t read the article but to dedicate 4 pages to just brake ducts, what a waste! Give us enthusiasts something useful and jaw dropping.

Here we go again! What makes you think having 600Hp in a top heavy SUV is going to be cool if you can't keep up with anybody in the corners?. If you want to go fast and be able to keep up with the little imports, that will out handle you any day, then go get a GTO or Corvette. If your trying to make your SUV the fastest thing around forget about it, theres allways somebody faster and you really didn't make a wise choice in picking the heavy TBSS. Also, the TBSS is all ready JAW DROPPING. Your just flirting with disaster trying to make a top heavy SUV handle at any speed with that kind of Hp. Don't get me wrong Hp is cool but, don't slam the ability to stop. All of you guys sound like the typical fool's wanting to go fast but, never consider the ability to stop.
Stop thinking of just the Hp aspect of it and do a total package. The, I want to go fast but don't want to stop, philosophy is getting old. Think about it real hard. The faster your going the more cooling is needed to help you stop because you are converting mechanical energy into heat. The faster you cool the rotors the better. Nothing wrong with wanting to stop better. All the people using the TBSS SUV while towing and the guys adding larger rims need to think about the samething.

So please stop thinking the brake cooling duct's are a waste of money and you can make them cheaper because I don't want you behind me and not being able to stop as fast as me at 120MPH. (note how I said behind me)

[MajesticLT03]

somebody has a chip on their shoulder :suicide:

[MyGoatBites]

Isn't it awesome how GM can get them to do an article on some BS mods like their brake cooling kit and they didn't want to do an article on my truck when it was putting almost 650 to the wheels. Shows how the manufacturers money manipulates the magazines. Crock O' shiz if you ask me

[kickasstahoe]

ok ok how about we settle this one right now. how about taken that 399 it would cost for the ducts and put it towards the big brake kit that ive seen on this site somewhere before. now thats stopping power. if anyone has the link for the brakes please post. thanks



i found a picture of it.

http://www.admperformance.com/images/product/caliper_rotor.jpg

[SSG_T37]

Here we go again! What makes you think having 600Hp in a top heavy SUV is going to be cool if you can't keep up with anybody in the corners?. If you want to go fast and be able to keep up with the little imports, that will out handle you any day, then go get a GTO or Corvette. If your trying to make your SUV the fastest thing around forget about it, theres allways somebody faster and you really didn't make a wise choice in picking the heavy TBSS. Also, the TBSS is all ready JAW DROPPING. Your just flirting with disaster trying to make a top heavy SUV handle at any speed with that kind of Hp. Don't get me wrong Hp is cool but, don't slam the ability to stop. All of you guys sound like the typical fool's wanting to go fast but, never consider the ability to stop.
Stop thinking of just the Hp aspect of it and do a total package. The, I want to go fast but don't want to stop, philosophy is getting old. Think about it real hard. The faster your going the more cooling is needed to help you stop because you are converting mechanical energy into heat. The faster you cool the rotors the better. Nothing wrong with wanting to stop better. All the people using the TBSS SUV while towing and the guys adding larger rims need to think about the samething.

So please stop thinking the brake cooling duct's are a waste of money and you can make them cheaper because I don't want you behind me and not being able to stop as fast as me at 120MPH. (note how I said behind me)


To each his/her own! All I’m saying is it took six 60-0 (stop like you going to hit/run someone over) brake tests to start yielding any results. The first 3 stops yielded worse results than with no brake ducts and stops 4 & 5 were the same as stock. I never said I didn't value the ability to stop as I think for an SUV the SS has great brakes. If you plan on driving the SS at the oval or at the squigglies, that's cool. Who’s really going to use a 5000lbs SUV like an Indy car all the time though? I know I’m not! IMO from what I saw in the article if you were on the street driving normally and had to stop on a dime you probably aren't going to see any improvement. In fact you might just take longer to stop! In the article they threw out the first 5 stops in their analysis because they obviously didn't give them the results they were looking for and only focused on the last 5 tests. Mostly because they needed to heat the brakes up first to get results. The reason I say driving normally is because who goes out in the car and the first thing they do is 5 or 6 60-0 hard stops to warm their brakes up just incase you might need to shave a few feet off of your stopping distance for various reasons? Normal driving conditions will warm up your brakes but not to the point that you are going to see dramatic stopping distances with the brakes ducts. Sure once you’ve heated your brakes up really good your going to see the cooling kits do there job! This is all just my opinion and I am in no way an expert and if I'm wrong than someone will let me have it I’m sure! I believe what the GM engineer said about "the kit improving rotor longevity and brake pad wear characteristics ---- along with better brake pedal feel in extreme driving conditions" , but the thing that stands out the most in what he said to me is extreme conditions. If anyone is really serious about running with the imports or any other sports car on the track you would do more to your brakes and suspension to improve them over stock to include the brake ducts. I never said anything about making 600hp in my SS or making it the fastest thing around. Nor would I ever try to design my own brake ducts. And I completely agree with you on this “The faster your going the more cooling is needed to help you stop because you are converting mechanical energy into heat. The faster you cool the rotors the better. Nothing wrong with wanting to stop better.” I just thought the article should have been on something other than brake ducts. And you are right the TBSS is jaw dropping already!:D

[BowenCT]

Again, I would install this kit if for no other reason than to put those rediculous looking holes in the bumper to use. Aesthetically they are hidious, combine that with having absoluterly zero purpose and they are borderline comical. However, toss the duct kit on and they become (slightly) forgivable.

But hey, that's just me.......

[travd]

To each his/her own! All I’m saying is it took six 60-0 (stop like you going to hit/run someone over) brake tests to start yielding any results. The first 3 stops yielded worse results than with no brake ducts and stops 4 & 5 were the same as stock. I never said I didn't value the ability to stop as I think for an SUV the SS has great brakes. If you plan on driving the SS at the oval or at the squigglies, that's cool. Who’s really going to use a 5000lbs SUV like an Indy car all the time though? I know I’m not! IMO from what I saw in the article if you were on the street driving normally and had to stop on a dime you probably aren't going to see any improvement. In fact you might just take longer to stop! In the article they threw out the first 5 stops in their analysis because they obviously didn't give them the results they were looking for and only focused on the last 5 tests. Mostly because they needed to heat the brakes up first to get results. The reason I say driving normally is because who goes out in the car and the first thing they do is 5 or 6 60-0 hard stops to warm their brakes up just incase you might need to shave a few feet off of your stopping distance for various reasons? Normal driving conditions will warm up your brakes but not to the point that you are going to see dramatic stopping distances with the brakes ducts. Sure once you’ve heated your brakes up really good your going to see the cooling kits do there job! This is all just my opinion and I am in no way an expert and if I'm wrong than someone will let me have it I’m sure! I believe what the GM engineer said about "the kit improving rotor longevity and brake pad wear characteristics ---- along with better brake pedal feel in extreme driving conditions" , but the thing that stands out the most in what he said to me is extreme conditions. If anyone is really serious about running with the imports or any other sports car on the track you would do more to your brakes and suspension to improve them over stock to include the brake ducts. I never said anything about making 600hp in my SS or making it the fastest thing around. Nor would I ever try to design my own brake ducts. And I completely agree with you on this “The faster your going the more cooling is needed to help you stop because you are converting mechanical energy into heat. The faster you cool the rotors the better. Nothing wrong with wanting to stop better.” I just thought the article should have been on something other than brake ducts. And you are right the TBSS is jaw dropping already!:D


I commend you, Well said!!!

My major problem is with what people call a waste of money. It retails for $399 but, when was the last time you paid retail for anything? That's like paying Manufactures Sugested Retail Price (MSRP) for your TBSS. Nobody does that! Once again, I commend you on your take on the situation.

[blautens]

Again, I would install this kit if for no other reason than to put those rediculous looking holes in the bumper to use. Aesthetically they are hidious, combine that with having absoluterly zero purpose and they are borderline comical. However, toss the duct kit on and they become (slightly) forgivable.

But hey, that's just me.......

Agreed - it would be nice if only to make them serve a function. And at $200, I would...(just skip a couple of sushi dinners). But at $370 or so delivered...meh.

[SStbSS]

I like that article too. to bad there aren't more about our tbss.