Iron Claw Brake Pads

[racokley]

Many of you may have read the article in the TDR Mag about these "Copper Top" Iron Claw Brake Pads, that made them sound like the greatest thing since sliced bread... They convinced me, and I bought a set. Well, after a 4000 mile trip from California to the Canadian Rockies and back, I can only say one thing about them: They are absolute crap! - I put these on along with brand new rotors 1 week prior to leaving, shortly after the trip began they began squealing and squeeking, pulling one way then then other, heating up, and producing more brake dust than I had seen in the 5 previous years!- I thought it might be some of the copper top material (which is supposed to wear off and save your rotors, according to their paperwork) stuck in one of the pads, so I pulled them off, cleaned everything, skuffed the surface of the pads up again (they looked glazed already), and re-installed with lots of brake quiet on the back of the pads. To no avail, still noisy as all get out! - Finally got home last week, ordered a set of Performance Friction Z-Rated Carbon Metalic pads (From Naational Fleet Supply, off the web, great prices!)and installed them on Monday - No noise, stops straight again! - My advice, don't even consider the Iron Claw Pads! Rick

 

[illflem]

Rick, just the name scared me away, I could just picture claw mark grooves in my rotors. Carbomet pads from TDR member Sam Peterson are the best you can buy in my book.

 

[Bob Wagner]

thanks for the heads up

1. Sam Peterson is the TDR Brake Guru.

 

[Cooker]

What Bob said! Sam is a great guy.



-Ryan

 

[MLee]

re-iron claw

racokley

i read your TDR post and started to look in my area, sounded like the answer to the brake pad problem. question,- were they beveled both fore and aft on the rotor side of the pads? this is the reason most of the time, a pad will cause the squeal. i bought my replacement pads from auto zone and they have a lot of material removed in this area, but does not effect the stopping distance, and no squeal. life time quarantee. just my pennys worth

Marv.

 

[racokley]

MLee-



The Iron Claw pads were not beveled fore and aft, but the Performance Friction pads are... Rick

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

Sorry to hear they didn't work for you. They were a new product and I only had time for a short trial before the magazine deadline. My set is still on my Ram, and they don't exhibit the problems you recount, other than giving some brown brake dust on the wheels. They do seem to give off an odor if heavily overheated unlike the PF pads (I forgot to hook up the trailer brakes once and going down the mountain it became obvious what I had done wrong. ) The Performance Friction brakes are very good and in the article I noted I used them for about 6 years, I think. AFter I put more miles on the claw brakes I guess I'll decide what worked best for me.