Posted: Jul 06 2006 at 6:51am | IP Logged

How much larger tires.  Because at some point the tires will be too big for the brakes.

And you will get a gradual slow down instead of locking the brakes.  You would also know when the ABS turns on as the pedal will vibrate.  Try doing the test on a dirt road.  There should be enough loose material there to let hte tires lock up and test your ABS system.

Posted: Jul 06 2006 at 10:31pm | IP Logged

mbarr69 wrote: Let me re-phrase the question. If my truck is traveling at 35mph and  then the brake pedal is applied all the way to the floor,

..

mbarr69;

... If your brake pedal is actually bottoming out on the floor you have a serious problem.

If this is true then the brakes are out of adjustment, worn out or have air in the lines.

Have a good one and   CUL.. lakota

Posted: Jul 08 2006 at 6:01pm | IP Logged

Mbarr69, the 01 Frontier stock size tires (265.55R.17") are actually at 28.5" (some where 29") diameter. If you have 31" diameter tires on the truck now then the brakes will have a noticable difference in its stopping ability while on dry payment/asphalt while traveling during highway speeds. However, during slow off-road driving conditions the brakes will not be of any issue unless your are traveling fast on rough ground. Then the ABS brake system is basicly usless and more of a problem than it is help...

The ABS braking system will not act the same way with the larger 31" tires on the truck as it would with only the 28.5"/29" factory size tires. For example; the 31" BFGoodrich AT (all terrain) tires are actually a 31.8" diameter profile tire, almost a 32" tire. Thats over 3" larger in diameter than the factory recommended diameter size tires. BTW: if you are useing 31" tires then you are also traveling approximately 6mph faster than what the speedometer is reading while driving.

Anyways, you will have to slam the brake pedal down real hard and very fast while traveling at 30mph or faster on the highway before the ABS light will come on. 

Like kcidmil had said, at some point the larger tires can actually become to big for the factory/stock brake system to handle without some modification to it.

But before you go out and start spending any of your hard earn cash on expensive brake upgrades, try a few easy and less expensive tricks. First, change out the front disc brake pades with a set of life time or ceramic pads. Then have the brake system bleeded by someone who is familar with pressure bleeding the lines as well. Take the rear brake drums off and blow out all the existing dust, dirt and any left over brake shoe debris from the drums and around the brake hardware as well. When you re-install the rear drums they should just be able to fit over the brake shoes with very little play between them. If the drums go on over the rear brake pad/shoes to easy and you notice play between the inside of the drum and the brake shoes then have them turned out untill the brake drum just barely fits over the shoes.