Why your Jeep needs the Wilwood AERO6-DM brake kit

When it comes to off-road fun, having a capable & reliable machine is crucial. Whatever vehicle you’re adventuring in, the focus of modifications typically include reinforced front & rear bumpers with a winch, a lift with larger wheels & tires, a RTT, ice box, armor, water tanks… even outfitted trailers. While all of these are valid alterations, it goes to show you how one of the most important mods can easily be overlooked… or put on the back-burner. This is the Wilwood AERO6-DM brake kit for the JK / JKU Jeep Wrangler. But please note: Wilwood makes this same kit for many popular truck & off-road models.

Safety is key on and off road…

Trails can be unpredictable. And while your stock braking system was designed to perform well from the factory, most of those designs see limitations under increased demand from added weight, extreme use, and harsh environments. It can easily reduce your stopping power, increase brake wear, and potentially put you and others in harm’s way.

Let’s get physical …

Simply put, the job of your brakes is to convert kinetic energy into heat. The formula for kinetic energy is mass, times velocity squared. What the **** does that mean? Well – all of the additional bumpers, tents, wheels, tires, armor, and accessories add to your vehicle’s mass. So if you’ve doubled the mass that your brakes are responsible for, you’ve doubled the kinetic energy they’ll need to handle. Having a high performance braking system becomes nearly essential to accommodate all the upgrades you’ve made to your rig.

On the other side of the equation…

Speed also carries a significant change in the kinetic energy. In the situation that you’ve doubled your velocity, you effectively quadrupled your kinetic energy, as that factor is squared. The greater the kinetic energy, the harder your brakes need to work and the hotter they get. Wilwood designs their kits to handle that greater kinetic energy & dissipate heat more efficiently. And that gives you peace-of-mind from the road, to rocks, to snow-covered terrain.

So The Solution…

is the Wilwood Disc AERO6-DM brake kit. The kit includes calipers, brake pads, steel-braided lines, and rotors. Wilwood provides a stronger bite from the caliper, larger surface area on the rotor, advanced brake pad materials, and overall better heat dissipation. The Wilwood calipers take you from the stock single-piston design… to a massive 6-piston caliper. Their significantly larger rotors allow you to bite further from the center of the rotating mass, offering more leverage at the contact point. The caliper & rotor pair perfectly to also give you more braking surface area. It’s the same idea as having more rubber on the ground at the starting line.

The Sauce…

Unlike other brake upgrade kits, Wilwood’s AERO6-DM manages to add all of this additional braking power in a more compact package. Typically, upgraded brake kits require larger wheels clear the calipers. Yet in the off-road world, there are benefits to keeping the wheel diameter smaller & running larger tires. The AERO6-DM kit fits neatly behind the factory wheels, and most aftermarket 17″ wheels & larger.

Other kits also typically require adapters to extend caliper mounting. They might even require upgraded master cylinders. Wilwood, however, has designed the larger stress-flow forged aluminum calipers to mount directly to the factory mounting points. The caliper gives you six bore pistons for even braking, and a closed bridge design that provides more overall strength under load. The rotors take you from the stock 11.9”… to a drilled & slotted 13.38”. Additionally – this kit is completely compatible with your factory master cylinder, ABS, and electronic controls.

An upgraded brake kit that doesn’t require any brackets or modification is a huge stride in a market that immediately adds weight to their build.

Don’t get caught slippin’…

Listen, brakes are arguably the most crucial part of any vehicle. Whether you’re barreling down the back-straight at the track, pulling your car to the track on a trailer, or steadily descending down one of your favorite mountain tails… be sure you’re able to control the momentum with a thoroughly engineered & tested brake kit like the Wilwood AERO6-DM.