Hey all,
I've had my new brakes on for a couple of months so I wanted to post a review. Through recommendations on ClubArmada I purchased the brakes from James at R1 Concepts. James was extremely friendly and helpful during the sale and extended me a discount on my set of Front and Rear Premium drilled / slotted brake rotors and Posiquiet ceramic pads. The set came to me in about a week give or take.
Although I'm no metallurgist, the rotors appear to be regular cast iron with a zinc coating and black painted hat:
I washed them with soap and water to remove the protective shipping oil and there was minimal rusting when dry as I have experienced with uncoated rotors.
Install went fine with the exception that I put the rotors on so the slots were facing backwards. Some internet searching yielded that the direction of the rotors are a function of the internal fins so it was not technically wrong (the fins are unidirectional) so I lived with it for as long as I could (a few days) but ended up swapping them around (special thanks to Pops for his idea to brace a block of wood between the rotor and wheel well and turn the wheel to pop them off with no damage!).
So the rotors were on "correctly" now and the zinc coating appeared to be fully worn on the surface - ready for BEDDING.
The bedding process didn't seem to take the first two times I did it so I figured I needed more time to wear the zinc coating off. I gave it a couple weeks and ran it again (2x) and got that nice blue color that Zeckhausen recommends. The brakes started grabbing much better at that point.
At this point I noticed that the braking at highway speeds was MUCH better than the stock brakes ever have been. Wheel shimmy that I consistently had with the Nissan brakes was gone (yay!). The truck now stops with confidence unlike I did previously.
On the down side, I noticed that the Posi-Quiet pads seemed to take a little more effort at low speeds only when cold (like backing out of the driveway). I was set to call James but he actually sent me a follow up email to see if I was happy with the purchase!
Who does that? Well, no one I have ever done business with!
I spoke with him on the phone and he said he hasn't noticed this with the Centric pads he runs so it could be a different formulation for the Armada pads. He offered to exchange them for the semi-metallic "fleet" pads but cautioned that they were dusty. I declined as this is not much of an issue at all....if you press the brakes cold it stops fine but there is just slightly more pressure required.
The other thing I am not crazy about with the Posi-Stops is the dust. They seem to dust up more than other ceramic pads I have owned, specifically Axxis Deluxe, but unfortunately Axxis front pads are not made for the Armada. The dust is less than or equal to stocks so far that I have seen whereas the Axxis Deluxe pads I have on my M3 are zero.
As far as grading, here's my subjective opinion:
Rotors:
Hotness: 100%
Stopping: 100%
Noise: 100% (zero noise with this combo)
Durability: 100% (time will tell though)
Pads:
Performance: 94%
Dust: 75%
Noise: 100% (see comment above)
R1 Concepts:
Price: 100%
Customer Service: 110%
Promptness: 100%
Post Sales service: 110%
Here is what they look like on the truck (I really have to clean / paint my calipers!). Note that the rust on the slots / holes is normal (same on my M3 with the stock rotors) and will eventually turn black due to dust):
Front:
Rear:
Side View:
I've had my new brakes on for a couple of months so I wanted to post a review. Through recommendations on ClubArmada I purchased the brakes from James at R1 Concepts. James was extremely friendly and helpful during the sale and extended me a discount on my set of Front and Rear Premium drilled / slotted brake rotors and Posiquiet ceramic pads. The set came to me in about a week give or take.
Although I'm no metallurgist, the rotors appear to be regular cast iron with a zinc coating and black painted hat:

I washed them with soap and water to remove the protective shipping oil and there was minimal rusting when dry as I have experienced with uncoated rotors.
Install went fine with the exception that I put the rotors on so the slots were facing backwards. Some internet searching yielded that the direction of the rotors are a function of the internal fins so it was not technically wrong (the fins are unidirectional) so I lived with it for as long as I could (a few days) but ended up swapping them around (special thanks to Pops for his idea to brace a block of wood between the rotor and wheel well and turn the wheel to pop them off with no damage!).
So the rotors were on "correctly" now and the zinc coating appeared to be fully worn on the surface - ready for BEDDING.
The bedding process didn't seem to take the first two times I did it so I figured I needed more time to wear the zinc coating off. I gave it a couple weeks and ran it again (2x) and got that nice blue color that Zeckhausen recommends. The brakes started grabbing much better at that point.
At this point I noticed that the braking at highway speeds was MUCH better than the stock brakes ever have been. Wheel shimmy that I consistently had with the Nissan brakes was gone (yay!). The truck now stops with confidence unlike I did previously.
On the down side, I noticed that the Posi-Quiet pads seemed to take a little more effort at low speeds only when cold (like backing out of the driveway). I was set to call James but he actually sent me a follow up email to see if I was happy with the purchase!
I spoke with him on the phone and he said he hasn't noticed this with the Centric pads he runs so it could be a different formulation for the Armada pads. He offered to exchange them for the semi-metallic "fleet" pads but cautioned that they were dusty. I declined as this is not much of an issue at all....if you press the brakes cold it stops fine but there is just slightly more pressure required.
The other thing I am not crazy about with the Posi-Stops is the dust. They seem to dust up more than other ceramic pads I have owned, specifically Axxis Deluxe, but unfortunately Axxis front pads are not made for the Armada. The dust is less than or equal to stocks so far that I have seen whereas the Axxis Deluxe pads I have on my M3 are zero.
As far as grading, here's my subjective opinion:
Rotors:
Hotness: 100%
Stopping: 100%
Noise: 100% (zero noise with this combo)
Durability: 100% (time will tell though)
Pads:
Performance: 94%
Dust: 75%
Noise: 100% (see comment above)
R1 Concepts:
Price: 100%
Customer Service: 110%
Promptness: 100%
Post Sales service: 110%
Here is what they look like on the truck (I really have to clean / paint my calipers!). Note that the rust on the slots / holes is normal (same on my M3 with the stock rotors) and will eventually turn black due to dust):
Front:



Rear:

Side View:
