Where'd they hide the brakes on this vehicle?

[AeroAggie]

The Land Cruiser has slowly evolved for decades under the watchful eyes of some of the best vehicle engineers on the planet. I seriously doubt that a system as important to and integrated with overall vehicle performance like brakes would be under-designed in any way. They work exactly as designed for a very wide range of terrain. Personally, I like the long stroke for better modulation as several others have mentioned. When it's time to panic brake, your adrenalin system will make quick work of it.

 

[NDizzle]

What about when the first press of the brake pedal is a little soft, and the second press is much more firm? However that only happens about 50% of the time. Ideas for areas that I should check?

I just put on DBA rotors with stock pads. Didn't bleed the brakes at that time, as it was bled 15k miles ago. The previous owner did a pad slap, so when the rotors started squeaking I threw away no name pads that had plenty of life. Now I know exactly what I have, and that's as it should be.

 

[M1911]

I had a someone pull out in front of me recently. I saw what was going to happen and hit the brakes hard, the seat belt retractor motor pulled me back into the seat, anti locks kicked in (A/T tires), the cruiser stopped before impact at her passenger door . My speed was max 50mph, most likely 45mph.

I am not comparing this brake system to any other but it worked well in this time of need.

2011, 39k, OEM brakes still, reading and learning. Thank you

That is Brake Assist that you experienced. I believe that Mercedes pioneered this technology. They determined that in many accidents drivers didn’t physically push the brake pedal hard enough. So they developed a booster that reads the speed of brake pedal depression. If you depress the brake pedal very quickly, the system assumes that you are in an emergency situation and it applies full braking, even if you didn’t depress the pedal far enough to get full braking. It also tensions the seatbelts.

 

[tirewater]

I finally got around to bleeding my brakes and it made a massive difference - as it should as there was air in the line at the calipers. This cured the 'koosh' feel before the booster kicked in to compensate.