2025 Defender HD10 Lone Star Max - X3 Big Brake Kit? Done Son!

Cpbiddle · 2026-02-27T22:21:52-0600

Hello Defender forum! I am new to the forum but have been creeping and learning here for a while. I thought it would be great to do an intro, but more importantly, give back to the forum! I appreciate all the info that I have found here, this is my pay it forward.

I picked up my Defender new last Summer: 2025 Lone Star HD10 Max, CAB Conversion, Evo Powersports Turbo

Notable upgrades, too many to list:

Evo Powersports DT-195 Turbo
KWI PDrive XPro clutch with DR3 floated secondary
2" Fwd Offset front lower a-arms High Lifter and 2" Fwd Offset front upper a-arm CT Race Worx
S3 Powersports rear adjustable upper a-arm and CT Race Worx lower rear a-arm - no offset in the rear
Dirty Teeth Racing Remote start and 2" lift
Stage 4 Elka shocks
32" Valor Alpha tires on Method 411 15" (5+2, but soon to switch over to 4+3)
MB Quart 320-Watt Stage 4 Can-Am Defender Tuned Four-Speaker head unit, with rear speakers
Subs: Wetbox audio rear sealed enclosure with 2x JL Audio 12W7, 2x JL Audio 13W7s mounted in sealed enclosures, which are mounted to rear seat frames (removable with magnetic terminals) - 3x HD1200 amps for a total of 3600 Watts, it rocks
800 Amp Hour home built LiFePO4 battery pack inside aluminum Tree Dog Kustoms toolbox - to power the subs
Ruff Tuff Seat covers
Full interior lighting; switch and door ajar controlled floor lights in front and rear, switch controlled ceiling lights, switch controlled rock lights, backup lights, the usual switch controlled front and rear LEDs
AEM gauge set, with Speedhut speedometer: boost gauge, oil pressure gauge and wide band O2
PCI Radios center console bracket - converted to rocker switch console. It is awesome; a lot of switches
Traxter steering wheel shroud with Traxter blinker fob: controls blinker, headlights, brights, even the horn! - this is a great upgrade if you have blinkers since it is a direct bolt on
Thumper Fab Nerf Rails - they said it couldn't be done with factory aluminum rock sliders, but I used some custom spacers and made some brackets to fit them on. They are great and I kept the rock sliders!

With all this weight and power the truck was hard to handle. The turbo gets this thing going great, but it is heavy and the stock brakes are terrible. I was determined to get the 6-piston calipers and larger disks.

This project is applicable to 65" HD10 trucks with the Smartlok front Diff and any of the 65" 2026 HD11 trucks that have the front Smartlok Diff. For the HD11s this is a very easy project, and you can probably skip the Master Cylinder swap, which would make this something you can do in just a few hours. Also, you will need at least 15" wheels, or if you use something smaller than 15" I don't know if it will fit.

I worked for many months on a solution, but the 2026 HD11 was the key. I first purchased the Wilwood Big Brake Kit Can-Am Maverick X3 / X3 MAX 2017-2024, Item: P1057561 SKU: 10325390. I also picked up the Wilwood 260-16057 Tandem Master Cylinder. You don't need to buy the Master Cylinder from a UTV store, you can pick it up from many different places for much cheaper. Also, ignore the instructions about mounting it level; I contacted Wilwood and it can be mounted in any orientation so long as you first perform a bench bleed (level it in a vice, cycle brake fluid through it until there are no air bubbles).

Here is what it took:

Wilwood Big Brake Kit Can-Am Maverick X3 / X3 MAX 2017-2024, Item: P1057561 SKU: 10325390. You actually only need a few parts and can likely purchase them from a Wilwood dealer and save significant coin. I will list the parts, but they are the calipers and brackets that mount the calipers to the HD11 knuckles.
Wilwood 260-16057 Tandem Master Cylinder.
Replace the HD10 front knuckles with HD11 knuckles. There is a HUGE difference, the HD11 are much more robust in every way and they use the same bearings as the Maverick.
Replace the HD10 wheel hubs with the HD11s. Same thing, these are night and day different. You will be blown away at how much better the HD11s are. These also use M12 lugs. You will also need to have these machined. More on that later, and there is a place that will do it for cheap so you just need to buy them and send them off.
Replace the HD10 front axles with those from the HD11. Both are 65" and both use the Smartlok Front Differential. If you do not have the Smartlok Diff you have a problem. You will either need to swap out the diff for a Smartlok, or contact Travis Elsbury at Cobra axles to have him make you a set of 65" axles with the HD11 outside CVs. The outside CV is nearly identical to the Maverick, but it is not the same.
Purchase custom made 11.25" 1/4" thick stainless steel brake discs from the same place that will machine your wheel hubs. We designed these together and they will have them on file and can crank them out for you for a fair price.
You will need adjustable lower front a-arms. Specifically, the ones from High Lifter. There are likely some other solutions, such as the Heim a-arms from SuperATV that allow adjustments on both upper and lower. You can bring the top in, push the bottom out. More on this later.
I suggest the Wilwood 150-40-7812K Smart Pad BP-40 Brake Pads.

I could go through all of the ups and downs and explain all the things I have tried, but it would make this post 20 pages. The bottom line is that though there are other ways to do this, this is the best way to get the Big Brakes if you want them.

I will post more on this with pics below. Thank you for following along!

Cpbiddle · 2026-02-27T22:27:19-0600

Master Cylinder Install

I first tried to upgrade to the Maverick Master cylinder (P# 705601927), which should have been a direct bolt on. It is nearly the same length and size overall, but it pushes a lot more fluid. I don't have the specs, but Wilwood says that it is sufficient for the X3 Big Brake kit calipers. However, the neck on the end, that goes through the mounting bracket on the Defender (P# 705212644) is too large to fit into the hole on the bracket . Also, the mounting screw holes do not line up with those on the Defender. You would need to enlarge the main hole and drill new bolt holes to mount it. If you are going to drill new holes you might as well upgrade to the Wilwood Monster Cylinder.

One issue is that there is very little clearance between the stock Master Cylinder (MC) and the exterior cover (P# 707900389) that covers the MC. This cover is up in the driver's side wheel well and is held in place with a single push rivet. You will not be able to fit the Wilwood MC under the stock cover and will need to modify this cover if you want to put it back on. I cut off the top left side so that the cover would fit over most of the hole and allow the MC to stick out. I then took some Siless Hybrid 3in1 200 mil Car Sound Deadening mat and covered the entire thing. This stuff is very sticky, water resistant, and has a plastic outside. It will insulate well and is thicker than the cover itself. I then covered this with aluminum ducting tape, which is also water resistant and very sticky. This sealed the hole well from water, mud and the cold air. I also have some MudBusters fenders that I modified to work with my stock fenders. They mount up in the wheel well and keep mud / water even going up into this area. They are wide enough to cover all the way over to about halfway past the shocks.

Do whatever you want here, just understand that you will need to find a way to cover up the new MC since it will not fit under the stock cover.

Note that the stock brake lines will screw into the Wilwood MC just fine, but you need to orient the MC where the outlets (going to the front and rear brakes) are pointing to ~10 o'clock. The inlets from the stock reservoirs can be turned to face upward and the stock hoses will easly fit on them. You do not need to swap out the stock reservoirs. The ones that come with the Maverick MC are nice, but there isn't an easy way to mount them on, there are other options, but I found it unnecessary. However, over time, as the pads wear, more fluid will stay in the calipers. You must remember to check the stock reservoirs from time to time to ensure that they have enough fluid. The point of the larger reservoirs is to allow the system to have enough fluid that you do not need to add (or take away) any fluid as the pads wear or you install new pads. I am not sure the stock reservoirs are large enough for that, but time will tell.

Make sure that you connect the reservoirs to the MC first. Let the brake fluid drip out of the MC after connecting them. Then connect the front and rear brake lines to the MC. Do not crush the crush washers yet. Instead, leave them loose enough for brake fluid to drip out of the connection. Let it drip for a few minutes. This will help rid the MC of any air that might have gotten in there when moving it from the bench bleed to the truck. It will also minimize the air in the lines.

The way that I mounted the MC it is a very tight fit, but it does fit. Note that the back of the stock mounting plate (P# 705212644) is also not flush (there is a lip from another part that is bolted onto the back of the plate, or the plate bolts to it; there is a nut welded to this plate so you cannot use that bolt as a mounting location). You will orient the MC such that it fits next to the nut that is welded on the back of the plate and you will drill two new holes. I also used some large washers, 2mm, to space the MC such that it was not touching the metal plate from above. Basically, space the MC out far enough so that the other metal plate is below it and not causing any issues with getting the bolts tight. This is hard to visualize, but the bottom line is that the MC will fit, and it will bolt on to the stock mounting plate without issue.

Please be aware, this MC is so good that it will only require a small amount of brake pedal push to fully lock the brakes. This means that your parking brake will not engage. You cannot press the pedal down far enough to get the parking brake to engage. However, you could probably adjust the parking brake leaver, or the push rod connector to get it to work. I have not tried that.

Don't forget you will need to bleed the entire brake system (rear included) once you are done with everything - even if you only do the MC, or if you do both MC and Big Brake kit)

Cpbiddle · 2026-02-27T22:33:22-0600

Wheel Hub

One key part for this project is the HD11 front wheel hubs (P# 705503479). You will need two of them, and also 8x of the M12 lugs (P# 250300625). One great thing about this is that the threads for the brake disk’s M8 bolts go all the way through the hub. This means that you can shave down some of the hub (to move the mounting location of the disk) without running out of thread for the brake disks. Both the HD10 and the Maverick wheel hubs do not have threads that go all the way through. What a gift!

Why do you need the threads to go all the way through!? Because you need to have the hubs brake disk face milled down exactly 7.0mm. That is, have a machine shop take off 7.0mm from the face of the wheel hub so that the brake disk will mount 7.0mm closer to the outside/wheel side of the hub. This is because the Wilwood brake caliper bracket places the caliper in a certain location and the disk needs to be mounted in the center of the caliper.

Alternatively, you could find a different bracket to mount the caliper, but the one that comes with the X3 kit fits perfectly on both the HD10 and HD11 knuckles, it also positions the caliper perfectly in every other way, it's just not properly positioned horizontally such that the disk is centered.

You can contact Proshort Stamping Services in Brockway, PA and they can mill down the hubs for you. I worked closely with them on this project, and they have blessed me sharing their info. If you want a name/email please message me, or you can message them on their website.

The first pic is the stock HD10 weaksauce hub. There is a visual of what was done to the hub and then the finished hub.

Cpbiddle · 2026-02-27T22:45:33-0600

Brake Disk

You will not be able to use the brake disks, or the mounting brackets that are in the Wilwood X3 Big Brake kit. The HD10 wheel hubs have roughly 130-131mm brake disk bolt spacing, and the HD11 hubs are right around 148mm. Neither of these line up with the Maverick spacing, which I believe is around 151mm. Another issue is that the bracket is milled so that it fits around the profile of the Maverick hub brake disk mounting posts (the same things that you mill down on the HD11 hubs). The profiles do not line up with the HD11 hubs. This is why you should try to purchase the components for the Big Brake kit and not the entire kit.

One lost benefit of the kit is that the mounting brackets allow the disk to 'float' a few mm back and forth, which is nice, though I can see how it would rattle or squeak. Nonetheless, I have been using my setup for a few months now and have had no issues with fixing the disk just like it is on the stock machines.

The good news is that I worked with Proshort to design a new disk that fits the HD11 hubs. They are glorious. This disk is designed to fit the HD11 hubs AFTER the 7.0mm is removed. ProShort has this design on file so that you can order them - you can reach out and ask them for the HD11 brake discs. They can make them out of regular steel or Stainless (304SS), both are the same thickness as the Wilwood at 1/4". I went with the Stainless steel, and they are great if you get pads that are designed for Stainless.

One pic is a compare between the HD10 and the custom made disk. WOW!

Cpbiddle · 2026-02-27T22:50:04-0600

HD11 Knuckles

To mount the HD11 hubs, you will need the HD11 knuckles. They are amazing and way better than what is on the HD10. They take the same bearings as the Maverick and the design is great. The HD10 uses a design where the axle slides through the bearings, with contact, and then the hub slides on the end of the axle. For the HD11 design, just like the Maverick's, the wheel hub has a collar, this collar slides into and contacts the bearing, then the axle slides through the hub. This is a much stronger design and is how all the other SxS I have seen are made.

All the HD10 suspension components will connect to the HD11 knuckle the same as on the HD10, and you can use the same bolts. You will need to realign the steering, but the stock tie rods should have enough adjustment (I have aftermarket tie rods so no guarantee). Axle angles are good, ball joints are good, everything works great and there are no observable issues. However, there is a difference in the geometry of the knuckle regarding how the wheel will camber. More on that later.

Part #'s:
Left Knuckle P#: 706205528
Right Knuckle P#: 706205530
Bearing (2x) P#: 293350151
Retaining Ring (2x) P#: 293370169

This is it for tonight. Still need to cover the axles, assembly and camber adjustment. Stay tuned!!

Cpbiddle · 2026-02-28T07:56:30-0600

Axles

You will need two of the HD11 front axles, the left and right are the same for the Smartlok Diff (P# 705403358). The difference between the HD10 and HD11 axles is primarily the outside CV.

You can see in the pics the difference. Lucky that the HD11 axles fit perfectly, else I would have had to have new ones made, or try to swap out the CVs, which probably would not have worked!

The HD11 axle is on top in the pic, HD10 on the bottom. Notice how the HD10 has the smooth inner section which is what slides into the wheel bearing, whereas, the HD11 (and Maverick) the wheel hub has a collar that slides over the spindle and then the hub slides into the wheel bearing.

Cpbiddle · 2026-02-28T08:25:37-0600

Putting it all together

Assuming you have the Master Cylinder swap already done, the install is easy, just swap out the parts, adjust the lower a-arm and fix the alignment. Remember to use Loctite on the caliper bolts and bolts that mount the brake disk to the wheel hub. Note that you don't need countersunk bolts on the disks because the center of the disk where the bolts are do not get anywhere near the caliper.

When you mount the calipers, the stock brake lines have a bend at the end which will make you think it is not going to work. It is a hardened steel fitting and you cannot bend it. I got a little slack on the line, which there is plenty, and turned the fitting around (flipped it over) and it mounted just fine. There is a slight twist in the line, but it is no issue. If you don't want to do this, you can unscrew the line on the adapter that is just inside the frame next to the front Diff. You can replace the line with a custom one, or likely use the ones on the Maverick.

There is one issue, that was not good. The geometry of the HD11 wheel hub is obviously different than the HD10. It could be that the upper a-arm on the HD11 is shorter, or the lower a-arm longer, or they are they are mounted on the truck slightly differently, but either way, when you do the swap, you will see a HUGE camber problem. The upper part of the tire will stick out at least 3-5 degrees (positive camber) and this is no good. Luckly, there are several companies that make adjustable lower a-arms, even a set that has Heims on the top AND bottom that you can adjust.

However, there is an issue, these will not have enough adjustment, at least both adjustable a-arm options that I tried, out of the box, did not have enough adjustment. First, are the SuperATV Atlas Pro 2" Forward Offset A-Arms (SKU : AA-CA-DEFXMR-001-BK-02#AC). These have M24-1.5mm threads on the bulls (rod ends / Heims / adjustable bushings / whatever). There is not enough thread on the ends of them to adjust them out far enough. I ended up with just about ½” of thread inside the a-arm to get a slight negative camber, which is not near enough thread to be safe/strong. You could weld on the lock nut, which would give you close to 1” of thread ‘inside’ the a-arm, but that is probably not enough either.

I could not find any bulls or Heims that had an M24-1.5mm thread. I looked everywhere. So the next option was the High Lifter 2” Forward Offset Control Arms – 65” wide (SKU: #HDFFA-C1DXMR-B). These have 1”-14 RH thread, yay! This is a common thread for suspension parts and I was able to find a perfect Heim and swap out the stock ones for these. I used Rock Jock Johnny Joint Rod Ends CE-9112N-13. These are forged Heims that are super strong. They have a 1.600 rod end ball width (equivalent to the width of your regular bushing), which is only slightly smaller than a normal lower a-arm bushing.

The ball at the end of the rod is 2.25”, which fits in the HD10 bushing mounting location just fine; plenty of room to spare.

The inside of the ball is 9/16” so you will need a bushing for an M10 bolt. You can find these in many places, but I found a person on ebay that made me the perfect size; slightly larger than 9/16” outside with M10 inside @ 1.60” long. I used the M10 bolts and put a large M10 washer on the outside of them to tighten up the fit. They work great!

I have not seen the ball move any, or the a-arm move any way other than what it should be doing. I suppose it is possible for the ball Heim to allow the a-arm to shift around, but it isn’t something I have seen.

To recap, I purchased the High Lifter 2” forward offset a-arms and swapped out the rod ends for Rock Jock Johnny Joint Rod Ends (narrow), put an M10 bushing in them, adjusted them out to get a slight negative camber and that solved the camber issue.

Cpbiddle · 2026-02-28T08:32:52-0600

The End!

Here are the final pics. These brakes are incredible. It was well worth the time and effort. If you are serious about getting the Big Brakes, this is one option! Also, the improvements to the front suspension cannot be understated. You can feel a big difference in handling and feedback. It is amazing.

I have no affiliation with Proshort Stamping Services and will recieve nothing for anyone using them to do this mod.

One more thing is that I did have a backup plan to use the stock HD10 hubs and knuckles. The Wilwood caliper mounting brackets and calipers fit the HD10 knuckles. Proshort has disks on file for the HD10 hubs, but what I don't know is how much you need to mill down the hubs to get the disk positioned properly. You will likely need to take off way more than 7mm, and then tap the disk screw holes deeper. If you want to chat about this let me know. I also have 10x of the disks already made if you would like to purchase those.