[theastronaut]

What exactly do you mean by "stopping power"?

Any stock drum brake or disc brake in good working condition should have enough "braking power" to make 100% use of the grip that any street tire has, even without a brake booster. If your brakes can't make use of your tire's grip then you have a brake issue or a weak leg.

Are you just looking for an easier pedal? Do you think your current setup takes too much effort to stop, or does it actually not have enough brake strength to stop the truck reasonably well? Can you lock up the brakes at any legal speed?

I have the usual squarebody style discs on the front of my '66 C10, nothing fancy, with semi-metallic pads. It has a manual 1" bore master cylinder and stock rear drums. It has plenty of braking power even when towing 3500 pounds. The brakes are plenty strong enough to overpower how much grip the tire has, so if I wanted to stop shorter then I'd have to swap to grippier tires, not better brakes. If I added a booster it would just make it easier to lock up the tires but it wouldn't actually stop better/shorter.

Brake pads make a big difference. Ceramic pads last a long time and don't make much dust but they don't generate nearly as much friction as semi-metallic pads. If you have ceramic pads then it won't stop as easily- more pedal pressure is needed to make the same amount of friction compared to semi-metallic pads. Pads are rated by how much friction they make- look for a two letter code on them. C is the lowest rating, usually FF on better street pads or as high as HH on race pads. One letter is the cold rating, one is the hot rating.

Pads also need to be properly bedded in or they won't make as much friction as they should. If you haven't bedded in the pads, look up that procedure and try it, it'll make a very noticeable difference in how well the brakes work.

Big aftermarket brakes or hydroboost- tons of extra braking power is really a waste unless you also have really sticky tires that grip better to actually stop shorter. Bigger brakes are also somewhat of a waste with ceramic/lower friction pads. On a system that doesn't have abs you can have brakes that have too much braking power with very little pedal effort and that makes it difficult to brake hard without locking the tires up because they're hard to modulate.