Adding brakes to a trailer is not difficult, nor a big expenditure at all - especially if you are comparing it to the cost of a new trailer. You just need to make sure your axle has the brake mounting plates installed already, which a lot of boat trailers come with - whether the brakes are installed or not. Poke your head under the trailer, or take one of your tires off, and look behind where the wheel mounts onto the spindle. If there is a square flange welded to the axle with 4 holes in it - one in each corner, then you are ready for brakes. If not, a new axle may be required to install them, which also isn't that big of an expenditure - If you added up the cost of a brake kit and a new axle, you wouldn't even be close to a fourth of what a new trailer cost. I think I paid about $150 for a brand new "Dexter" axle from Portsmouth Trailer when I bent mine up one year (replaced it myself, in my driveway - about 1/2 hour job). I'd highly recommend the "Dexter" axle for anyone that is not going with oil bathed hubs, as it is the easiest and best design for periodic lubing of your bearings between yearly re-packs. It totally eliminates the need for "Bearing Buddies" or similar products. There is a grease fitting in the axle spindle end, and it distributes grease to the front and rear bearings equally.
I bought a kit for my 97 Cajun trailer (generic kit), and installed them in my driveway in a few hours. They worked great. The kit was a surge brake kit from Tie Down, and it came with two rotors/bearings/calipers/mounting kits for calipers, and all the nuts, screws, bolts, and tubing. I had to buy the surge brake actuator (the part that bolts to the trailer tounge), and a backing solenoid seperately, but I got them from the same place - Portsmouth Trailer, in Chesapeake Virginia. They have a web site in progress - http://www.portstrailersupply.com/ , and there are phone numbers and contact info on there if you want to call them. The ladies that work there are EXTREMELY knowledgable, so ask them for help and suggestions if you need it. They ship, so you can order the parts from them and have them delivered. Years after the original install (about 6 years), I had to replace the calipers and rotors, as I had let them "go for too long", and they "ate" themselves.
:lol: When I went back to Portsmouth Trailer, they were selling a better brand of caliper / rotor kit - I want to say it was "Grizzly" that made them. I replaced the entire axle kit with that kit, as they were much better quality, and I believe they were about the same price.
If your axle is ready for brakes, then the install is not difficult at all. A little time consuming, and that is all. If you have ever changed / lubed bearings before, the hub portion of the install is the same - take the dust cap/bearing buddy off, remove the cotter pin, remove the castle nut, and yank the old hub off. I'd stop right there, and mount the caliper mounts, then proceed with the new hubs - Lube your bearings (mine were already lubed, ready for install), install them in the races, put on the rear seal with a flat block of wood and a rubber mallet, and re-install them on the axle. You're about a third of the way there now. Then install the calipers using the bolts. Unbolt the tounge on your trailer - usually only held on with two huge bolts. If it's welded, your going to need someone to cut it off. If not, then unbolt that tounge and bolt on the new actuating tounge. You're now 2/3 of the way done. Run the tubing from the actuator to the distribution block and then to the calipers - I'd install a "backing solenoid" inline, right behind the actuator - and wire it into your backup lights on the truck with a quick disconnect fitting - or you can cut off your old 4 wire flat plug on the truck/boat, and add a 5 wire plug to accomodate it. After the tubing is run, and all fittings are tight, fill up the actuator with brake fluid, and "bleed" the
