I picked up a goose neck trailer a while back. I was told it was made by a farm shop in Ca, and the SN/ID is a CA issued number.
One axle has brake. (No I didn't make a typo.) It has only one brake. The other side has a standard spindle and hub. Atleast it has a flange for mounting the shoe back plate. The other axle has no accommodation for brakes at all.
I haven't really worried about it for local towing and relatively short grades, but I'll be needing to haul a 3/4 to truck some 350 miles. Part of it has some extended downhill grades. My truck is a 3/4 ton, 4x4, wide tires, crew cab, anti-lock brakes. It stops really well, and it will hold that trailer under normal conditions. Even with a load. I've used it to haul my farm tractor (6800lbs give or take) over Telegraph Pass with no issues. If I put the truck in tow haul mode it even seems to engine brake on the grades despite having an automatic. I have to say I am modestly impressed with that Allison transmission. ASnyway, that's on familiar roads, in good conditions, with no surprises. Traveling across the state through the mountains is another story. I'd rather have some brakes on the trailer.
So... I decided to see what it would take to get a brake on the other side, and get them wired up. I pulled the wheel and saw the drum was labeled Hadco 412. I couldn't find that part anywhere. Not even on the Hadco website. I went ahead and pulled the drum hub, to check the bearings and see if I could figure it out from there and just install a new pair.
The eTrailer website identified the bearings as being from a 5200lb axle. Great. I only licensed the trailer for 10K anyway. I can't find a direct replacement for that weight axle, drum brake hub, and bolt pattern. 1.5 inch inner bearing ID. 0.938. 12x2 brake drum. (Pads were much narrower at around 1-5/8). 5200lb axle (most likely)... and 5 on 5-1/2 bolt pattern. I can't find a drop in replacement.
I could go to a 6 on 5-1/2 hub, but for sanity sake I'd need to change the idle axle hubs to match, and then buy or scrounge 5 new (to me) rims (spare) for the trailer. That starts to push up the cost of the job.
I was already planning to buy five new load range E tires, but they aren't as expensive as I thought they would be. Still this is turning into a pretty steep hill to climb.
Wish me luck.
Oh, yeah. There is another option. Out back of the shop I have an old travel trailer I was thinking about scavenging out anyway. Pull the toilet and one of the holding tanks for another travel trailer. It has two axles that look very similar, except it has a six lug bolt pattern. The tires are garbage, but at least it has 4 rims. Doing a complete dual axle swap sounds like a lot more work than I signed up for, but its an option. Both axles have all electric brakes. The cost might be a little hardware, 4 new seals (I would definitely repack those bearings), a tub of grease, and probably two days of my time. Two days I do not really have.
Nothing is ever easy.