Trailer made from 3/4 ton square, trailer brakes possible? need opinions

[AuroraGirl]

So I have a trailer that was made from the cab-back of a square. My grandfather made it. Its currently our garbage trailer that we pull to the local incinerator for a low price. It might eventually see other use too, just depends.

First, dont complain about the jack. that is temporary. its to keep the tongue off ground when not in use conveniently. its a little undersized for the weight. I will be getting a better jack with a pneumatic tire and capability for impact or just quick drop/pickup. (brand suggestions?)

At the moment, I have two load range E tires on it. I did that because they were the only 16 inch tires I had that were not a passenger tire. Because of the weight from differential, bed, springs, frame, etc. I figure there is a good amount of weight back there.

1) Does anyone have a good guestimate of the weight of the trailer not including my topper (just shy of 100 pounds itself) Im more so curious than necessary to know.

2) Does anyone know if I can make the trailer have brakes. I guess the only two options are kits for the rear end or differential brake(not sure if thats a thing, but it does spin) 14 bolt rear end?

3) The trailer chains. Is that a safe location to mount them? On the tongue mounting bolt, i mean. The old chains didnt actually hook to anything, but putting a new one on I found it was too short... thanks hf... but it did raise a few concerns for me. IS there a grade of metal or a thickness of chain/hook I should use for the expected weight of the load. I could find this out by using my scale in weight of the truck I pull with when I go, I know how much the truck scales empty. Subtracted from my scale out weight and all that jazz. But for future use, Id like safe chains(length will be taken care of)

4) I have never seen a tongue with that type of lock mechanism before. Is it an old or outdated design? Should I change to a newer ball type or is this adequate

5) Any other tips one might have, Im more than open to them. New to trailers. I want to wire in a 7 way plug at some point to have all functions including trailer brakes(if mine can do that)

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[AuroraGirl]

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[bucket]

I'm by no means a professional trailer builder, but I have used, repaired and modified a lot of trailers. With that said, here's my thoughts:

The hitch coupler is fine. It's a common design, just an older unit. It is also probably the lightest duty part of your whole setup, but that should be perfectly fine because you aren't going to have a whole lot of tongue weight. Your axle is pretty well centered in your load area, being a truck bed.

I would most definitely bolt or weld the safety chains right to the frame. They need their own separate mounting points, not shared with anything else. That's actually required by the DOT. If that coupler mounting bolt were to fail, the trailer would be free and so would the safety chains that are supposed to save the day.

I don't know of any electric brakes that can bolt up to the truck axle. You can buy electric over hydraulic brake setups that control the fluid brakes with 12v power, but I think that's expensive and a bit excessive for a small trailer. You can however use surge brakes like on a boat trailer or U-Haul car trailer. But that requires you to replace your coupler and probably re-engineer your trailer tongue to accommodate it.

My only other thoughts are the tires. Actual trailer tires would be better suited to the job. But I would be a hypocrite if I said never run truck tires on a trailer.

 

[bucket]

Oh, you can also rig up an adjustable E-brake handle to the parking brake cables if you would like to keep the trailer from rolling on it's own. You just mount the handle to the trailer tongue wherever is convenient.