When you’re backing down a ramp or into a tight spot, these free-backing hydraulic drum brakes let you move without the brakes dragging. The fall-away shoe design keeps pressure off the drum in reverse, so you get smooth movement even if your surge actuator is activated. Each assembly provides full braking power when moving forward but only minimal friction in reverse—ideal when your actuator doesn’t have a reverse lockout.
Saltwater and humidity can eat through unprotected brake parts fast. These marine-grade assemblies use Dacromet-coated backing plates, stainless steel springs, and aluminum hydraulic cylinders for superior corrosion resistance. They’re tough enough for boat and snowmobile trailers and designed to hold up in saltwater use without seizing or rusting.
Each 12" x 2" brake shoe uses automotive-grade friction material that’s fully bonded—never riveted—for more torque and a longer lifespan. The pads are molded for a perfect fit, and the tapered edges with circular grinding reduce cracking and crumbling that can cause lockup. This material is SAE-N certified, meaning it’s environmentally safe while still delivering strong, consistent braking performance.
These assemblies are designed to meet quality standards set by the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and tested by the Quality Auditing Institute (QAI) for real-world braking performance. The set includes ten left-hand (driver’s side) and ten right-hand (passenger’s side) brakes that fit most standard hub-and-drum setups with 5-bolt mounting flanges. They’re sized for 14-1/2", 15", 16", and 16-1/2" wheels and rated for 5,200 lb, 6,000 lb, and 7,000 lb axles—delivering reliable braking on every trip.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Ratings & Reviews
Great on phone help….. OK was very impressed that the 2 ladies I talked with on 2 different calls really knew their STUFF. Very impressed and ordered on Sat. del. on Wed. with tracking sent to me. Will be back when I break these in with new salt water.
Function, Fit and finish are all absolutely perfect. I just got everything reinstalled to include hubs, actuator and brake lines.
These hubs were just what I expected, perfect fit easy to install, easy to adjust, quality built product. Looking forward to many years of service.
My new brakes look and fit great. This made the replacement on my Heritage boat trailer very easy. The quality looks great and should last me a long time.
Thanks etrailer for your help!
Fit perfect
The loaded marine grade backing plates made my job super easy. The fit was perfect and went smooth. I would like to see new nuts supplied with the studded backing plate. My order was processed fast and I received it quickly. Packaging was great.
Excellent product that replaced 25 year old brakes on a boat trailer at a fraction of the price that local dealers wanted for them. I found all of the parts I needed by searching the site and everything installed very easily.
Perfect match got here right on time and I really appreciate the information available on your site as well as the offer of assistance if needed.
One wheel cylinder had defective threading for brake line. Leaked terribly and made a mess of my driveway. I had to purchase another wheel cylinder locally. Brakes seized up at end of 600 mile tow and overheated. Luckily just barely made it to my destination.
Fantastic way to repair brakes on trailer. Actually less cost than buying individual parts to complete the job. Both sides completed in under 2 hours. Will be sure to tell everyone i know that has trailers to used this site for all of their needs. This is the 2nd trailer we have done brakes on,
Extremely happy i found this site.
Here is some pictures of the before and after pictures of my boat trailer brake restoration. I contacted your customer service and told them what I wanted to do and they sent me all the parts that I needed. Everything went very smooth and all parts fit perfect. Thank you so much for your help and expert advice. Thanks again
After the old backing plate was removed from my 20 year old boat trailer, the installation of the new backing plate and break assemble took less then one hour . The drum with the bearings installed slid right on .
Appreciate the wide selection of available parts, the overall pricing, and the timely delivery of my orders.
products were great, ordered 6 backing plate sets 1 Right And 1 left per set
received 12 lefts no rights returns and replacement rights were easy. The-
Snafu cost me 3 days of time for completion of projects.
This review is for the Hydraulic Brake Kit - Uni-Servo - Free Backing - Dacromet - 10" - Left/Right Hand - 3,500 lbs - AKFBBRK-35-D. This worked perfectly on my 2008 Bear pontoon trailer with Axis branded 3,500 lb tandem axles and hydraulic surge brakes on one axle. It all went together smoothly without issue and after repacking the bearings and bleeding the system, the brakes now work again. A special thanks to Jameson for your time and recommendation on this kit, it was spot on!
Purchase these units as part of my trailer overhaul. These bolt on in the original holes without a problem, very easy to install, added new kodiak brake lines and new drums, very pleased thus far with the product. like it's all one easy set up. I was going to buy new brakes and associate parts but after seeing these and the price I chose this route after than busting my knuckles trying to mess with springs and stuff. highly recommend
Almost exact match for my year 2000 9000 lb boat trailer.
I restored an old concrete buggy that I purchased surplus from a rental company. It was in pretty bad shape. I got it sand blasted. I painted it with Rustoleum. I installed new brake parts, master cylinder, and wheel bearing kits. Pretty big project but it came out great! Now I have a great little dual-axle dump trailer designed to carry a cubic yard of ready mix. Works great for short loads of concrete and for drain rock and landscape materials too.
I had to use JB Weld to get a good seal on the new plastic master cylinder cylinder-to-brake-hose connection, which was a pain because it leaked and required multiple attempts to fix. Plastic threads on the plastic master cylinder didn't seal with teflon tape. They are easy to over torque/strip! Maybe I did that initially, but JB Weld fixed the problem.
etrailer brake assemblies were easy to install and of very good quality. Fast shipping. Thanks!
The packaging was substandard for the weight, also not including nuts for the mounting studs was disappointing. When you buy a kit it should include hardware.
The brake shoes where to wide and rubbed on the brake drums. The lining wasn't an issue, just the metal shoe.
Very helpful staff. I did all 4 breaks and bearings complete. Glad I checked things out, seals were gone and one wheel had bearings that failed and I was lucky I made it home. Also put on new brake lines and master cylinder, all good now. Tnks
I like the drop on coupler.... No manual was provided, but I was able to Download it.
Needed to make longer safety chains with the actuator, and use longer mounting bolts since the body is a bit wider. Bleeding the system was a cinch, using the Emergency Lever.
The backing plates came with studs installed, but no nuts. (Claim is made that this is mentioned in the Description, but I could not find it)
The studs are 7/16-20 UNF but the old nuts were 7/16-14 UNC. Wound up driving the studs out and using the old bolts and nuts.
Parts fit as they should. Quick shipping, reasonable prices. Help was available when I needed more info on stud spacing before I placed the order
After a year the trailer parts I purchased are still working great. I love the ability to back up the boat trailer without having to pin the actuator.
No nuts provided with the drum kit? The ones form original trailer do not fit this thread. Why would you not provide $1.00 worth of nuts for a $139.00 part??? by the way. Can you please tell me what size and thread of nuts so I can take another trip to Lowe's?
Info for this part was:
At etrailer we provide the best information available about the products we sell. We take the quality of our information seriously so that you can get the right part the first time. Let us know if anything is missing or if you have any questions.
Thank you! Your comment has been submitted successfully. You should be able to view your question/comment here within a few days.
Error submitting comment. Please try again momentarily.