horse trailer rebuild - new spindles/axles and brakes?

[dlb]

my wife bought a home built horse trailer a few years ago, thinking it was a great buy. we got it home and took the wheels off to give it a thorough check. after much research i found that the axle spindles and brakes are from the front of an old 1949/'50 chevy car. there were no brake lines at all but i installed a surge brake and lines, as well as refurbishing all the other parts. unfortunately, i recently found that one of the drums is way bent and to be replaced. they're expensive, hard to come by, and not even great for this application, so now i'm contemplating removing and selling all the chevy stuff and replacing it with new spindles and brakes. i have zero experience with this stuff though so anyone have any suggestions? i want something stupidly easy, like complete backing plate, spindle, and brake packages that i could bolt on. thanks gang.

[Petros]

since dead solid axles have not be used on the front of cars/trucks for many decades, I suggest getting the whole axle assembly out of the rear of a van or pick-up. Pick something common so parts are plentiful and cheap, only thing to watch out is to see how the axles are mounted, it would be better if you can removed the rear diff so you would not have the weight and drag of the diff spinning around, but some axles designs must have the diff present to hold the axle in place. Not that important since you will not be getting good fuel economy pulling it anyway.

It will be easier to adapt something that has leaf springs to your current mounts, ford has had leaf spring truck rear suspensions into their newer models. Lots of aftermarket lift springs available for the ford truck axle as well. Than you can likely get what you need from a wrecking yard, including u-bolts, brakets, etc. and just adapt it to the springs you have, or even replace the springs as well.

Good luck.