Trailer brakes, legally, are usually not required in most states on a single axle under 2500-3500lbs. That being said, I absolutely love having brakes on my trailer and opted for a specific backing plate that has a manual parking brake feature built into the brake system. I've pull my trailer all over central and southwest Colorado and definitely felt the trailer brakes helping stop my brother-in-law's loaded down overland rig. When offroad, being able to manually grab the trailer brakes to help slow down on slick surfaces can help prevent the trailer from trying to push your rig. Also, it's so nice to be able to simply grab the parking brake when moving the trailer around or lock it down while your trying to setup up camp and not have to be reliant on a wheel chock. I still use a wheel chock, as a redundancy but it's technically not needed. I have all sorts of details on the trailer brakes I have, just the common dexter 3500lb axle with the axle tech backing plate, if I remember correctly, for a 10x2.5" drum/hub. Just look at my trailer build thread.
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