Heavy Duty Brakes?

A lot of what you need depends on your driving style. Letting off of the gas a little earlier while keeping it in tow haul mode will allow the engine to do most of the stopping, even with your gas engine. It is true that trailer brakes as supposed to stop the trailer but they are not as reliable as the truck brakes. It is also true that you can improve on the truck brakes but unless you drive like a taxi driver or make a habit out of coming down tall mountains I think that your factory brakes will be fine. I pull a heavier load with a (much newer) half ton and the factory brakes are fine unless I forget to plug in the trailer brakes. Then the problem is traction, not brake effort. When your trailer way outweighs your truck and the trailer brakes aren't working you are not going to stop quickly no matter what type of brakes you have. Then the question is whether they can absorb the heat for that one stop and that depends a lot on how fast you are driving. I do find it a little amusing that most people are keen on having disk brakes but my Freightliner has drums all around. They have always worked well but picking one up is nearly a two man job.

Most trailer brakes are drums and do have the potential to overheat before the truck brakes if you do drive hard. In that situation better truck brakes could help but it is best to just avoid that situation by driving like you have your house behind you, which you do.