Trying to make sense of my trailer brakes

TRBenj wrote: Going from 4-axle brakes to 2 is a downgrade. Is this an attempt at cost savings? Why the desire to go from drums to disks? Drums are going to be readily available and likely cheaper... potentially significantly.

To be fair, I'm going from zero brakes to front axle brakes - the current system is non-functional.

I've read plenty of opinions that zero brakes is perfectly fine, but does seem safer to have some drag from the trailer. 4-wheel braking seems like overkill, but correct me if I'm wrong.

A set of disc brakes on the front axle rated at 3500 lbs would be a huge step up, and would give me the advantages of disc brakes while saving cost on buying 4 brakes of any type.

Forum research also suggests that disc brakes are less maintenance, more reliable, less finicky. I've worked on auto disc brakes plenty of times, have no experience with drums.

Trailer is a Ramlin tandem axle with drum brakes on all 4 wheels.

As far as I can tell, this thing hasn't been serviced since new in '93. The actuator seems like it's stuck. Haven't taken things apart yet.

Based on reading the forums a bunch, I'm thinking the following, but looking for verification that this makes sense. This is in addition to cleaning up some rust and redoing all the lumber (except the bunks which look pretty good) and replacing all trailer wiring and a couple lights. I do trailer this boat a fair amount to get to the water, so important to me that it's safe and reliable.

- remove all 4 drum brakes
- inspect/clean replace all bearings/races
- reinstall the rear axle wheels without brakes (assuming this can be done easily)
- on front axle, add disc brake setup
- replace brake actuator for one that's compatible with disc brakes

Sound reasonable?