First I'd look into 3414's suggestion. Easiest if springs and steering line up. For the hub change method, you would need an adapter for 8 lug to to 5 and not sure there is one. I went from one dually front bolt pattern to another so the 4 1/4" thick adapter was appropriate. As for the brakes, I was test driving my fridge about a month ago after I installed the higher geared axle and seeing what 60 mph was like on our narrow country roads. Of course a buck jumped out in front of me so I locked up the brakes. Having swerved just a bit I could see from the black marks that all 4 wheels were locked. Actually quite a smoke show back there. Didn't hit the deer. It wasn't till about 5 years ago I even had a truck with discs and I use the old ones as trucks, loaded heavy. Drums actually work just fine. Finally I want to thank truckdog for his endorsement of my hub conversion. He seems to be the wheel specialist here and it means a lot to me, a fellow 'wheel guy' and fairly new guy on the site.