Ok, so I was towing my ski boat, and I had to slam on the brakes, the fronts locked up, and I had no rear brakes and no ABS. Whats my problem?

 

Do you have rear or 4 wheel ABS?

Are the back brakes adjusted properly?

 

If your Dakota is like my Dak it has only rear ABS that is worthless as ABS goes your rear brakes were probably way out of adjustment those brakes just don’t self-adjust you must do the adjusting plus the brake cylinders tend to freeze up on you and you have only half working rear brakes my rear brakes were a mess when I took them apart last month just garbage.

Strange thing is you just don’t notice this till you pull them apart and inspect them.

 

Yep, bet you have only rear ABS.
The rear brakes are just the worst I've ever come across
on any car or truck I ever seen. Dragging a stick on the
ground leaning out the window works better than those things.

 

Side note;.. I keep mine slightly out of adjustment
just to keep them from howling every time I come to a stop.
I've replaced everything in the rear and it keeps doing it.
Different types of pads, 2 different sets of drums. Cutting the
drums. 2 different brands of spring-sets. Nothing stops it
from happining. Once the cut wears off the drum, it returns.
So, they stay out of adjustment just for the peace of mind
to keep the quite. (Hate that brake set-up).

 

I'm not too good with brakes, but one of my buddies had a similar experience.
What happened to him with that he somehow got a small leak in one of the rear brake lines, but he has a proportioning valve that separates the front brakes from the rear. And just like you, he had front brakes but not the rear drums.
Perhaps you might have a leak?
Just my 2 cents

 

I’m looking to swap out that crappy rear end with a newer one from a 2003 to 2004 I was told some of them have way better gears for one and they have disk drakes on some of the models those 9 inch rear drum drakes are crap at best on my Dak.

I’m guessing that is what you have also the 9 inch drum brakes.

I have seen some disk brake kits out there for about $600 but don’t know how good they are.