My 52 1 ton has the transmission mounted parking brake, and it's great, one of the best parking brakes I've ever had. From what I can tell it was swapped in at some time, as the truck should have had rear axle drum parking brake arrangement.
My 48 2 ton had rear axle drum parking brakes..
So, back to the question, yes, you can use it on small trucks. The simplest swap is a 1 ton, should be a direct bolt it, may need a different front half driveshaft.
On a 3/4 ton you would have to resolve the half enclosed driveshaft issue, may be as simple as the 1 ton swap with a new/borrowed font half driveshaft.
On a 1/2 ton it's not so easy, because you have to do away with the enclosed driveshaft, which involves a rear axle swap, that usually leads to brake and MC upgrades...
Grigg