Demco Hydraulic Brake Actuator - Drum - Zinc - 8" Adjustable Channel Center - 12,500 lbs

Video Transcript for Review of Demco Brake Actuator - Surge Brake Actuator - DM8104821

Hello everybody, this is Jeff at etrailer.com. Today, we're gonna take a look at this, Demco Eight Inch Adjustable Channel Center Hydraulic Drum Brake Actuator. Has a 12,500 pound gross towing weight capacity. And as you can see, is in a nice zinc finish. Now this hydraulic actuator is designed to activate your trailer's brakes when your tow vehicle slows or stops. Basically what happens is when you apply the brakes in your tow vehicle, the deceleration occurs, and the momentum will push your trailer toward the rear of the vehicle.

So with the surge brake system, the actuator is triggered as your trailer moves forward. Once your tow vehicle starts to slow down, basically this inner portion will slide back into the outer case here. And when this happens, when it contracts back, it'll apply force to the master cylinder back here, which in turn supplies the necessary hydraulic pressure to engage your trailer's brakes. What's nice about it between this inner portion, and the outer case, they do use an acetol co-polymer lining, provides a nice smooth operation as this actuator will telescope in and out. Now, we mentioned this as an adjustable channel.

As you can see, it'll have three different mounting positions for your coupler. Now, the coupler is not included. We do sell that separately on our website. This is a channel center design, and basically that just means if you look from the side here, the channel is centered equally up or down. Now, I do want to give you a measurement on the channel.

It is a height of eight inches. The inside width, it's pretty much a standard three inches inside width. And this is a heavy duty steel construction. As we mentioned, it has a zinc finish for better corrosion resistance. Now the master cylinder, which is installed back here, it is a composite master cylinder.

It makes it very durable and efficient. It is a glass reinforced nylon construction, so it resists rust and corrosion, and it does have a nice large reservoir. It provides increased capacity for the brake fluid. And if you notice right up here at the top, it uses the automotive style diaphragm cap, which will create a completely enclosed system, and help prevent contamination of your brake fluid. Now they do include the brake cable, breakaway cable and the hook. And this is required by law. It prevents a trailer runaway situation, but basically this hook will hook to your tow vehicle. And then what will happen in case if your trailer comes disconnected, it would pull this cable which would activate this lever, which would then apply the pressure again to the master cylinder to prevent the trailer from runaway situation. And again, this is included, and it is required by law. Now this is a bolt-on installation. If you look at the bottom here, you can see the tabs. It does mount to a straight three inch wide trailer tongue, and you can see it's a six hole case. So it has three mounting holes on this side, three on this side, and two in front, one in the back. They do require a half inch by four and a half inch long grade five bolts for mounting it. And again, those are not included. You do have to supply those. This part is made in the USA. A few specs on this. The application again is trailers with hydraulic drum brakes. Gross towing weight capacity 12,500 pounds, and a maximum tongue weight of 1,250 pounds. Now one last note I do wanna mention on this, because this actuator does not include a reverse lockout on the back, it is recommended that you equip your trailer with a reverse lockout solenoid that screws right into here or to have free backing brakes on your trailer so that you can drive in reverse without this actuator triggering your trailer's brakes. But that's gonna do it for the review on this Demco Eight Inch Adjustable Channel Center Hydraulic Drum Brake Actuator with the 12,500 pound gross towing weight capacity.