Demco Hydraulic Brake Actuator - Drum - Primed - 8" Adjustable Channel Down - 20,000 lbs

Video Transcript for Review of Demco Brake Actuator - Surge Brake Actuator - DM8202032

Hello, everybody, this is Jeff at etrailer.com. Today, I'm gonna take a look at this Demco eight-inch adjustable channel down hydraulic drum brake actuator with a 20,000 pound gross towing weight capacity and a primed finish. Now, this hydraulic actuator will activate your trailer brakes when your tow vehicle slows or stops. Basically, what happens is, when you apply the brakes in your tow vehicle, deceleration occurs and the momentum will push your trailer toward the rear of your vehicle, and, with surge brake systems, this actuator is then triggered as your trailer moves forward once your tow vehicle starts to slow down. Now, when this happens, the inner slide of this actuator will contract and applies force to the master cylinder in the back here, and this, in turn, supplies the necessary hydraulic pressure to engage your trailer's brakes and stop the trailer. Now, this one here uses an acetal copolymer lining between this inner slide tube and the outer case, provides a nice smooth operation as the actuator will telescope in and out.

Now, this one is an adjustable channel, has three different mounting positions for your coupler. Now, the coupler is not included, we do sell those separately on our website. And, if you notice on this one, it's a channel down design, and what that allows for is a lot greater drop, so it works good on tall trailers. The channel height, if we measure the channel height, it's gonna be right at eight inches. The width, which will always be measured inside-to-inside, is right at three inches.

And this is a heavy-duty steel construction, has a nice primed finish to it. In the very back here it has this composite master cylinder, which is durable and efficient. Does use glass-reinforced nylon construction to help resist rust and corrosion, and the master cylinder has a large reservoir, provides increased capacity for the brake fluid. And, if you notice on the top right here, it uses the automotive-style diaphragm cap, which creates a completely enclosed system, helps prevent contamination of your brake fluid. Now, it does come with this breakaway cable and the hook on the end.

And now this is required by law because it does prevent a trailer runaway situation, and the way it does that is, you see this hook with the keeper on it This will hook to your tow vehicle. So, when this is hooked to your tow vehicle, this cable will be stretched out, and if, by chance, this trailer come disconnected, it would pull on this cable, which would activate that lever, and then this, in turn, will supply that hydraulic pressure at your master cylinder to engage your trailer brakes and stop the trailer, so it'll prevent a runaway situation if it became detached. Now, this is a weld-on installation. It does mount to a straight three-inch-wide trailer tongue. This part is made in the USA.

Again, the application, this is for trailers with hydraulic drum brakes. Gross towing weight capacity on this is 20,000 pounds, tongue weight is 2,000 pounds. This does go by a model number of DA20. And one last note I do want to mention for you: because this actuator does not include a reverse lockout, it is recommended that you equip your trailer with either a reverse lockout solenoid that'll install back here on this master cylinder, or for your trailer to have free-backing brakes so that you can drive in reverse without the actuator triggering your trailer's brakes. But that should do it for the review on the Demco eight-inch adjustable channel down hydraulic drum brake actuator with the 20,000 pound gross towing weight capacity.