Demco Hydraulic Brake Actuator - Drum - Primed - 12" Adjustable Channel Center - 20,000 lbs

Video Transcript for Review of Demco Brake Actuator - Surge Brake Actuator - DM8202522

Hello everybody, this is Jeff at etrailer.com. Today we're gonna take a look at this Demco 12 inch adjustable Center channel hydraulic drum brake actuator has a 20,000 pound gross towing weight capacity and a nice prime finish to it. Now this hydraulic actuator will 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, deceleration occurs and the momentum will push the trailer toward the rear of your vehicle. And with a surge brake system this actuator is then triggered as your trailer moves forward. Once your tow vehicle starts to slow down and when this happens, this inner slide portion of the actuator will contract and it applies force to the master cylinder back here, which will then in turn supply the necessary hydraulic pressure to engage the trailer's brakes and stop the trailer.

This actuator here has a nice acetal co polymer lining and that's between the inner slide tube and the outer case provides a nice smooth operation as the actuator telescopes in and out. The adjustable channel up front here does have five different mounting positions for your coupler. Now the coupler is not included. We do sell that separately on a website. To give you an idea of the measurements here, the height of the channel out up here, it's gonna be 12 inches tall.

The width, which will be measured inside the inside is gonna be right at three inches. And this is a heavy duty steel construction has a nice prime finish to it. The very back here you have your composite master cylinder which is durable and efficient. It does use glass reinforced nylon construction helps resist rusting corrosion and it has a very large reservoir which provides increased capacity for the break fluid. And if you notice on the top here, it uses an automotive style diaphragm cap, which will create a completely enclosed system to help prevent contamination of the brake fluid.

Now the breakaway cable and hook right here, it is included and it is required by law to you have a breakaway cable. And the way that works, basically what it's gonna do is prevent a trailer runaway situation. So your hook here will attach to your tow vehicle. So when you're towing, if by chance your trailer would come detached, it would pull on this cable which would move the lever this way. And then that would supply the necessary hydraulic pressure to engage the trailer's brakes and stop a runaway situation.

So it is included and it is required by law. Now the, this is a bolt on or a weld on installation. It does mount to a straight three-inch wide trailer tongue. It is made in the USA. Application, again, this is for trailers with hydraulic drum brakes gross towing weight capacity, 20,000 pounds maximum tongue weight, 2000 pounds. This does go by the model number of DA 20. And one last note I do wanna mention to you is because this actuator does not include a reverse lockout on the back here, it is recommended that you equip the trailer with either a reverse lockout solenoid which you'll install right here or to have free backing brakes on your trailer so that you can drive in reverse without the actuator triggering your trailer's brakes. But that's gonna do it for the review of this Demco 12 inch adjustable center channel hydraulic drum brake actuator with the 20,000 pound gross towing weight capacity.