Demco Hydraulic Brake Actuator - Drum - Primed - 12" Adjustable Channel Down - 8,000 lbs

Video Transcript for Review of Demco Brake Actuator - Channel Mount Surge Brake Actuator - DM8759432

Hello everybody, this is Jeff at etrailer.com. Today, we're gonna take a look at the Demco 12 inch Adjustable Channel Down Hydraulic Drum Brake Actuator, has an 8,000 pound gross towing weight capacity, and is in this nice primed finish. Now, this hydraulic actuator is what'll 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 your trailer toward the rear of your vehicle. So with a surge brake system like this, this actuator is then triggered as your trailer moves forward once your tow vehicle starts to slow, and when that happens, the actuator, this inner slide portion will slide back into this outer case, and applies force to the master cylinder in the very back here, and this in turn will supply the necessary hydraulic pressure to engage your trailer's brakes. This one has an acetal copolymer lining right here, provides a nice smooth operation as that inner slide goes into the outer tube as it telescopes in and out.

Up front here, we mentioned has this adjustable channel, has five different mounting positions for your coupler. Now, the coupler is not included, we do sell those separately on our website. This one we mentioned, as you can see, is a channel down design, so it allows for a greater drop, so it works well on tall trailers. Just to give you an idea of the height on that channel, bottom to the top 12 inches tall, the width, which is inside to inside is approximately three inches wide. This is a heavy-duty steel construction, has a nice primed finish to it.

The very back here, we mentioned the master cylinder, it is a composite master cylinder, which is very durable and efficient. It's a glass reinforced nylon construction, which will resist rust and corrosion, has a large reservoir on it, which will provide increased capacity for your brake fluid. And if you noticed at the top here where you put your brake fluid in, it uses the automotive style diaphragm cap, which will create a completely enclosed system to help prevent contamination of your brake fluid. Also, right at the very top here if you noticed, it includes the breakaway cable with the hook included and the keeper on it. Now, this breakaway cable is required by law, and the reason is it prevents a trailer runaway situation.

So when you hook your trailer up to your tow vehicle, you also take this hook and hook this to your tow vehicle. And what that does is in case your trailer gets detached from your tow vehicle, it will pull on this cable, which will activate this lever, which would then supply the pressure to the brake cylinder, the master cylinder back here, and that'll engage the trailer's brakes and prevent a runaway trailer situation. But again, it is included, and as we mentioned, it is required by law. We're gonna hook this back up. Now, this is a weld-on installation, it's designed to mount on a straight three inch wide trailer tongue, it is made in the USA.

Few specs again, this is for trailers with hydraulic drum brakes, gross towing weight capacity is 8,000 pounds, maximum tongue weight capacity is 800 pounds, model number, this actuator goes by the model number of DA91. And one last note I do wanna mention, if you look on the back here where the master cylinder is, because this actuator does not include a reverse lockout solenoid on it, it is recommended that you equip your trailer with either the reverse lockout solenoid 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 should do it for the review on the Demco 12 inch Adjustable Channel Down Hydraulic Drum Brake Actuator with the 8,000 pound gross towing weight capacity.