Does the Dexter DX Series Electric Over Hydraulic Brake Actuators Need an Adapter in Ford Trucks

Question:

I have a Dexter DX series EOH actuator 1600 RSI on a non-marine trailer. This trailer ideally needs to be towed by several different Ford diesel trucks. All of the trucks are 2017-2018. Currently, I’m experiencing the actuator surging on/off as soon as the trailer harness is plugged into the trucks. The only remedy I’ve found is installing an aftermarket brake controller on the trucks. This is very inconvenient for obvious reasons. Will this adapter allow my trucks to communicate with the actuator?

asked by: Taylor

Expert Reply:

This is definitely something that is frustrating and unfortunately, my answer is not going to be much better. When we have brought this to Dexter in the past, they have told us that their Electric Over Hydraulic actuators like the Dexter DX Series Electric Over Hydraulic Brake Actuator # K71-651 are compatible with all years of the Ford integrated brake controllers so it should work fine without needing any type of adapter. Using an adapter like the # DX35FR will not make a difference.

But from our experience with the number of times this comes up, we have been able to determine that the OEM brake controllers are not the most reliable with EOH actuators and that they are typically pretty hit or miss. One thing you can check, is whether your OEM controller has an EOH setting. Sometimes the controllers will have an EOH setting and that makes all of the difference.

The most reliable way is an after market controller that is compatible with EOH brakes, like the Tekonsha Prodigy P3 Trailer Brake Controller # 90195. Since you switch the same trailer between multiple trucks, you can in theory do the same thing with the brake controller using the Tekonsha Plug-In Wiring Adapter for Electric Brake Controllers # 22292, which is confirmed to fit the 2017 and 2018 model years.

This obviously is not ideal, but it is an option to not have to install an aftermarket brake controller in every truck. This may not be a great scenario if there are other trailers being pulled by the trucks besides the trailer with the EOH. But, I wanted to try and provide some sort of a better solution.