Demco Hydraulic Brake Actuator - Drum - Zinc - 2-5/16" Ball - 12,500 lbs

Video Transcript for Demco Hydraulic Brake Actuator: The Breakdown

Today we're taking a look at the Demco hydraulic break actuator. This is a surge type actuator, which basically means that as you come to a stop with your towing vehicle your trailer is going to push forward since it wants to continue that motion, that pushes against our actuator, which will activate its function to push out that hydraulic break fluid to our breaks and thereby slowing down our trailer. So, it's a mechanical break controller. It's going to help us to slow down our trailer so it's not pushing us forward.We'll have an easy latch coupler at the front to make it a lot easier to hook up to your trailer. Basically, whenever you're dropping the trailer down onto the ball this coupler is going to automatically come up and release, and then snap back in place. So, it makes that a little bit easier so you don't have to lift that up yourself, and have someone in the back.

So, you can do that all on your own.This is going to fit a two and five sixteenth inch ball. We'll have a zinc plating to offer good corrosion resistance. It has a 200 hour salt spray rating. So, it's been tested for that 200 hours of continuous salt spray and, you know that it'll last at least that long without any rusting.We'll have a composite master cylinder. So, it's got a glass reinforced nylon construction to resist any rust and corrosion there.

Then, at the back, we'll have our large reservoir to help to increase that capacity for our break fluid. You want to check that periodically, make sure that it's nice and topped off so that we always know our breaks work properly.It has an automotive style diaphragm cap that's going to completely enclose the system and that helps to prevent any contamination from the air getting into our fluid and causing that to not work anymore. It has an asettle co-polymer lining to provide smooth operation as that actuator telescopes in and out. So, that co-polymer just lines the inside and helps prevent friction build up.See at the top we'll have this cable with the S hook and safety clip. This is going to be our breakaway switch.

So, you'll attach this to your towing vehicle and in the event of an accidental disconnect it'll pull on that switch and activate the breaks, which will bring our trailer to a stop. You'll just want to make sure that, again, that you snap that hook onto a secure connection point to make sure that the breakaway lever will deploy properly, again in the event of an emergency.This is a bolt on install for our actuator. It does require half inch by four and a half inch bolts. You want to use grade five bolts. Now, those are not included.

So, you'll have to pick those up on your own. You will have the mounting holes down here at the bottom. The narrowest set of holes there, about three inches apart, center to center. The wider, further down ones are about five inches apart, center to center.This fits a three inch wide channel. So, a three inch wide trailer tongue. The mass gross towing weight that this can handle is 12,500 pounds. The maximum tongue weight is 1,250 pounds. See our hydraulic line connection at the back there. Does come with a little plug for shipping so that it won't have any contaminants get into the system there.This does not have a reverse lockout. So, you'll want to make sure that your trailer is equipped with free baking breaks so that your actuator doesn't lock up your breaks whenever you go into reverse. Basically that operates the same way as whatever you're slowing down. Your trailer wants to push forward, and that'll activate the system if you don't have just those free backing breaks.And that's going to do it for our look at the Demco hydraulic break actuator.