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

Video Transcript for A Closer Look at the Demco Hydraulic Brake Actuator

Hello everybody, this is Jeff at etrailer.com Today we're gonna take a look at this Demco 12" Adjustable Channel Center Hydraulic Drum Brake Actuator. It has a 20,000 lb weight capacity. 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. So with the surge-brake system the actuator is then triggered as your trailer moves forward, once your tow vehicle starts to slow down. So when this happens, 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. Now, they do use an Acetal copolymer lining between the inner and outer case. It provides a nice smooth operation as this actuator telescopes in and out. You'll notice on the front here, it is an adjustable channel. It has five different mounting positions for your coupler.

Now, the coupler is not included. We do sell that separately on our website. The channel height on this, if we put a ruler on it, the very bottom to the top, you can see is right at 12". And the channel width, which will always be measured inside the inside, is gonna be right here at 3". If you notice, this has a nice prime finish to it to help prevent rust and corrosion.

It is a heavy-duty steel construction, and we've mention the master cylinder in the back here. It is a composite master cylinder, which is durable and efficient. It is a glass-reinforced nylon construction which will resist rust and corrosion, and it offers a large reservoir it provides increased capacity for your break fluid. And right up at the top here you can see it has an automotive-style diaphragm cap, which creates a completely enclosed system to help prevent contamination of your break fluid. Right here you can see it does have the breakaway cable.

That's all included with the hook on it. Now this breakaway cable is required by law, and it'll prevent a trailer runaway situation. Basically what you'll do is, when you hook up, you'll take this hook and hook this to your tow vehicle. So with this stretched out, in the case of it if it becomes detached, it'll pull on this cable, which will activate this lever, which again, will apply the brakes in a runaway situation. Now this is a weld-on installation mounting. It's designed to mount onto a straight 3" wide trailer tongue. This part is made in the USA. Application, again, this is for trailers with hydraulic drum brakes. Gross towing weigh capacity on this is 20,000 lbs. Maximum tongue weight of 2,000 lbs. This part also goes by the part number of, our model number of DA20. One last note I do wanna mention on this actuator is 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 right back 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 should do it for the review on this Demco 12" Adjustable Channel Center Hydraulic Drum Break Actuator, with a 20,000 lb capacity..