Video Transcript for Dexter Adjustable-Channel Brake Actuator Feature Review

Hello everybody. This is Jeff at etrailer.com. Today I'm gonna take a look at this Titan adjustable-channel disc brake actuator with the lunette ring. Has a 20,000 pound gross towing weight capacity. Now this hydraulic actuator activates your trailer's brakes when the 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 the surge brake system, this actuator is triggered as your trailer moves forward once the tow vehicle starts to slow down. So when this happens, basically these inner portion right here, this inner slide will contract. It 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 this one, this uses the unique roller design, helps reduce resistance during the telescoping, to help create nice straight line movement. You can see right up here, there's two rollers, and then there's two rollers right down here.

And the other thing you might notice is on the end of each of those rollers, they offer the grease Zerk fittings, and what that does, it allows you to hook your grease gun to there and pump grease in there to make lubrication of those rollers very easy. This is a nice sturdy durable steel construction, helps resist bending in jackknife situations. If you notice up front, this one uses the adjustable channel. Has three different mounting positions for your coupler. They do include this three inch lunette ring for use with pintle hitches.

Now a few dimensions on the channel itself. The overall height of the channel, we go from the very bottom to the very top, is seven and a half inches. The inside width is gonna be right at three inches. And basically it'll give you the distance between these holes, there's two inches. So it will give you a vertical range of about six inches of adjustment.

Now, this part also includes the breakaway chain and hook right here. If I unhook this, you'll see it has a chain. And that chain is hooked to the lever back here. And this is the breakaway chain and hook. It is required by law. Basically what this does, this will prevent any runaway situation of your trailer. Basically, what you'll do is take this hook on this end, hook this to your tow vehicle, and then the other end is hooked to this latch. So what happens if by chance this disconnects from your tow vehicle, it prevents the trailer from a runaway situation. 'Cause what it'll do is pull this chain, activate the lever, which will then apply the pressure at the master cell here to apply the brakes in the trailer. So this is required by law. Now they do offer, this is a nice prime finish on this, offers corrosion resistance, and this is a weld-on installation. It is designed to mount to a straight three inch wide trailer tongue. A few specs on this. This is designed to work with trailers that have disc brakes, gross towing weight capacity of 20,000 pounds, maximum tongue weight of 2,000 pounds. And I have, the last note I do wanna mention, is because this actuator does not include a reverse lockout in the back here, it is recommended that you equip the trailer with either a reverse lockout solenoid that would screw into the master cylinder, or that you have three backing brakes on your trailer so that you could drive in reverse without the actuator triggering your trailer's brakes. But that should do it for the review on this Titan adjustable-channel disc brake actuator with the lunette ring and a 20,000 pound gross towing rate capacity..