Video Transcript for Review of Demco Brake Actuator - Hydraulic Drum Brake Actuator A Frame Down Channel - DM8102232

Hi everybody. Andy here with etrailer.com. Let's take a real quick look at this Demco Hydraulic Drum Brake Actuator for your A-frame trailers with an adjustable down channel. Now this is also identified by the model number DA10, and this is going to weld onto your 50-degree A-frame trailer with hydraulic drum brakes. This has a gross towing weight of 12,500 pounds and a maximum tongue weight of 1,250 pounds, and this hydraulic actuator is going to activate your trailer's brakes when your tow vehicle slows or stops. As you know, when you apply the brakes in your tow vehicle, deceleration occurs and that momentum pushes your trailer towards the rear of your vehicle.

With surge brake systems, the hydraulic actuator is triggered as your trailer moves forward once your tow vehicle starts to slow down. When this happens, the actuator contracts applying force to its master cylinder. This in turn supplies the necessary hydraulic pressure to engage your trailer's brakes. Now the adjustable channel on this trailer brake actuator is going to allow for ultimate versatility. You can mount virtually any type of coupler, which is sold separately from this, from a standard ball coupler to a lunette ring or a clevis attachment to fit your particular application.

In addition, the three mounting positions on the channel is going to let you adjust the height of the coupler. You're just going to place the coupler so that it matches the height of the ball mount or any other hitch attachment on your tow vehicle, and you're gonna be able to tow your trailer levelly. Now this actuator is great for tall trailers. This is because of the adjustable channel. It's positioned so that the mounted coupler can sit below the actuator tube, allowing for a greater drop than with a standard center-mounted channel.

As a result, you can line up your tall trailer with your tow vehicle's hitch for a level setup. Now bringing up my ruler here just to show you that inside width of the channel, we're sitting right at three inches. The height of the channel is right at about eight inches tall, as I hope you can see there, and maybe you're wondering about just the overall length. We're sitting pretty close to 21 inches end to end, and then the width at the widest point, let me see if I can show that real quick, looks like we're sitting right at about 17 1/2 inches measuring end to end right here. So the composite master cylinder is durable, it's efficient.

Its glass-reinforced nylon construction is going to do a great job of resisting rust and corrosion, and taking a brief look overhead here, the large reservoir is going to provide increased capacity for brake fluid. The automotive-style diaphragm cap is going to create a completely enclosed system to help prevent contamination of your brake fluid. Let me go ahead and just close that up there real quick. And then taking a closer look again here, the acetal copolymer lining is going to give you smooth operation as its actuator telescopes in and out. And then you probably noticed that this does have a breakaway cable right here. It's included here with a snap hook to ensure a secure connection to your breakaway lever. And this is going to hook to your tow vehicle and prevent a trailer in a runaway situation, so if your trailer unhooks from your tow vehicle, it's gonna pull this cable and that's going to activate the master cylinder and apply the brakes to keep it from a runaway situation, so that's a great addition, and this is made here in the USA of a heavy-duty steel construction with this primed finish, and one final note that I wanted to make is because this actuator does not include a reverse lockout, it is recommended that you equip your trailer with free-backing brakes so that you can drive in reverse without the actuator triggering your trailer's brakes. Well, I think that's gonna wrap up our quick look today. I do hope that it was helpful for you. Again, my name is Andy. Thank you for joining me.