For years, this UFP-style surge brake actuator has been the gold standard for boat trailers. Its weld-on, low-profile design looks sleek on your trailer, and the electric lockout lets you back up without locking up your disc brakes. Made in the USA.
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Specs:
Tech Tip: If you really just need to replace the inner member of your old actuator and you're confident that you can salvage the outer casing, you can purchase DX99FR instead.
If you're replacing your old actuator, you're probably looking at this one and thinking, yeah, that looks like mine alright, but doesn't UFP make these? The short answer is that Dexter bought out Unique Functional Parts (UFP) in 2013, changed the name, but kept the awesome design. Rest assured, this is the real deal and not some kind of knockoff.
Elelctric reverse lockouts can be summarized in one word: convenient. If you're looking for an actuator that lets you "set it and forget it", this one from Dexter could be a great option for you.
The solenoid on this electric lockout ties into the reverse light circuit on your 5-pin, 6-pin, or 7-pole connector so that your disc brakes won't engage when your reverse lights come on. This can make backing up a boat trailer so much easier than using a manual lockout because everything is automatic.
Trigger latches on traditional couplers can be kind of a pain to work with sometimes.
For starters, you have to hold the latch up as you lower the coupler onto the hitch ball. Not to mention that the latch can stick out like a sore thumb, so it may get bent or broken by your tailgate or your bumper as you go to hitch up. That's more than just an inconvenience; when your coupler is out of commission, your trailer's not going anywhere with you.
The coupler on this UFP-style actuator negates all of that. Just slide the button on top with your thumb while you lift up the latch handle. Then, place the coupler over the center of your hitch ball and lower your trailer with your tongue jack.
When you can close the latch without forcing it, you'll hear a click. This sound tells you that the ball is seated firmly inside. Then, just re-insert the tethered safety pin, hook up your safety chains and your breakaway cable, and you'll be ready to tow.
When you slow to a stop as you're towing, momentum pushes your trailer toward the rear of your vehicle. When this happens, the surge brake actuator compresses the master cylinder inside, which forces it to push hydraulic fluid out to your brake lines, ultimately engaging your trailer brakes. When you start moving again, the actuator will telescope back out, stopping the flow of fluid back to the brakes and allowing your trailer's wheels to start rolling again.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi everybody. Andy here with etrailer.com. Let's take a look at this Dexter surge brake actuator with electric lockout. Now this UFP style surge brake actuator has been the gold standard for bow trailers for years. It's a weld on and the low profile design is gonna look sleek on your trailer. Now this is designed to fit your two inch trailer hitch ball and this has a 7,500 pound weight capacity and this is going to fit your three inch wide tongue.
And as you probably know, this actuator is actually going to synchronize your trailer brakes with your tow vehicle brakes and this hydraulic actuator will activate your trailer's brakes when your tow vehicle slows or stops. 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 this surge brake system, this actuator is then triggered as your trailer moves forward, while the tow vehicle slows down. The inner portion here will telescope back, which applies force to the master cylinder that's inside of here.
And then that in turn supplies the necessary hydraulic pressure to engage your trailer's disc brakes. So this does feature, as I mentioned, a low profile coupler latch, which is going to ensure an easy and secure connection. Some brake actuators have a very tall latch when you go to hook up and that could be damaged from something coming over the top of the trailer and hitting it and bending it and even breaking it. This one, this latch is all internal so there's nothing sticking up. And this is going to be an over the center latch mechanism, which will only engage the actuator when it's fully seated onto a two inch diameter hitch ball.
Let me go ahead and give you a brief demonstration of what I'm talking about here. So I've got my two inch ball here and I'm just going to slide this knob here to the left and then that's going to allow me to lift this up. Actually, let me remove the pin first. This is an important thing to do first. We have a safety pin here, so I'm gonna pull that safety pin out and then I'm just gonna push this knob over that's going to allow me to lift that latch up.
And then I'm just going to insert my ball, just couple this onto the two inch ball, slide that back down. And then the important part is you do wanna replace this safety pin. And so even if this latch does happen to pop up while you're going down the road, that ball's gonna stay secure because of that pin. So then when you're ready to uncouple, it's gonna pull that pin out and that pin is tethered by the way. And then slide this knob over, lift that up, and then that's going to allow me to easily disconnect from my two inch hitch ball. So this is going to be very easy to couple and uncouple. Now as you probably noticed, this does include a breakaway cable. So you're going to take this hook and the cable on it here and you're gonna hook this onto your tow vehicle. So if by some chance this becomes unhooked from your two inch ball, this cable will pull and actuate the the brake cylinder back here to apply the brake. So this is going to help prevent a runaway situation. So this is a very important inclusion into this actuator. Just another safety feature that is included with this and many states do have a law stating that you need to have this when you are towing. Now this does also feature an electric reverse lockout solenoid. So you'll be able to back up without actuating your trailer brakes. And the electric reverse lockout on this actuator is automatically activated when you ship your tow vehicle into reverse the solenoid wires that I'm pulling out here. So you can see these wires are going to wire into your trailer connector, which then is going to connect to your tow vehicle so it can detect when you're in reverse. So when your vehicle goes in reverse, the solenoid's going to make sure that your hydraulic actuator does not activate your trailer's brakes, thus allowing you to back up your vehicle. Now to use this electric solenoid, you must have either a five-way flat, six-way round or a seven-way trailer conductor. Now the master cylinder, which might be kind of hard for you to see, but it is back there. It is constructed of aluminum rather than plastic or steel. So that's gonna give you increased strength and corrosion resistance. And this does have a black prime finish as you can see here. So this is gonna make it very easy to weld and paint. And let me go ahead and retrieve my tape measure here real quick. I just wanna give you the length here of the outer portion. So lining my tape measure up here. As you can see, we're sitting right at 17.5 inches long. And then the height about, right at about 4 3/16 inches tall. This is certified by the SAE for safe, reliable operation. And I think that's gonna wrap up our look today. I do hope that it was helpful for you. Again, my name is Andy. Thank you for joining me.
Easy to install and a perfect fit.
Part received fast and already installed. Works great
Ashley was great to work with promptly processed the order and received it in 2 days great service
I have not got it on the trailer yet can't wait to use it it looks awesome hope it works as good as it looks
Nice product
Just what I wanted. I am building a custom trailer for my vintage boat. I have used these actuators in past projects. etrailer has great pricing and fast delivery every time.
It was exactly what I needed for my MASTERCRAFT boat trailer. I pulled the old one out and slid the new one in. Very easy to do
Bought this for my 1995 Mastercraft Boat trailer. Works great, wasn't worth rebuilding the 30 year old unit. The solenoid to disable the brakes when backing up is awesome!
Perfect replacement for the same item that wore our after 12 years of use. Simple install. Remove the old actuator - unhook the brake line (which I was afraid would leak, but doesn't,) unhook the blue wire from the solenoid, pull the two pins, and pull it out. Reverse the process to install the new one.
Only question was, where does the white wire on the new unit go? Old unit did not have a white wire. Answer is that it's a ground, so just find a ground and hook it up.
Of course, you must now bleed the air out of the lines, but anyone who is tackling this job themselves has probably bled brakes before.
PS. I bought this unit, which comes with the primed steel outside piece, because it was cheaper than buying the internal unit by itself.
Great service getting the rite parts
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