Video Transcript for Review of Dexter Brake Actuator - Surge Brake Actuator Electric Lockout - DX69FR

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 weld-on, low profile design looks sleek on your trailer. This is designed to fit onto your two-inch hitch ball and it has a 7,500 pound weight capacity. This is going to fit your three inch by three inch or three inch by four inch straight tongue.

And as you probably know, this actuator will synchronize your trailer brakes with your tow vehicle brakes and this hydraulic actuator will activate your trailer 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 towards 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 will telescope back, which applies force to the master cylinder in the back. And then that will in turn supply the necessary hydraulic pressure to engage your trailer's disc brakes.

So as I mentioned, this does feature a low profile coupler latch that's going to ensure an easy, secure connection. As you might know, 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 breaking it. This one, this latch is all internal, so there's nothing sticking up. And this is over the center latch mechanism, which will only engage when the actuator is fully seated on a two inch hitch ball. And I do happen to have one here.

I just want to give you a brief demonstration of how this is gonna be. So, it's gonna be easy to hook up. So I'm gonna go ahead and pull this pin out first. The pin is tethered with the cable here. And then, I'm just going to move this knob to the left here and then flip that open.

And that's going to allow me to then couple on my two-inch ball and then just go ahead and close that. And then now, I am coupled on that ball. And then, I'm gonna go ahead and replace this pin. And this is, again, a safety pin. So even if this happens to pop open the ball is still going to stay secured in place. So that pin's going to make sure of that. But then when you're ready to uncouple, you'll just remove the pin and then slide this up and then you'll just be able to easily uncouple from that ball just like that. And I'm gonna go ahead and push that down and replace the pin. So very easy to hook up and it's going to be a very secure connection for you. Now, this does include, as you probably saw here, this breakaway cable. And so you're gonna take this hook and the cable on it and hook this to your tow vehicle. So if by some chance this becomes unhooked from the ball, this cable will pull and actuate the brake cylinder back here to apply the brake. So it's going to prevent a runaway situation. This also features an electric reverse lockout solenoid. So you'll be able to back up without actuating your trailer brakes. The electric reverse lockout on this actuator is automatically activated when you shift your tow vehicle in reverse. And the solenoid wires that we have right here, they're going to wire into your trailer connector, which then connects to your tow vehicle, and then it can detect when you are in reverse. So when your vehicle goes in reverse, the solenoid's going to ensure that the hydraulic actuator does not activate your trailer brakes that's allowing you to back up your vehicle. Now, to use this solenoid, you must have either a five-way, a six-way, or a seven-way trailer connector. So five-way flat, six-way round, or a seven-way trailer connector. But a manual lockout pin is available. It's sold separately from this, and that's going to let you manually lock out the brakes if you tow your truck with only a four-way. So on your screen, I am including the part number for that lockout pin, and I do happen to have one here, just to show you what this is going to look like. So if you're only towing with a four-way flat, you will need this pin. And then the master cylinder here, lemme go ahead and you actually really can't see the master cylinder itself, but it's on the inside here. That master cylinder is constructed of aluminium rather than plastic or steel. So that's gonna give you increased strength and corrosion resistance. And you can see that you'll just fill the brake fluid there. Now, a fill cap is available, which, again, is sold separately. And that's gonna help prevent fluid contamination. And so I happen to have that part here as well, just to show you what this is going to look like. And if you decide to pick one of these up, you'll just put this on top here and then that's just going to lock into place just like that. So if you are going to need one of those, I do have the part number there. Those part numbers, as you probably know, can just be popped into the search field of our website. And then that will take you to that part that you're looking for. So this does have a prime finish to it. This is a black finish, as you can see here. So this is gonna be very easy to weld and then paint. And then in case you were wondering, I wanna measure the outside portion here. So putting my tape measure there, as you can see, we're right at 19 inches long. And then looking at the pipe, we're sitting about 4 3/16 inches tall. This is certified by the SAE for safe, reliable operation. 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.