Video Transcript for An In-Depth Look at the Dexter Zinc-Plated, Adjustable-Channel Brake Actuator

Jeff: Hello everybody. This is Jeff at etrailer.com. Today, we're going to take a look at this Titan Adjustable Channel Drum Brake Actuator, has a 12,500lb gross towing weight capacity. Now this hydraulic actuator will activate your trailer's 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 a surge brake system, the actuator is triggered as your trailer moves forward once your tow vehicle starts to slow down.

So when this happens, the inner slide portion of the actuator here will contract and it applies force to the master cylinder right back here. So this in turn, supplies the necessary hydraulic pressure to engage your trailer's brakes. Now this one, if you can just zoom in here, is a unique roller design, it reduces the resistance during the telescoping to create straight line movement.You can see it even has a nice grease Zerk fitting that you can attach your grease gun to on the roller to make it very easy for lubrication of the moving parts. This is made of a sturdy, durable steel construction, it will resist bending in jackknife situations. And we mentioned the adjustable channel upfront here, has three different mounting positions, one, two, three, for your coupler.

Now the coupler is not included, that we do sell separately on our website. And basically the channel width that the coupler will fit in is going to be right at three inches wide, channel height overall bottom to the top, seven and a half inches. You can see this has a nice zinc plating on it, provides corrosion resistance and this does come with this breakaway cable right here. You can see this breakaway chain here actually, comes with a hook on the end and this is required by law so you do need to use it.Basically what this does, it prevents a trailer runaway situation. So you'll take this hook right here, attach it to your tow vehicle and when you do that, that'll have your chain connected.

So what happens is, by chance, if this trailer would come disconnected from your tow vehicle, it would pull on this chain, which would activate the lever to come forward and that would apply the pressure in your master cylinder to apply the brakes in a runaway situation. So it is safety item and it is required by law and it is included with this actuator.This is a bolt on installation. You can see the very bottom here with the holes on it, that is what will attach to your three inch wide trailer tongue. Few specs on this, the application is for trailers with hydraulic drum brakes, gross towing weight capacity is 12,500lb. Maximum tongue weight capacity is 1,250lb.

One note on this I do want to mention is, because the actuator does not include a reverse lockout, it is recommended that you equip your trailer with either a reverse lockout solenoid that will attach back here to the master cylinder or a pre backing brakes on the trailer so that you can drive in reverse without this actuator triggering your trailer's brakes. But that should do it for the review on this Titan Adjustable Channel Drum Brake Actuator with the 12,500lb gross towing weight capacity.