Best GMC Sierra 3500 Brake Actuators

Ordered the HBA16 to install on 2013 Dutchmen Rubicon 2900 TH with 7K Lippert axles, feeding the Kodiak Disc Brakes also purchased from etrailer. Unit was received with out any problems, installed and worked as advertised. The only real issue I had was prior to the order finding out for sure if this Actuator would work on my 2014 F-350 with or without the HBA-CAM. Once I received the HBA-16 the documents that came with it from Cargo Towing solutions provided me with another resource to verify what my truck would need. I contacted Nick Ruehlman with Cargo Towing Solutions and he assured me the HBA16 would work on 2014 F-350's with built in controller without the HBA-CAM. Installation was done by a brake tech and went in without any problems. etrailer customer support was very helpful in completing this project. Brakes are outstanding now that the electric's disc's are out.

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I've been using this brake controller with a disc brake conversion I got from Kodiak Trailer Brakes for about a year and the results have been fantastic. Prior to doing the disk conversion, I'd been through about 3 sets of the old electric drum brakes on my 18,000 lb. dual axle toy hauler and I'll never use drums again. The stopping distance is noticeably shorter and I anticipate the maintenance to be super simple since they are discs. The electric controller takes some getting used to since there's about a 1-1.5 second delay between hitting the pedal and the brakes engaging. That can be a little unnerving until you get used to the fact that when the brakes come on, the REALLY come on. After owning my toy hauler for ~10 years, this is easily the most important modification I've done. I will be stripping off brand new drum brakes on my next trailer and replacing them with discs before even the first trip.

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Pump works great. Disc brakes with this pump work 10 times better that electric drum brakes. 4 stars because it took a couple of months to get

When the OEM steel brake lines wore out on my boat trailer I decided to upgrade the surge brakes to electric over hydraulic (EOH). I replaced the damaged lines and wired up this Demco actuator and now I can stop my trailer on a dime -- should have done this 10 years ago. The actuator works flawlessly with my 2017 GMC's built in controller -- nothing else was needed! Please note though that the GM controller does not apply the brakes when depressing the pedal if the vehicle is not moving (duh). So don't be surprised if you try to test it sitting in your driveway and think that it's not working -- it's designed that way to save wear on the pump if you're not moving. Pressing the manual control does apply the brakes though. (The brakes also apply if you're on an incline). I fabricated a mounting plate out of 3/8 aluminum since the trailer tongue was not wide enough and attached the pump using 4 countersunk 1/4" stainless bolts and then used two 1/2" square u-bolts to affix it to the trailer. If I set the gain on the truck to max, I can actually lock the trailer's wheels, something that surge brakes can't do on their best day! Back in 2010 I upgraded my disc brakes to Kodiak all stainless steel rotors, mounting plates and calipers -- 8 years old and they were still like new -- also well worth the money!

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The reason for 4 stars is in photo 1, the junction box is by far the cheapest and worst junction box I have ever had the pleasure of putting together, and I have installed many of them. My local suppliers junction boxes make this junction box look well let the imagination roam on this one, TERRIBLE. Again the break away setup in my opinion is sub par, not well built, though which break away system now a day's is they are all cheap. The 7 way harness as well is sub par, I have hand built better. The actuator, very interesting and a little different, not to sure about the quality, only time will tell, it does seem to be working and working well at this point. Stops trailer and tow vehicle on just trailer brakes alone, impressive.

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Only have taken one test drive, but it is so much better than surge brakes. No more slamming during takeoff. Much stronger than my surge setup. The install was straight-forward using the video and other folks pictures. I stole the stand idea from one of the other users here and it worked very well. I chose to drive bolts through the tongue to lock the existing actuator into place after removing the guts of it. This is because the tongue on my trailer is 3.3" wide and I would have had to get a new tongue welded on. This seems to do as good of a job with much lower cost. My only complaints are with the electrical box. It seems I received a much cheaper one that was shown in the videos. The bus snapped in instead of screwing/rivet and it kept popping out. The entire box cracked during the install, so I threw it out and bought another one from a local shop. Additionally, I didn't get the full compliment of connectors, instead they were already installed on the cable. The problem is I didn't need 8ft of cable, so I had to cut those off and go get other connectors. All in all, I am very happy with the EOH system vs surge and I would buy this again and again.

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the unit itself is easy to install and is working great,I bought it last March/April and unpackaged it and installed on during off season in Dec. and noticed the fill cap broken during shipping to Canada, etrailer said they would not replace the $XX.00 cap because too much time has passsed,so un package ASAP. Otherwise there prices are great.

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Cap was broke when I opened the box

the package came in on Wednesday late, we had the ups driver note the box was damaged. on Monday we will inspect for any missing items or damage to the part. The box it was shipped in was not suitable for the wight of the item and the handling by ups. rated 4 stars in case the part was not damaged or missing any parts.

I have received the actuator the day it was supposed to be delivered, excellent service. Thanks for your service and I will highly recommend etrailer to any body I know.

I pulled my boat for 1,500 miles soon after replacing the old pump. Brakes were effective and worked perfect. That was a year ago. Last week I launched my boat for the first time since then. No brakes. After a lot of contact cleaner, plugging and unplugging the cable to the truck, exercising the brake actuator, I finally got the pump to work again. That was the reason I replaced the original pump which was inop because of not being used. If you don't use it, you will lose it. It is a very expensive part. Dexter will not sell you the electronic pressure proportional valve that gets gummed up causing the pump to fail. Dexter will not give you the part number for that valve. Unfortunately, the stamped part number got obliterated part number during removal was unreadable. This was a very expensive lesson to learn, $1,069.98. In the future I will be exceptional careful when removing the valve should I have another failure. That valve will probably sell for less than $100.00. As far as Etrailer is concerned, they are the best when it comes to shipping quickly and helping the customer get what he needs.

They sent package with incorrect wiring but sent the new one. Easy install great customer service

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Got my Brake Actuator so fast. I love that these guys have so much stock, amazing prices, and do customer service the old fashioned way!!! Thank you etrailer.com??

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We never got it to operate properly. We ended up removing the entire hydraulic system and replaced it with electric brakes.

Outstanding addition to my Reflection 5th wheel. Back from 7000 mile trip to Canada and no problems whatsoever. One panic stop and brakes were very effective. With over 80,000 on my trailer this is this first trip without some kind of brake issue: broken wire, needs adjustment, put together incorrectly at dealers, etc. I installed the unit myself. Relatively straight forward. I did get confused on the wiring, could have been just me, but a separate wiring diagram for a 5th wheel might help. I didn't realize (and probably should have) that the emergency brake needs to get it's hot from the existing trailer battery and the main braking control has to get it's hot from the truck. All of this can be done in the pin box and is actually pretty straight forward. Great product. Should have installed years ago.

I previously had vacuum over hydraulic brakes but was not able to find controller parts to install on my truck to operate brakes. hopefully this will do the trick.

As of now I'm very excited to put this new product on my trailer.

These are the pics I took when I was done. Took two days to do but we'll worth it. I took pics after first load and now it feels good to actually stop with out wondering if the magnets were going to fail. I appreciate the fast shipping . The only thing I had to pick up was 25 feet of brake line,15 feet was not going to be anough . Other then this. I love it. Thank you very much and God bless

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Best move I did was converting to hydraulic disc brakes on my 16,000 lb 5th wheel toy hauler. The stopping power and response is noticeably improved with no fade. along with upgrading to load range G tires, this trailer is a pleasure to tow behind my truck now even in heavy freeway traffic, no longer worried about running over a little car cutting me off. I would not own another heavy trailer without converting to disc brakes.

I'm impressed. I've pulled a number of trailers with surge brakes over the years and often wondered if they would really work when I needed them. There is no gussing any more with either of my vehicles. This unit is installed on my boat trailer hauling a 17.5' aluminum runabout and is pulled at times by a small truck as well as an RV that is nearing it's max GCWR pulling the boat. I chose the Tekonsha Prodigy P3 controller for the actuator and I'm able to easily swap it between vehicles. A great combo.

Works perfectly, much better than the surge brakes it replaced. Tows better, no banging back and forth. I installed myself, and I'm no mechanic,

Was a great tease, received box 4 of 4 and had to wait until Monday for the rest to arrive, the boxes were a bit hammered, and when a caliper mount bolt fell out I was worried how many other bolts had gotten lost, but everything was there. Service was great, free shipping, these were heavy boxes, and they are tough to pack well so they don't pop open. Thanks to the order staff and especially Sammi G for getting my order straightened out from my miss ordered parts, will be ordering my trailer parts from them again!

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The controller is still working. It tends to run at a low rate even when we're not braking, but perhaps it's something with our pickup or trailer wiring.

Product came damaged.

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Original brake actuator was welded to the trailer tongue. I had to cut it back and weld a new piece of 3x3 tube steel and extend it out enough to install the new actuator. It lengthened the trailer by about a foot but worked out pretty well. The new one works great.

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Works as it should. If I had it to do over I would go with electric over hydraulic

Item received with a broken grease fitting on the wet shoulder bolt. I salvaged the bolt from my old actuator used that in the new actuator. The item was also assembled incorrectly. The emergency brake lever was installed so it did not connect with the plunger on the master cylinder. This makes it so you cannot 'pump' the breaks to bleed the brake system. I took it apart and corrected it. Other than that it was a duplicate of the one i replaced on this 1999 trailer. See the videos for more details.

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Shawnee provided great information to help me get the right parts with tracking info

Finished drum to disc brake conversion on my 1993 year model Bass Cat trailer. Installation went smoothly and the UFP-A60 Actuator replaced the obsolete Atwood Actuator. Shortened the outer member a bit and added a 1" flat bar to the bottom for welding of 4" channel trailer frame.

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Fit was seemless to replace an old actuator with the impossible do get landed hitch latch. Changed brakes from drum to disk, and all new lines. What a difference in smoothness (and effectiveness) while braking. Electric lockout in reverse is also a nice feature. Just plusses all around. If you are replacing the same components be very patient with the bleeding process...it will take some time and a lot of pumping.

I put this on an easy loader trailer that had an Atwood master cylinder which is now obsolete. Cutting the old actuator off was a real bitch. Installing the new Dexter actuator was very easy. I could bend the existing brake line 180 and hook it directly up without having to change the end. The bolts were easily available at the hardware store, I wish they would have came with it. The quality of the drop and go hitch is unbelievably easy to use.

This is a nice easy to use hitch. This is the 3rd one purchased for boat trailer hitch replacement. Really like the drop and go feature.

hello it's not to my address yet but i will call when i get it also do you have pindel surge hitch if so show me thanks

Friendly on the phone. Shipped when said they would. Was delivered as promised.

Best service ever Shipping was excellent and fast great company will do business again

Easy to install, easy to use, works great.

Had a problem with first shipment , was resolved promptly

I ordered the brake controller yesterday I already have it today so it was here in one day quick service I don’t have time to put it on right now but when I do I hope to let you know how it works thank you . I Purchased a titan brake controller probably five years ago and it on a cattle trailer so I didn’t use it a whole lot and the motor went out on it very quick so I was disappointed in that brand and I thought I’d try this hydrastar system hope I have better luck with it . Thanks

Not a fan because of the screw down and up for ball attachment. Unit Itself works great.

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Bolted right on with no problem. Now to pull off the hubs and check the wheel cylinders

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