Demco Hydraulic Brake Actuator - Drum - Primed - 12" Adjustable Channel Down - 12,500 lbs

Video Transcript for Review of Demco Brake Actuator - Primed Surge Brake Actuator - DM8101532

Hello everybody, this is Jeff at etrailer.com. Today I'm gonna take a look at this Demco 12 inch adjustable channel down hydraulic drum break actuator, has a 12,500 pound gross towing weight capacity and has a nice prime finish to it. 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 pushes your trailer toward the rear of your vehicle. So with a surge brake system then this actuator is triggered as your trailer moves forward once your tow vehicle starts to slow down. And when this happens, this actuator will then contract meaning this inner slide will go into the outer case and it applies a force to the master cylinder back here.

And then this in turn supplies the necessary hydraulic pressure to engage your trailers brakes. This does use an acetal co-polymer lining between the inner slide and the outer case, provides a nice smooth operation as your actuator telescopes in and out. We mentioned this has an adjustable channel, offers five different mounting positions for your coupler to be installed in. Now the coupler's not included. We do sell that separately.

And we mentioned this is a channel down design. You can see most of the channels going downwards and it allows for a greater drop for tall trailers. The channel height, if we put a ruler on it, right at, oops, there we go, right at 12 inches tall. The channel width, which is measured inside, the inside is three inches wide. And this is a heavy duty steel construction.

Has a nice prime finish on it. A master cylinder we mentioned that's in the back here. This is a composite master cylinder. It's durable and efficient. It's a glass reinforced nylon construction so it does resist rust and corrosion and it offers a large reservoir to provide increased capacity for the brake fluid.

The very top here where you put your brake fluid in offers an automotive style diaphragm cap which creates a completely enclosed system, helps prevent contamination of your break fluid. Right up here you notice it does include this breakaway cable with the hook attached. And basically this is required by law. And the reason it is is this prevents a trailer runaway situation. So what happens is when you hook your trailer up to your tow vehicle, you also take this hook with the latch on it and hook this to your tow vehicle. And what this does, if by chance your trailer would come disconnected from your tow vehicle, it would pull this cable which would activate the lever which again would apply pressure back here in the master cylinder and applies the trailer brakes. So it does prevent a trailer runaway situation. And as I mentioned, it is required by law to be used. Now this is a bolt on. Right down here you can see where it will either bolt on or it can be welded on. It does mount to a straight three inch wide trailer tongue. This part is made in the USA. Application, again, this is for trailers with hydraulic drum breaks, gross towing weight capacity of 12,500 pounds and a maximum tongue weight of 1,250 pounds. This does also go by the model number of DA 10 and one last note I do wanna mention, because this actuator does not have a reverse lockout installed on it, it is recommended that you equip your trailer with a reverse lockout solenoid that would screw in right back here, or to have free 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 Demco 12 inch adjustable channel down hydraulic drum brake actuator.