etrailer | Dexter DX7.5L A-60 Brake Actuator Review and Installation

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Full transcript: https://www.etrailer.com/tv-install-a...
Hey everybody, Ryan here at etrailer. Today we're going to be taking a look at and showing you how to install the Dexter axle surge brake actuator with electric lockout. So this actuator is going to be set up for disc brakes. And disc brake conversions are becoming very popular on a lot of trailers, nowadays. People are getting away from the old drum style brakes and going to the disc. And that's because the stopping performance is so much better, a little more reliable and so on.

And so a lot of these trailers are trailers that are a few years old came set up with drum brakes. Well the problem is many times the actuator coupler isn't designed to work with disc brakes. So when you go to upgrade them, you're going to need to find a coupler or an actuator that is compatible with disc brakes. And that's exactly what our customer actually did today. We upgraded the brakes to discs from drum redid the lines and everything else.

And so this was a perfect choice to make the package complete. So the way a surge brake actuator works is pretty simple. Believe it or not. So there's a master cylinder inside of here that's full of fluid. That's connected to your brake line.

And whenever you apply the brakes in your vehicle or start to slow down the trailer is going to want to kind of go towards the back of your vehicle when that happens, what it's going to do. It's kind of tough to do it by hand but you could see that's going to move in, like so, and when that happens, that's going to pressurize or send fluid to your brakes and apply them. And then once you start towing again it'll pull itself back out and release the pressure. So really straightforward how it works. Really not a whole lot to it there.

This is going to work for ball mounts or balls rather that are two inches in size. So really common size and the coupler mechanism itself is a little bit different. It's kind of unique. It seems like it'll work out real well. To open it up, You will simply just kind of push over on that and then pull your pin out. You can do one or the other first don't really matter but then you'll go ahead and put your ball in there close that back up, and then reinstall your pin. And by putting that pin in, that's going to prevent any accidental disconnect. So with the pin in there you can only open it up about this much. So that'll help put your mind at ease too. And you don't have to worry about using some type of separate component to make sure everything is locked down. So, one thing that is nice about this setup is the fact that it is a electric reverse lockout. So if you take a look inside there on top of the master cylinder, there's going to be a solenoid. And when you hook up your ground wire and this blue wire to your reverse light circuit on your trailer, whenever you're backing up you're not going to have to worry about the brakes applying. So that's nice, convenient, especially when you're launching your boat onto the ramp. You're not going to have to fight your brakes or anything else. The master cylinder is made from aluminum as opposed to a plastic or a steel type cylinder. So that's nice, you know, it's strong and we're not going to have to worry about it rusting out or anything like that. This is going to have a pull away cord. And this is there. It's a safety measure, more or less. What this is gonna do is connect to your hitch. And if you we're to accidentally become disconnected, what this would do is pull off inside of here and it would set the brakes on the trailer. So to help bring everything to a safe and a little more predictable stop. So I thought it'd be useful just to kind of set our old one next to the new one, just to kind of compare them. And as you can see they're almost identical in size and style. Now there's a handful of different reasons why you would want to replace your old one. I'd say one of the reasons being maybe this is just damaged, you know, maybe you backed up your trailer wrong or something like that and tweaked this or potentially if it sat for a long time maybe it's difficult to hook up to your ball. But one of the more common causes is the master cylinders just go bad over time. You know, if they sit for a long time out in the weather they can start to rust out and leak fluid and that's not gonna allow your brakes to work properly. Another reason is the bushings inside of here too. Same thing with them. They just get worn out over time and your brakes aren't going to work like they should. And it's a lot easier just to put a whol