ARB vs eHarrop vs TJM

[graymudder]

I have experienced them doing the whole "unlocking" thing when the truck is on jack stands and I am testing by hand. I have never noticed it off-road.

Here is a video of a 70-series I recently finished the build on, it has Harrops front and rear and the purpose of this drive was to test the truck at the end of the build. I am in and out of the e-lockers a lot and fast in this video, you can't tell because the video isn't from in cab but not once in this testing or in any other of the five trucks I have fitted the Harrops to could I tell it was doing anything but what I wanted it to do off-road.



I have had ARB's, I like them too but the Harrops don't require a compressor and can be wired to a factory dial.


Cheers

Nice video of the build. But I could not tell from that video if the Harrop would unlock or not. Still nice build .

 

[nukegoat]

I have ARBs. They suck but keep working

 

[SNLC]

Nice video of the build. But I could not tell from that video if the Harrop would unlock or not. Still nice build .

That is the point, you can't tell when driving and using them a lot.

Cheers

 

[lcwizard]

I have ARBs. They suck but keep working

elaborate please... are they the late style ?

 

[nukegoat]

elaborate please... are they the late style ?

Yes, they're the later style.
First, there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to when they'll put the seal collar on the outside of the bearing versus the inside. That's great because then you can't remove the bearings without having to pry the seal collar at the same time. Fun.

Secondly, with even the slightest bit of carrier deflection, the seal collar leaks. So you end up mashing a ton of carrier bearing preload onto it, but guess what? You have to use the stupid shims that go between the bearings and the housing (rather than between the carrier and the bearing) which is great. I love trying to tap a 0.004" thick shim in.

Thirdly, the bonded seal inside the carrier likes to leak over time. Just for fun. Nothing that the install can do right or wrong about this one - it just decides its had enough and leaks.

Fourthly, now they use this 6mm black nylon hose which is RIDICULOUSLY stiff and annoying to route around in the vehicle. And it's incompatible with the standard 5mm blue hose they've used for years, so there goes all my repair kits and so on.

Fifthly, I never crash-lock my ARBs, but the locking collars already look pretty chewed up. Bad heat treat? I don't know.


OK, on the positive side...
A) Even when they're slowly leaking and cycling the compressor or blowing gear oil out of the breather, they stay locked.
B) The customer service at ARB is more than willing to keep shipping me replacement parts without cost. They really do their best to keep customers happy.
C) In spite of air seeming like a bad idea, there are really a surprisingly few number of moving parts in the whole system. So other than leaking, the failure modes are pretty minimal (and, as I said, they work even while they leak).
D) They are absolute chunks of beef.


This is my experience with 7 different ARBs. None of them for the Land Cruiser, to be fair.

 

[lcwizard]

This is why I've considered the Zip locker. I've never had an issue with the older ARBs I run or the four sets that were in the
two competition trucks for four seasons. Sadly the Chinese knock offs are designed like the older ARBs but I can't attest for
materials. The cross pin in the ARB is 300M which explains durability but I can't say what the knock offs use. Yukon's site
states the material is 4320 and assembled in the USA. I don't know where the machining and material selection is done.
I don't necessarily trust a Chinese manufacturer's statement of material quality. If the ARB used 300m vs the Yukon using 4320
for the same parts, the ARB would have a strength advantage, 300m being a modified 4340. Al the info I did was on the previous version. I haven't looked into their new lockers. I have quite a few older sets that I hold on to with tight fists. I'd like to hear their engineers'
reasons for the design change.