arb's are bad@ss but they suck (1 Viewer)

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wagon4wd

wagon4wd

Joined
Nov 2, 2007
Threads
5
Messages
270
Location
Gold Country, CA
I think we can all agree on the simple fact that a selectable locker with a ridiculously strong carrier is an added bonus to most rigs. My 60 has ARB's front and rear, so I'm obviously not in the camp that thinks that ARB's suck.

Catch is, I've had problems with both lockers. The rear wasn't necessarily the ARB's fault, the front seems to be an internal leak. The compressor can keep up with the leak, though.

What concerns me is what I saw on the rubicon over the last couple of days. The compressor seems to be the weak spot, in that if the compressor fails to create pressure, you're open front and rear and grabbing the winch and watching a jeep with aussies have less difficulty than you did pre winch.

I chatted with a couple of people while trying to get an ARB compressor to fire on cadillac hill about the possibility of making a hot spare for the ARB compressor without having another $300+ compressor on board. It would seem that schrader valves might work if the working pressure (and volume) was high enough, so other sources of on board air might allow one a backup alternative.

I'm not faulting the ARB compressor, which works awesome in my rig. It just seems that choosing a selectable over an 'always locked' (be it a lockrite or detroit or lincoln locker) allows a form of failure that could leave one open/open at the drop of the hat in a totally dangerous situation.

I can't be the only one who has thought of this. Anyone have any ideas? Does anyone know what the nominal pressure to lock an ARB is? I know shop air will lock it, but my shop air is over 100 psi.
 
I hooked mine up to my Powertank. Sure, there is a limited amount of CO2 available, but I don't have to listen to the compressor and there is always good pressure - until the bottle is empty. My system is totally pneumatic - no wiring at all. Here is a link to the Powertank ARB components, but you could get creative without buying the high dollar stuff.
 
I have run mine for almost 10 years with a 5 gallon air tank and no compressor. No leaks anywhere, all NPT fittings are teflon taped. I can wheel for a weekend on it. I have a cheap plug in compressor if I need to recharge. I have run it at as low as 60psi and as high as 110psi. Only problem has been the orings leaking gear oil into the air lines and a cracked side gear but those are different issues. All in all a great product and I have recieved great service from them.
 
Hi All:

Normally one should regulate the air pressure to an Air Locker at about 90 PSI. That is plenty.

Lots of folks have run Air Lockers with using the ARB compressor and wiring harness. They use air switches instead. There are venders that sell the bits necessary to run an Air Locker pneumatically.

Regards,

Alan
 
If you do not regulate your air below 105 psi to the locker, you will blow things internally.

90psi - 100psi is where they are most reliable and live the longest.


I have seen people put 125psi in a new setup and blow it. They cuss ARB, and then they read the directions.
 
this isn't a slam on arb's but why do yall run them? i understand if your set up to do front digs and using turning brakes etc. but otherwise to me they just seem like an extra complication and something else that can go wrong and ruin your day
 
I'll tell you why I run them. Simple. Rig came with them, and whether they had ARBs or not wasn't a deal breaker - it just sweetened the deal. The compressor didn't fire up (wiring issue), so I got the rig with the assumption (and price) that the ARBs were jacked.

I totally agree with the idea that they are too complex, and one could argue that a detroit is stronger and allows overrunning in a turn, where an ARB locked up is like a spool which in a big vehicle makes a great impact on turning radius. They have an incredibly strong carrier, and depending on your rig, it might be the only option stronger than stock.

My trail rig has a lockrite and an aussie, though. After seeing an axleshaft scatter on the trail and get stuck in the detroit requiring the detroit to be taken apart to get the shards out, I decided that wasn't a trail repair I was willing to undertake. The Aussie and Lockrite, while weaker, can easily come apart on the trail if necessary, and aren't the weak point of those axles either.

The rig with ARBs is more of an expedition rig, so streetability is a concern. I figured I'd post it here, though, figuring there was some simple, elegant solution to something that can totally be a safety concern on the trail, since I know a lot of hardcore rigs run ARBs.
 
i have run arbs on a small "get it at walmart" compressor and no tank. it takes only about 20 psi to activate a lockright.

For this setup I used the head off of a compression tester so that I had a gauge showing the system pressure and more importantly a release valve. A momentary contact switch to power it all. It worked fine to keep the lockers working for the week until we were off the trail, and IIRC was used for a year or two after that. simple, cheap, ugly and made out of spare parts, castoffs and extra tools.


Mark...
 
mookie said:
this isn't a slam on arb's but why do yall run them? i understand if your set up to do front digs and using turning brakes etc. but otherwise to me they just seem like an extra complication and something else that can go wrong and ruin your day
Click to expand...

They are quite reliable. They are excellent for trucks that are dual purpose dd and weekend warrior. They are good for fronts without ram assist steering and saving front axles and birfs.
 
wagon4wd said:
I think we can all agree on the simple fact that a selectable locker with a ridiculously strong carrier is an added bonus to most rigs. My 60 has ARB's front and rear, so I'm obviously not in the camp that thinks that ARB's suck.

Catch is, I've had problems with both lockers. The rear wasn't necessarily the ARB's fault, the front seems to be an internal leak. The compressor can keep up with the leak, though.

What concerns me is what I saw on the rubicon over the last couple of days. The compressor seems to be the weak spot, in that if the compressor fails to create pressure, you're open front and rear and grabbing the winch and watching a jeep with aussies have less difficulty than you did pre winch.

I chatted with a couple of people while trying to get an ARB compressor to fire on cadillac hill about the possibility of making a hot spare for the ARB compressor without having another $300+ compressor on board. It would seem that schrader valves might work if the working pressure (and volume) was high enough, so other sources of on board air might allow one a backup alternative.

I'm not faulting the ARB compressor, which works awesome in my rig. It just seems that choosing a selectable over an 'always locked' (be it a lockrite or detroit or lincoln locker) allows a form of failure that could leave one open/open at the drop of the hat in a totally dangerous situation.

I can't be the only one who has thought of this. Anyone have any ideas? Does anyone know what the nominal pressure to lock an ARB is? I know shop air will lock it, but my shop air is over 100 psi.
Click to expand...




You went onto a trail ride knowing that you had a leak and want to get into all of this hypothetical crap? . :rolleyes:




Fix your leaks and you will not have an issue.




It really is just that simple.



If you cannot handle that task, find someone that is competent to perform the repairs and be done with it.






:wrench:
 
I guess it wasn't abundantly clear in the original post, but the ARB that failed on the trail wasn't mine. I took a rig that had lockrite front and aussie rear. The problem on the trail was another person's rig, his compressor wasn't firing up, so no lockers.

This posed the question of coming up with a backup, since my OTHER rig (which I left at home for other reasons) has ARBs.

The rig that had failed did not have a leak. The COMPRESSOR was the problem, hence the question about working around a compressor failure.
 
I ran my ARB for about 7 years ( and still do ) .. several trails and still doing the job as same as 1st day .. just a good instalation ( still running the same oil seal that come with 'em ).

I have the same ARB compresor with the same wires all these years .. but always carry a 2nd cheap compresor to spare .. if where necesary to fill the ARB compresor tank with no " ARB compresor " function ..

Are not that heavy ..

Part of have a ARB it's know how they work .. with it you will be ready to fix your problem on site .. even if it's an internal 0 ring blow problem ..

To be honest .. if I had a OffRoad warrior rig .. that I only trail and use for off road, a detroil will be my choice ..
 
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The pot metal ARB compressors are krap - they work well and hold up for some, but I just didn't like them. I've had seals go bad, easy fix; the compressor motor go out - took apart and got it freed up and working again; and then finally cracked the housing. There are several folks on here that are still running the original ARB stainless compressors with good luck. I bought the newer ARB compressor - looks to be a little stouter and have had good luck with it. Also carry a CO2 tank - and have rigged it up as a spare. Many others run air tanks, AC compressors and back up tanks, etc.

Have never had a problem with my front ARB - which I love as even with power assist it's easier to turn downhill side with the diff open. It's about 7 years old - and it looked fantastic last year when I swapped in some cryo'd 4.56 gears.

The locker itself is one fine piece of engineering - and have always felt like it was a worthwhile investment (even thought I won a 40% off coupon that I used to buy it).
 
I have run my ARB,s front and rear for about two years.Have had lots of problems with them.All the probs were not directly ARB fault.Think thay are good lockers but had my pump stop working on a trail and I was stuffed.I have now made a pigy back fitting that I can recharge my resivour with somones pump on the trail.

Also I went through a river crossing not thinking that the pump was under the water I had to put the lockers on to get out.The pump sucked the water to the diffs and rusted the pistons inside the diffs.Then a week later the bearings in the pump jamed up to.At least between the hours of 2 and 5 AM I have nothing better to do.:bang:
 
My take on ARB's is , I love em.

I do carry in my spare parts enough blue line to rerun both axle feeds, a couple cross shaft retaining pins, a full axle housing bulkhead kit, spare solenoids, and a full set of seals for the ARB and a spare third with an ARB in it in truck. My compressor is feeding both solenoids and I installed a T fitting which allows an air line to be connected for filling tires if the CO2 goes dry and I also put a tire valve on the T to allow someone or myself to fill the ARB if my compressor dies. We found that filling the little tank gets 3 activations and my arb's do not leak so they go all day locked if you do not turn em off. I left my rear locked for 5 days at rubithon , locked and on all night/all day and my compressor only fired once on Sat. morning to charge system.

Now my ARBs are old, really old, like the parts are no longer made old and my compressor is same but they work. Sometimes the rear pushes a little 90 wt out the vent but I am not worrying bout it until locker comes out due to failure.

I got the arb's from Rob at Radd cruisers and that was in 2002 and thet were 10 or so years old then I do believe.
 
Like any mod, it has to work to work. If you have internal leaks then its a bitch but get them fixed. ARB is pretty tried and true. Lots of approaches but almost all of them work, well... Even E lockers and more "reliable" selectable lockers have plenty of issues too. Getting stuck in the locked position isn't that awesome either, if it helps (been there, in Moab). It also nearly burned down my truck when wires started melting with smoke billowing because the e motor seized.
 
I run mine on a $60 pep boys compressor, and have used it on numerous customer trucks, no issues
Butch
 
This whole thread is about the ARB and different options.

Yes you can run it on any source of air you can find that puts out enough pressure.

ARB air lockers are the s***. If installed correctly and wired correctly you dont have problems.

Almost every instance that I have witnessed, when and ARB fails it comes to the bottom line installed incorrectly. Or damaged seals during installation.

I have installed ARB's in a friends truck and on the second event the locker started to fail. It was my fault. I knicked the O-ring when installing it and I caught it. when we put in the new seal before installing the third in the rig we changed the seals and I grabbed the wrong seal.

Just letting everyone know I would say 95% of failures are installation.

Cam
 
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