Anyone locked up? Where's the locker threads?

[ERover82]

What makes an air locker not reliable?

The failure modes are generally various leaks, pump failures, electrical failures, torn lines, etc. Their use in the front also often leads to broken CVs. I was joking about them only being any good for rock crawling. They're obviously useful for most cross-axle scenarios. I maintain that rock crawling is super gay though, and any route that requires less work to hike than drive. Thankfully Rovers make poor rock crawlers.

 

[robertf]

damn dude, did someone with mean looking tires make fun of your LED headlights?

 

[LRDONE]

What makes an air locker not reliable?

All the shit that makes an air locker work.

 

[lunchbox]

Yep. Mine currently do not work because the front airline is bent and the rear fitting at the bulkhead is leaking air into the housing.

 

[special ed]

Since you started a post like a belly button that everyone has an opinion on here is mine. Simple works. i like simple, I use mine to beat the living hell out of it. I was reliability without worry about if and when its going to work. I like old school and not imitation or fancy this or that. With all that I run Detroit rear and eaton LSD front and HD axles all around. Drives great on and off road and it just does what it does when it needs to.

Air lockers have their place and its for mall crawlers and independant suspension rigs that dont have the strength to run real lockers. Air lockers have Many failure points including internal to the locker. E locker is better and has less failure points but note they still run spider gears. there is no good reason not to use the detroit and eaton lockers and buy some cheaper copy, how much cheaper are they really. not much, are you a cheap person or want the best. detroit and eaton are the tried and true you know they work and have been around since the beginning. So call Bill at gbr and order a set of lockers and get er done and be happy.

OK my .02

 

[jymmiejamz]

I feel like at this point I've seen ARB lockers fail in just about every way. Some are installation issues, but the reality is that most people suck at wiring which leads to failures. In the past two years I've fixed 2-3 ARBs that had the internal seals leaking.

 

[special ed]

I feel like at this point I've seen ARB lockers fail in just about every way. Some are installation issues, but the reality is that most people suck at wiring which leads to failures. In the past two years I've fixed 2-3 ARBs that had the internal seals leaking.

I get that, to many people cant do clean wiring or installations.

I did an arb in an lr3 and it leaked from the start. I contacted arb and they said "oh yah we have a defective batch" based on the serial number off the unit. So they sent me replacement seal kit and said they would pay reimburse for the repair. Once done they told me they would not pay for it and that basically pound sand. See if i ever sell another one and everyone has to know they dont warranty anything but the 1$ seal.

 

[bri]

The failure modes are generally various leaks, pump failures, electrical failures, torn lines, etc. Their use in the front also often leads to broken CVs. I was joking about them only being any good for rock crawling. They're obviously useful for most cross-axle scenarios. I maintain that rock crawling is super gay though, and any route that requires less work to hike than drive. Thankfully Rovers make poor rock crawlers.

I had ARB front and rear w/ GBR HD CV and HD Axles front and rear. No breaks for about 4 years of hard wheeling in CO/UT. Standard/basic compressor. It was a daily driver so I checked the compressor/ines for leaks almost daily the system only took a new line after first install (routed the line too close to something hot). I rerouted and used conduit and never had any issues like that.

Occasionally I had to pull the line, clip and reseat (only 2 connectors at compressor and one on each diff). When I routed, there was extra line for this.

Don't remember having a any hard failure or failure to operate on a trail.

I thought that my D1 one was excellent at "rock crawling".

Its not just cross axled when lockers are useful. It is anytime only one wheel per axle has traction.

Busted axles with any diff is usually one of 2 things.

1- One tire lifted in air, one slipping. Both get traction while on skinny pedal.
2- Both tires have traction and you turn to hard.

Either of the above can snap an axle. HD or not, locked or not. HD will take more to break though and if careful, like I was never experienced a break with HD axles.

 

[K-rover]

I've been running Ashcroft air lockers for almost 10yrs in my D2. Never had a single issue with the compressor, switch, air lines, lockers.. nothing.. It's always worked. There's a big difference between ARB and Ashcroft when it comes to design and reliability. I wouldn't run ARB on anything.
Limited slip diffs are fine until you have multiple tires in the air. Then you'll wish you had lockers and not a LSD. But as has been mentioned, not everyone uses their truck the same way. I personally love my Ashcroft air lockers and wouldn't hesitate to run them again.

 

[p m]

I had ARB front and rear w/ GBR HD CV and HD Axles front and rear. No breaks for about 4 years of hard wheeling in CO/UT. Standard/basic compressor. It was a daily driver so I checked the compressor/ines for leaks almost daily the system only took a new line after first install (routed the line too close to something hot). I rerouted and used conduit and never had any issues like that.

Occasionally I had to pull the line, clip and reseat (only 2 connectors at compressor and one on each diff). When I routed, there was extra line for this.

Don't remember having a any hard failure or failure to operate on a trail.

You realize that this sort of ownership is at best 1 out of a 100, maybe out of 500, don't you? Most ARB-enabled trucks receive zero maintenance and zero checks even prior to the trips.

In the past, ARB lockers were popular in our club. There was at least one failure every single trip when traction aids were needed.
By the way, the same applies to winch maintenance.

 

[bri]

You realize that this sort of ownership is at best 1 out of a 100, maybe out of 500, don't you? Most ARB-enabled trucks receive zero maintenance and zero checks even prior to the trips.

In the past, ARB lockers were popular in our club. There was at least one failure every single trip when traction aids were needed.
By the way, the same applies to winch maintenance.

Never had an issue with .you winch either. ;-)

 

[RVR OVR]

I have Detroit rear, TruTrac front. Same combo I had on my previous Discovery. I had shortcomings then and still do. I don't wheel this thing at all anymore, but if I were to do so, i would not do a TruTrac as they don't work, in my experience, when you need them most.

Case in point - no amount of brake fanagling would get it to engage once that front driver wheel went up in the air, but maybe I just don't know what I am doing...

 

[Doug C]

I have a 90 & a D1 with front & rear ARB’s that I’ve not had troubles with. I go rock crawling sometimes places like the Rubicon so apparently I’m gay. Have a Detroit in a Salisbury rear in my 130 and it works well. Anything is a massive improvement over an open diff.
In my experience tires make a bigger difference than lockers but the combination is pretty cool.

 

[Blue]

I had an ARB rear in my '96 D1. It was a pleasant surprise when I bought it. I never did anything maintenance-wise except ask the shop to look at it when it was in for routine service. As far as I know the shop never did anything to it. It made a huge difference on the sandy, gravelly, off-camber stuff. Even did a little gay rock crawling back in the day. Only once did the ARB fail, and that was when I hit the dash compressor ON switch and it did nothing and Ho Chung happened to be standing there giving me shit about my ARB out at Truckhaven. Talk about embarrassing. I pulled the switch, blew out the dust, put the switch back in and it worked fine. If I ever chose to install a rear locker in an open diffed truck I'd probably go with a Detroit.