ARB Air Lockers - Consensus Opinion?

Your Experience with an ARB Locker

  • Total voters
    10
ryguytheman

ryguytheman

Member
I have heard a range of opinions on aftermarket lockers. ARB seems to be a popular vendor for their air lockers. But it seems like there are an awful lot of people experiencing failures. If I'm going to shell out for one, I expect it to work, especially since I've probably put myself in a precarious situation if I determined that the locker is necessary.

Anybody with firsthand experience want to chime in? I'd like to know if there are just an unlucky few who have had trouble, or if failure is not only likely, but to be expected. ARB seems to be a high quality brand overall, but maybe just not in this respect (any other brand recommendations?)

Most of the threads on this topic seem to be somewhat old, maybe ARB has worked out the kinks?

Thanks all.
 
Register to hide this ad
I have heard bad things but it's always from a friend of a friend who had a buddy who had one blow up.

Mine has the factory locker, FWIW.
 
LandCruiser said:
I have heard bad things but it's always from a friend of a friend who had a buddy who had one blow up.

Mine has the factory locker, FWIW.
Click to expand...

Hearing the same stuff, hence the poll. If I'm going to go through the hassle and cost of installing one, I want it to work.
 
I put two in the front of mine. The third one I sold instead of throwing more money/time at it. I'm back to an open front diff. The factory e-locker rear has been flawless.

The front lockers functioned correctly in terms of locking/unlocking. They now (post 2017) use forged spider gears that are unmachined and unpolished. In normal 2wd mode when the spiders are spinning down the highway - they are very noisy. Imagine if you had a ring and pinion that was just rough forged and then put in. That's basically what they are. But they're not under load when the spider gears are free spooling at high speed - so they don't fail or overheat. Just make noise. Lots of noise.

For a trail rig, rear diff, or front of a full time awd, they'd be okay and you'd never know that the gears are not finished. In an ADD application - You'll hear them every mile of highway speed.

My anecdotal experience over a few years of land cruiser club off road trips is that about 10% of the ARBs in any group don't work. They very rarely actually break - so that the vehicle can't move. But they relatively frequently have seal failures internally, air system failures, or compressor failures for various reasons. Not all of the issues are ARB directly. An alternator failure for example means no compressor, and therefore no locker. A poor installation of an air line could be melted by exhaust, etc. Some of the failures I don't know the cause - just someone saying their lockers weren't working. I know e-lockers fail too. I've yet to personally be with anyone who's ever had that happen, so I've never seen an elocker failure. I've seen plenty of gear oil blowing out of diff breathers in person.

So - I would not want one in a front axle with ADD unless you have the spider gears removed, polished, and maybe lapped to run quietly. And I would not want one in any axle that doesn't have something like ATRAC as a backup. Given those limitations - the rear of the 4Runner or the front and rear of a limited/GX would be pretty good candidates for ARBs.
 
Last edited:
I hear about so many failures I would just take my chances with a factory eloc rear and atrac up front and be very happy with the lack of time and money invested in said setup.
 
I am now on the 4th ARB air locker in 20 years.

The first was in the front of an '81 Hilux and I never had an issue running some hard trails.

The second & third were in a '92 Hilux. I had front and rear ARB's (80 series axle front / Taco axle rear), and again, I never had any issue with them.

Now, I have one in the 5th Gen front and have used it on occasion and still no issues.

So from my opinion, they are great and I would say yes to getting one.
 
I've seen some posts that indicate people have good luck running them at lower pressures (50psi) instead of full compressor output pressure. I have mine regulated to 50psi and it actuates just fine.

I got mine front/rear a couple months ago with no issues. Used a dozen times now.
 
Ever consider the Harrop E-locker? I had one installed in the front and has been problem free so far. I have an ARB twin compressor already so the E-locker was not the most logical choice, but didn't want to deal with the possible air leaks and internal seal failures that can be associated with the ARB.
 
I've had my front ARB for about 170K miles now, no problems so far and use it often.

I think most of the problems come from counterfeit lockers and poor installations.
 
Hamburgerpimp said:
Ever consider the Harrop E-locker? I had one installed in the front and has been problem free so far. I have an ARB twin compressor already so the E-locker was not the most logical choice, but didn't want to deal with the possible air leaks and internal seal failures that can be associated with the ARB.
Click to expand...

I looked on their website and didn't see anything for the 2015+ models so I sent an email asking if they made a locker for the 2018. If they do, I may get a SR5 as opposed to a trail as the trails are substantially more expensive and I'm paying cash.
 
I have one in my runner. It did have to get redone due to leaking from a bad gasket. I think the biggest thing is getting it installed by someone that really know what they're doing.
 
Another option is the Eaton E-locker. Advantage is no need for air, the disadvantage is it takes a half a wheel turn before it will engage, same as the factor E-locker on the rear though.
 
Matt123 said:
I have one in my runner. It did have to get redone due to leaking from a bad gasket. I think the biggest thing is getting it installed by someone that really know what they're doing.
Click to expand...

The locker had to be replaced or the diff seal had to be replaced?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 318 (members: 4, guests: 314)

Forum statistics

Threads
278,310
Messages
3,554,077
Members
248,016
Latest member
Advally Service

Share this page

Trending content

Back
Top