cheap no name air lockers on ebay

[Bluefreak]

Oh I agree, but this seller appears to be Aus based, and advertising the product as an Air Locker (A registered trade mark AFAIK?)

I'm more than aware ARB probably can't stop the production of these, but I bet they can stop the sale of them in aus.

Steve.

Nowhere in their website, catalogue or price list is "Air Locker" marked as trademark...

[nastytroll]

I think it mrked in the owners manuel as "TM"

[3 cyl]

So after all this, does anyone actually have one? And did it explode?

[thehanko]

One bloke hs ordered one. will be curious to hear what he has to say once it arrives, regarding general build quality.

[jimbo jones]

One bloke hs ordered one. will be curious to hear what he has to say once it arrives, regarding general build quality.

keep us all posted on how it is

[whythef@#!not]

IMHO I would not be using Chinese recovery gear of any kind purely because they don't have the same design and safety standards that western countries do. .

couldnt agree more. but its gettin to the point where more people are going to go to ARB, ask for price on Warn etc $1800, then see that at $30..
which will they go for?

Do you really think people could honestly trust a winch that is one third of the cost of a good quality snatch strap or about the price of a couple of good quality decent shackles? I personally couldn't do it.

Recovery equipment is only as good as the weakest link in your recovery operation. IMHO you can't put a price on safety and buying good quality recovery equipment is buying another layer of insurance for yourself and your vehicle.

not saying these cheap winches arent shit. but for someone like me who gets out every so often and cant afford to spend 2000 on a winch, these cheap winches are great. rather have a cheap shit chinese winch than no winch.

[ajsr]

IMHO I would not be using Chinese recovery gear of any kind purely because they don't have the same design and safety standards that western countries do. .

couldnt agree more. but its gettin to the point where more people are going to go to ARB, ask for price on Warn etc $1800, then see that at $30..
which will they go for?

Do you really think people could honestly trust a winch that is one third of the cost of a good quality snatch strap or about the price of a couple of good quality decent shackles? I personally couldn't do it.

Recovery equipment is only as good as the weakest link in your recovery operation. IMHO you can't put a price on safety and buying good quality recovery equipment is buying another layer of insurance for yourself and your vehicle.

not saying these cheap winches arent shit. but for someone like me who gets out every so often and cant afford to spend 2000 on a winch, these cheap winches are great. rather have a cheap shit chinese winch than no winch.

Id nearly bet you that half of the so called brand name recovery gear is made in china, some well known companies hide it very well,even going as far as repackaging items to apear ozzie and us made.

Ive seen video of a well known brand high lift jack being made on an assembly line in china.
dont know whether your aware but toyota VW and honda all have plants in china producing a lot of the quality products we all drive and risk our lives on.
more than happy to rely on my 6000lb warn copy winch its pulled me and another zook together up some pretty hairy shit.
id be interested to see one of these lockers but if the setup and quality control is ok theres no reason why these lockers shouldnt last forever just like the arb's

[adriand82]

I thought this stuff had to be tested and built to Australian Standards anyway?

[joeblow]

checked our dollar today? and e-bay selling stuff that meets aussie standards?.....laughed so hard i think i let out a bit of pee......

[ajsr]

I thought this stuff had to be tested and built to Australian Standards anyway?

tesed yeah
requirments might be test every 100th or 1000th off the line who knows
trust me they don,t test them all if at all.
hope you didnt pee yourself too bad joe

[HSV Rangie]

what you have to realise is that china wil make to what ever standard you want.

and having it made well is only slighly more expensive than made crap.

most liklythe steel that all your recovery gear is made from will be imported if not the whole product.

Bluescope can only supply about 50% of the materials required.

Michael.

[crankycruiser]

A guy who works for this crowd added me to his msn..

everything is made in china and is just a rip off of decent gear... id stay away from it..

Do u know how hard it is to get sencce outta sumone on msn who hardly speaks english!

[grimbo]

I thought this stuff had to be tested and built to Australian Standards anyway?

what standards, there aren't any official standards for 4wd recovery stuff in Aus anyway

[Simo63]

Do u know how hard it is to get sencce outta sumone on msn who hardly speaks english!

about as hard as it is to get out of you???

[crankycruiser]

Do u know how hard it is to get sencce outta sumone on msn who hardly speaks english!

about as hard as it is to get out of you???

Waah Sniff! need a tissue!

[Loanrangie]

what you have to realise is that china wil make to what ever standard you want.

and having it made well is only slighly more expensive than made crap.

most liklythe steel that all your recovery gear is made from will be imported if not the whole product.

Bluescope can only supply about 50% of the materials required.

Michael.

Exactly right, thats why some of the top fashion designers can have their $1000 suits made or a $5 t-shirt. Steel is at a premium these days so it comes down to what raw materials that have available.

[65Mog]

all 4x4 owners can be 100% sure they are getting a genuine,AUSTRALIAN MADE ARB AIRLOCKER when they buy it from an authorised ARB STOCKIST.

if you choose to buy a locker from fleabay or any other online store or any other 4x4 store that does not have ARB on the front of there store,you will not get that guarantee.

its pretty simple.

good luck with parts backup on this locker when it fails or does not fit.
good luck finding a reputable shop that will fit this locker.

i can guarantee that no ARB store will ever fit one of these lockers for you.

eeerm, ARB sub the work out usually anyway to a local diff specialist

if " any" diff or gearbox specialist can not properly fit a locker hemispehere ( air or otherwise) to a diff centre, they should just shoot themselves in the head and save the rest of the world greif and anguish.

JEs

I know of one ARB dealer that does this, but I bet it's fairly common.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing, you probably end up getting a better job done on your locker install, and the workshop is better off because his guys are fitting accessories that he makes more money out of anyway.

[Highway-Star]

Cool
Thanks for that.

Cast gears. ooh, that sounds quite 'average' for such a highly abused drivetrain component
Even if you didn't break one in fast fracture, I'm confident the lifetime would be vastly shortened due to being cast.
Thats enough information for me. I know what I'd buy.

[me3@neuralfibre.com]

Its going to be interesting watching vehilcles being sold with " front and rear AIR LOCKERS" from this point on.... can you really be SURE its an ARB???

This is exactly what I was thinking. Someone sells Car diff with "Air Locker" fitted. $900. Thats alright compared to $1200 for an ARB with whole diff and fitting taken into account. But thats them making a profit on a $500 "China locker". And you may not be able to tell the difference...

It's most likely ARB have already bought one or more and have had a very good look at it.

ARB will now exactly what their products do on their own destructive rig. It woudn't surprise me if they've already ripped one apart on their rig.

If they have, and proven it to be "lesser" than their own, they may in future use this in their catalogues (etc) to help maintain strong sales against these chinese lockers.
Would actually be interesting to approach ARB and ask them if they do know, and willing to say if they have tested these to see if they are different in any mechanical way. They may not, which could mean anything, but if they do it would be interesting.
In fact do ARB even publish maximum torque or strength ratings for their lockers? Surely they would for at least the ford 9" diff as it would be very usefull to a certain market.

We deal with ARB HQ and while out there today asked them about this locker. This is what I was told.

Already purchased one for inspection and testing.

Bench tested against their equivalent - Theirs broke an axle. Chinese one broke side gears and plastic piston (both shattered), apparently the side gears are cast only not machined :shock: .

They have a video of it so you may eventually see it on youtube.

I understand there is no patent on the 3 piece locker, on all others there is some protection against copies.

Will be interesting to see what ARB do to get the message out there.

This one may be junk, but they learn fast....

[ISUZUROVER]

Its going to be interesting watching vehilcles being sold with " front and rear AIR LOCKERS" from this point on.... can you really be SURE its an ARB???

This is exactly what I was thinking. Someone sells Car diff with "Air Locker" fitted. $900. Thats alright compared to $1200 for an ARB with whole diff and fitting taken into account. But thats them making a profit on a $500 "China locker". And you may not be able to tell the difference...

It's most likely ARB have already bought one or more and have had a very good look at it.

ARB will now exactly what their products do on their own destructive rig. It woudn't surprise me if they've already ripped one apart on their rig.

If they have, and proven it to be "lesser" than their own, they may in future use this in their catalogues (etc) to help maintain strong sales against these chinese lockers.
Would actually be interesting to approach ARB and ask them if they do know, and willing to say if they have tested these to see if they are different in any mechanical way. They may not, which could mean anything, but if they do it would be interesting.
In fact do ARB even publish maximum torque or strength ratings for their lockers? Surely they would for at least the ford 9" diff as it would be very usefull to a certain market.

We deal with ARB HQ and while out there today asked them about this locker. This is what I was told.

Already purchased one for inspection and testing.

Bench tested against their equivalent - Theirs broke an axle. Chinese one broke side gears and plastic piston (both shattered), apparently the side gears are cast only not machined .

They have a video of it so you may eventually see it on youtube.

I understand there is no patent on the 3 piece locker, on all others there is some protection against copies.

Will be interesting to see what ARB do to get the message out there.

But what torque load did both breakages occur at?

Most diff gears are cast them machined (hobbed, etc). I have never seen a diff gear that is just cast. Some high-end gears are machined from billet.

[sootygu]

Its going to be interesting watching vehilcles being sold with " front and rear AIR LOCKERS" from this point on.... can you really be SURE its an ARB???

This is exactly what I was thinking. Someone sells Car diff with "Air Locker" fitted. $900. Thats alright compared to $1200 for an ARB with whole diff and fitting taken into account. But thats them making a profit on a $500 "China locker". And you may not be able to tell the difference...

It's most likely ARB have already bought one or more and have had a very good look at it.

ARB will now exactly what their products do on their own destructive rig. It woudn't surprise me if they've already ripped one apart on their rig.

If they have, and proven it to be "lesser" than their own, they may in future use this in their catalogues (etc) to help maintain strong sales against these chinese lockers.
Would actually be interesting to approach ARB and ask them if they do know, and willing to say if they have tested these to see if they are different in any mechanical way. They may not, which could mean anything, but if they do it would be interesting.
In fact do ARB even publish maximum torque or strength ratings for their lockers? Surely they would for at least the ford 9" diff as it would be very usefull to a certain market.

I understand there is no patent on the 3 piece locker, on all others there is some protection against copies.



But what torque load did both breakages occur at?

Most diff gears are cast them machined (hobbed, etc). I have never seen a diff gear that is just cast. Some high-end gears are machined from billet.

[r0ck_m0nkey]

Not saying whether they are crap or not, but considering the vested interest by ARB, you could hardly say any testing they do won't have an obvious bias. Even if the thing was of the same quality, ARB wouldn't ever come out of testing and say that this product half the price of theirs is just as good.

[me3@neuralfibre.com]

I've got money this Daniel B reads this thread.

Could you break your normal polite silence policy on this one mate?

I'm sure everyone will be polite (*I wish*)

Paul

[turps]

I've got money this Daniel B reads this thread.

Could you break your normal polite silence policy on this one mate?

I'm sure everyone will be polite (*I wish*)

Paul

Why should he. No other company comes out and tells there spec for spec of each material. So why would ARB.
I bet he is reading this thread though. Especially after it was brought to ARB's attention.

[ISUZUROVER]

...

[stockhorse]

Will ARB supply some for testing?

[Reddo]

Yeah Chinese stuff will eventually become the norm, ie buy, try, die and throw away....that is if we allow that to happen....

Agree major EU and US car manufacturers are there, but Mercedes, Audi and BMW (I believe) do not allow these cars to be sold OS (so I was told by a workmate from Beijing who drives an Audi, wife has Honda, and he says Chinese veriants are not as good nor as high tech. VW was criticised last year for using old ECU technology in Chinese variants...so I don't think you can guage Chinese manufacturing quality by way of who's making stuff over there. Not yet at least

Anyhow...I believe even Warn is using Chinese made bits - my xp1500 had some components with "Made in China" on them, eg., winch hooks and associated bits ...and Warn agent could not tell me if the winch was actually made in the USA - but the box certainly was!

So, the good thing is there is more choice. The bad thing is that the choice often boils down to price, and the cheaper the price the worse the product. Chinese can make cheap imitations, but they are exactly that...and cannot be expected to last the same as quality goods. I personally avoid Chinese anything nowadays...it just fills up the landfill real quick.

[joeblow]

[

half price?.....i've seen em for nearly $1200 bucks!.......go figure.....

[Z()LTAN]

why would you buy a ghay leaky locker in the first place?

Do you people like driving 1/2 the day without lockers or something?

[cj]

With respect to trademarks, TM just lets people know that you are using it as a trademark but it does not mean that it is a registered trademark which is the one that gives you more protection and as a sidenote descriptive terms of the product are not normally allowed to be used as registered trademarks and "air locker" is not a registered trademark as far as I can tell.

Also, patents have a life of up to 20 years.