Gareth Dickens Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 I have "accidentally" purchased a set of CHARBY (Chinese ARB copy) lockers from a person here where I live. Many phrases spring to mind now, Like if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Penny wise, pound foolish. A ffol and his money are soon parted..... You get the general idea. Now I don't recall seeing a thread on this site w.r.t. CHARBY lockers. I need to know if I've made the biggest mistake of my life. The lockers I got are from a site www.off-road.net.cn . Has anyone run these and how were they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CwazyWabbit Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 ARB have a video on youtube of them testing their lockers and then testing the chinese copy version. Obviously as it's ARB testing them then they aren't going to show them in a good light but ...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soren Frimodt Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 Well if you have already bought them, I say slap them in there and see how much abuse they can take! No two ways about it, they'll surely be hard to resell, and putting them on a shelve to collect dust won't make anybody happy.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybrid_From_Hell Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 Erm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Off Road Toad Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 Being as ARB can't make a good ARB then I don't hold out much hope for the Chinese! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth Dickens Posted November 19, 2012 Author Share Posted November 19, 2012 I've seen the youtube clip and they don't seem to be using the same ones I got for the test. Those side gears are cast or forged where mine are machined. Apparently the Kiwis have been running these for a while and not had the worst to say. The biggest issues seems to be finishing and assembly quality. One NZ supplier actually imports them strips them down, inspects, deburs, retorques and reassembles them and then offers them with a warrantee. I was wondering if any forum members had some experience running them? There are mainly two comments in OZ and NZ: They're Chinese so they must be carp or I've fit them and had no problems. I've had a ex- engineer from ZF (gearbox and diff manufacturer) look them over and he could not see any blatant defects except for slightly rough finishing work . He did say that the one thing he could not comment on was the material composition and hardness. He suggested I put a file to the rear face of the gear to see if it was soft. I used a chainsaw sharpening file ( which is quite tough) and did not manage to do much to the gear. On a NZ 4x4 forum thread someone mentioned thy did a comparitive Rockwell test and the ARB and Chinese locker were very close. One more thing I would like to hear some thoughts on: The sideshaft of the toyota axle they tested is of a very similar diameter to a Salisbury sideshaft, but the Sals center is much larger. Could this count in my favour to ensure the locker is stronger than the sideshaft? That's all one really wants innit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth Dickens Posted November 19, 2012 Author Share Posted November 19, 2012 Well if you have already bought them, I say slap them in there and see how much abuse they can take! No two ways about it, they'll surely be hard to resell, and putting them on a shelve to collect dust won't make anybody happy.. At least both front and rear with a compressor cost less than one ARB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smego Posted November 20, 2012 Share Posted November 20, 2012 People slang of Chinese as automatically carp but like anything some is and some is ok, a lot of big retail manufactures use Chinese factories (Toshiba have some there) it's like these LED lights, some claim the Chinese ones are inferior but the ones they have in stock are the Chinese ones...go figure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snagger Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 The way I see it is that the diff should be the toughest part of the axle as it's the hardest and costliest part to replace. The half shaft should be next, with the drive flanges being sacrificial. The HD flanges with the screw on caps (usually yellow passivated) may seem like many to be a good idea, but in this case, where you have concerns about the diff being the weakest link, then standards (or even cheap pattern) flanges might be a good idea. There may be several sources of these copies, and ARB have probably used the worst for this test, but the torque figures in the test aren't that dissimilar - 68k for the first test and 64k for the second, if I recall. There is no way of telling if the genuine ARB was reaching its limit as the half shaft failed, and your copy part seems much superior to the one in the test, so who knows what difference in torque capacity yours has from the genuine article. Given that Toyota axles are renowned for handling much greater stress and suffering less failures than LR axles, you'll probably be alright anyway, but as I said, use standard or cheap flanges to make them the fusible link, carrying a few spares in the vehicle if you're going to give it some abuse, and you should be well covered without major expense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
=jon= Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 People slang of Chinese as automatically carp but like anything some is and some is ok, a lot of big retail manufactures use Chinese factories (Toshiba have some there) it's like these LED lights, some claim the Chinese ones are inferior but the ones they have in stock are the Chinese ones...go figure. The Chinese will build anything to your specification, and your budget - if you want good quality they can do it. A lot of the factories will make 'similar' stuff for a variety of customers - for example car coilover suspension - most of the aftermarket brands are all made in the same place, and are very similar apart from being sprayed different colours. The better (read - more expensive) brands have better internals and tend to last longer, but they all come out of the same place... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth Dickens Posted November 21, 2012 Author Share Posted November 21, 2012 I was contemplating chromemolly sideshafts and 35" tyres but have since wound my neck in. I'm even thinking of selling the v8 for a 2.5 to 3.0l diesel. So in the long run these fake lockers might save me money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickwilliams Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 I used a chainsaw sharpening file ( which is quite tough) Chainsaw sharpening files are the cheapest and nastiest files you can easily get - try the same test with a decent Bahco or Stubbs file and you may get a different result. In any case, as a test it only tells you what the surface hardness is and will tell you very little about how tough the underlying material at the root of the teeth (where it really matters) is. A single spot test may not tell you much. The biggest problem with metalwork from China is consistency - Chinese manufacturers simply do not seem to have the ability to get their steels to behave consistently across batches or from one batch the next. Maybe they don't stir it enough while it's hot! Having said that, I have spent a lot of time in Chinese factories, and I'd agree 100% with =Jon=. You need to try them - as someone else has pointed out, you don't have a lot to lose. You may get lucky! Nick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobtailrangie Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Did you get these built up + tested? Interested in the results James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth Dickens Posted December 12, 2012 Author Share Posted December 12, 2012 Not yet, still busy with other mods. I will post as soon as I'm able to test them though. I have heard from other sources in the meantime that it's not the worst purchase I could have made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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