ARB guys,,,,

[wasted wages]

When you engage an ARB locker,,,does the diff consume a lot of air to keep it locked ??

I guess what I'm asking,,is there a high "bleed rate" of air pressure to keep it engaged or does the locker "hold" the air pressure pretty good until it is turned off...

I was wanting to possibly run a front ARB off of a small bottle of nitrogen
( regulated of course) instead of using an air compressor. If it only requires a small amount to lock it up,,seems to me a small cylinder would last all
weekend....

what say you ???

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

As long as the air lines don't leak, ARB's don't consume much air.

You just have to fill the lines up to the specified pressure (I don't remember what it is but its pretty low) and then as long as you don't have leaks it should hold.

If you have leaks, the locker probably won't work anyway. The ARB compressor is pretty small and weak, I bet a small air tank would work fine.

 

[jms]

2 ARBs, F 10b / R d60, 5 years of service; I haven't experienced any leaks at the differentials. No pressure bleed to keep it locked. I've had a leak every now and then at the seal of the little air tank at the compressor itself. I run the Mini compressor purchased 10 years ago, don't know the volume. The d60 takes a compressor tank 'refill' every second time I hit the switch, so starting from 110 psi, the pressure will drop below 80psi on the second hit. May have more to do with the volume of the long line to the rear diff than with the volume needed to activate the locking mechanism itself. I can't tell you numbers on the front diff as I rarely have the rear on all the time and toggle the front only (my front is wired so it is dependent on the rear being locked...).

I'm actually thinking about ditching my CO2 setup in favor of a bigger air compressor for tires and possible an impact. I find that arranging my gas fillups is becoming too cumbersome due to my distributed lifestyle.

 

[miniwally]

Agian an ARB takes little volume. The air pressure going into them is supposed to be around 80psi. Much higher and you risk blowing seals inside the dif.

I myself as a recreational wheeler wouldn't use a tank only air source. If you have a small leak in a line your air source will be quickly consumed. You might forget to check the bottle prior to leaving for Moab and I doubt you are going to fiind a Nitrogen refill very easy.

Comp guys do this to save weight.

I like having the "big" old style ARB compressor (you can still get them), if I need to I can hook up the air hose, crack a cool beverage and in ten or so minutes I have inflated a 42" tire. I carry a CO2 tank for this but have had times that all of the CO2 tanks in the group were used running tools in a repair only to have a tire problem and need to use the ARB to fill a tire.

In rec. style wheeling it is about redundancy, one system is the primary use system but another system can be easily adapted to preform both tasks. Maybe not well but it will work for a period of time.