Cheap diff locker too good to be true??

[jakwoo39]

i was looking on the internet the other day and stumbled across these lockers

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/39837 ... ckers.html

they are a mere fraction of the cost of buying one here so has anybody actually bought one of these with success ??

[badnuz]

search for chinese lockers......

[jakwoo39]

i will only be running 33's so will these be strong enough?

[yeti]

search for chinese lockers......

http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/Forums/ ... se+lockers

[churchill]

I bought an RD88 and installed it myself. It arrived within a week of payment in good condition. I had to clean up the parts as they wern't well washed and had filings in them. The install difficult as I had a later model diff than specified but with a bit of machining and the right parts it went in and aligned to specification. There was initially too much runout on the ring gear but after rotating some parts in relation to each other it came right. They're basically ARB riffoffs even down to the instructions, ABR is twinked out and replaced with their brand.

The unit is a 4 spider but there's slop in two of the spider gear shafts making it effectivly a two spider unit. I broke a front diff with it in and it came out usuable so it's reasonably tough but I suspect the metal quality is not as good as an ARB unit.

The biggest problem I have is that 10% of the time I engage it it
leaks air. It still locks but the compressor runs. If I flick the switch a couple of time it comes right, I hear ARB's have the same problem though I don't know how much this happens.

Its a sweet deal for me as it was landed for NZD$820 including compressor and loom, ARB were going to charge over NZD$2200 for the same setup and the guy on trade me was going to charge NZD$1600. What a difference a locker makes to truck with no ground clearence and limited articulation. With the strong NZ dollar they'll be even cheaper but remember, you get what you pay for. Don't expect and ARB quality locker for 1/3 of the price.

[jakwoo39]

I bought an RD88 and installed it myself. It arrived within a week of payment in good condition. I had to clean up the parts as they wern't well washed and had filings in them. The install difficult as I had a later model diff than specified but with a bit of machining and the right parts it went in and aligned to specification. There was initially too much runout on the ring gear but after rotating some parts in relation to each other it came right. They're basically ARB riffoffs even down to the instructions, ABR is twinked out and replaced with their brand.

The unit is a 4 spider but there's slop in two of the spider gear shafts making it effectivly a two spider unit. I broke a front diff with it in and it came out usuable so it's reasonably tough but I suspect the metal quality is not as good as an ARB unit.

The biggest problem I have is that 10% of the time I engage it it
leaks air. It still locks but the compressor runs. If I flick the switch a couple of time it comes right, I hear ARB's have the same problem though I don't know how much this happens.

Its a sweet deal for me as it was landed for NZD$820 including compressor and loom, ARB were going to charge over NZD$2200 for the same setup and the guy on trade me was going to charge NZD$1600. What a difference a locker makes to truck with no ground clearence and limited articulation. With the strong NZ dollar they'll be even cheaper but remember, you get what you pay for. Don't expect and ARB quality locker for 1/3 of the price.

what site did you buy yours from?
and i was just wanted to know if these will be strong enough as i dont run huge tyres and motor dosnt even put out 100hp

[churchill]

PM sent, everything else breaks execpt for ther locker on mine but my truck is a special case (Vitara glass front diff and CV's). I would definatly buy more for my next truck.

Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewt7f-h8Wn4

Almost the same strength but the chinese locker fails instead of the axle in the ARB diff.

[jakwoo39]

am i ever going to actualy be able to apply that much torque with a 13bt?

[churchill]

You probably could, full throttle, front wheels in the air spinning fast then they come back down and grip hard. Standard method for breaking stuff.

[niblik]

usual story with a locker though, you dont have to push it as hard as always got traction down..

and so on and so on... blah blah *insert raging arguement here..*

[churchill]

usual story with a locker though, you dont have to push it as hard as always got traction down..

and so on and so on... blah blah *insert raging arguement here..*

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Yep dead true. Hope this has helped you Jakwoo.

[Big]

usual story with a locker though, you dont have to push it as hard as always got traction down..

and so on and so on... blah blah *insert raging arguement here..*

LOL

[Drurban]

I have an RD44 of these lockers, tried it out found a huge leak were it goes in to the locker, need to have a little machining done to get one of the Orings to seal. So I have had no luck with mine as yet.

My mate also has a Chinese locker in his Terrano, he has had little issues with his and seems to be going strong.

I guess you get what you pay for.

Cheers.

[jakwoo39]

i have ordered two rd33's they are taking ages but im a machinist so its no stress to fix any wee probs