Chinese air locker test.

[mudgripz]

There has been alot of interest in the chinese arb clone air lockers now available. Alot of people have been waiting for someone to test one out first before trying one. As an experiment I fitted one to my Canterbury club truck 4-5 months ago and have done about a dozen tracks using this rear locker in that time. Am now happy to comment on the locker.

Found the unit easy to install and the compressor, though a little noisy, does the trick very well. Have it mounted under driver seat and a bit of sound insulation material will solve that issue.

Being selectable I only use the locker when needed, but have given it a fairly tough workout on a few rugged bits of country. Have also run it for one or two extended periods - about half hour or so.

I have found the locker to be 100% reliable. In the past have used aussie lokkas which I like, but this chinese air locker works very well and at its cheap price it creates a new selectable option for club 4wd trucks.

Have not done heavy winch challenge or competition work with it, but for club trucks and tracks I'd say it is a good option. I know of another truck with one of these units installed and it is working well also.

I think the advice to strip the locker and check and debur components first if possible is very sensible, though I didn't do this on mine.

I should mention there is a guy in chch who has imported a few of them for isuzu owners and is selling them at about cost - round 1100 I think - inclusive of compressor. He also fits them into your isuzu diffhead free, a precision job which can otherwise cost an extra $350. An EXTREMELY good deal, for isuzus only.

In all, this chinese air locker hasn't missed a beat in my club truck which is all you can ask. Just one locker tested, but from my experience I give it a thumbs up!

[swampa]

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

[DaveM]

Good to hear some feedback from someone that has actually used one. I assume you are running it on a Bighorn (from memory ). What size tyres do you run?


Cheers

[MATT4U]

A mate has two of them in his crawler, from memory he payed about $100 each importing them him self.

[mudgripz]

Have seen the arb bench comparison test. Have to say this did not worry me too much. The fail level difference was just 7% from memory - a variability margin you would expect even comparing one arb with another. Small variances in metal content from one batch to another, test rig, measuring equipment, day temperature etc might easily give more than this difference.

Performance of the locker has been faultless so far. Was a bit of a punt, but am now impressed with its reliability and performance.

One pretty irrelevant thought that encouraged me to test this locker was having good experience with chinese norinco rifles. Alot of the readers on this site will have one of these and they are not made to high engineering spec, (except for the em 332 .22LR) but the little b*ggers are tough, durable and outshoot far more expensive brands with ease! Performance for the $$$!

Am running the locker on my 88 bighorn with 4" lift and 33s. Waited to do a dozen or so tracks before commenting, but no downsides with this air locker at all to date. Switch it on, switch it off- works perfectly. Would now happily recommend these air lockers - especially at the price you can get them for isuzu owners.

Be good for someone to test some out at tuff-truck level, but if properly checked before fitting, may do well there also.

[amboguy]

he payed about $100 each importing them him self.

where from??

[haydgq]

he payed about $100 each importing them him self.

where from??

The only way to get them really cheap is if you allready import from China and have Containers to ship them in to save on freight, Even with our Dollar as strong as it is now they are still around $650 NZD with no freight included.

[octanepwr]

They dont make one for the front diff in isuzus yet do they?

[bobrocket]

http://www.china4x4offroad.com/product.aspx?SmaID=2

[Landynut]

Have seen the arb bench comparison test. Have to say this did not worry me too much. The fail level difference was just 7% from memory - a variability margin you would expect even comparing one arb with another. Small variances in metal content from one batch to another, test rig, measuring equipment, day temperature etc might easily give more than this difference.

Performance of the locker has been faultless so far. Was a bit of a punt, but am now impressed with its reliability and performance.

One pretty irrelevant thought that encouraged me to test this locker was having good experience with chinese norinco rifles. Alot of the readers on this site will have one of these and they are not made to high engineering spec, (except for the em 332 .22LR) but the little b*ggers are tough, durable and outshoot far more expensive brands with ease! Performance for the $$$!

Am running the locker on my 88 bighorn with 4" lift and 33s. Waited to do a dozen or so tracks before commenting, but no downsides with this air locker at all to date. Switch it on, switch it off- works perfectly. Would now happily recommend these air lockers - especially at the price you can get them for isuzu owners.

Be good for someone to test some out at tuff-truck level, but if properly checked before fitting, may do well there also.

FINALLY SOMEONE THAT AGREES WITH ME !!!!!!!!

I've got a norinco semi auto .22 that is just AWESOME, has had at least 20,000+ rounds through it and stil shoots like new, in fact sunday morning @ about 6am it put a hole in a deers brain
only problem I've ever had with that .22 was the ejector / extractor wore out, so i filed down a new one from a piece of steel that was lying around and now it cycles/feeds perfectly again, never jams (gun city REFUSED to measure the ruger replacement extractor, which looks identical, to see if it would fit, and would have cost $14 and saved me several hours of filing)

Also have a norinco jw-105 bolt action .223, right out of the box (after a good clean, and a few test fires) shot a sub-1 inch group @ 300 metres, even a tikka or remington off the shelf will struggle to match that ! had the trigger worked since, added a new scope and its beautiful to shoot and light to carry..

latest addition is a norinco m305 (Springfield M14 copy)
looks and feels like the real deal (heavy as a b**ch) - shoots beautifully just using barnaul cheapcr*p .308 140gr holes are touching every time @ 50 yards, varies at 100 yards from 1 inch to 2 inch but cant expect more from a military semi auto manufactured at the extreme end of tolerances for headspace etc, so with water and grit getting into the action it will still function.... and using the cheapest possible ammo also it is a carbine so short barrel = less accuracy.. added a suppressor, blackhawk cheek pad & simmons master series 3-9x40 scope... popped 6x 1 litre bottles of water @ 150 yards with 6 shots... only one bad thing to say about it and that is it came with a bent barrel - and not just slightly but 4-5mm of curve (probably from being stacked in cardboard boxes . . but that comes down to gun city not even LOOKING at a product before sending it out the door, could have exploded in my face if i was someone less cautious - gunsmith was able to straighten it out and seems to shoot ok so im not unhappy in the end........

__________________ < bottom line China is not so bad !

CAN I GET THESE LOCKERS FOR MY SERIES LANDROVER ?!? 10-spline ?

[sibainmud]

Here's my answer

http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=23391&p=260300#p260300

Cheers.

(completes the circle)