GoFastBroncos.com

With your use it is hard to recommend RCV due to cost and due to the design which is for hard core rock crawling.
The bolt-in diff allows for avoiding the spring at the slip splines which in my opinion is a bad concept. Having said that after some trials you can get the spring deal to work. Hard to find the bolt-in diff, but I know they are out there.
Strongly recommend a Trutrack LSD in front. Works great and wont hurt the rest of the system with unusual spikes. I put many thousands of miles over 10 years in Baja and never needed any thing more than Trutrac.
ARB is great, but way overkill in a TTB even for mils use. On my hard core Jeep ARB is the only way to go, but my Baja Bronco never needed for a true locker. If you go to Moab or Farmington and do the difficult lines than a locker would be required because the Trutrac just wont cut it because one wheel up is something Trutrac cant overcome. Neve had that happen in Baja because the big challenge is deep sand that Trutrac excels in.

I to 2nd the Dutchman axles

Cost of the RCV is substantial. In my use I suspect that would be the end of front axle U-Joint concerns. I recently had a friend mention that in his contacts within the JK crowd that those with RCV's complain about the noise of them. That was news to me, first that I'd heard of them making noise. Speculation is that they need to add steering stops. I've been looking for the TTB axles on Dutchman's site since wrightracing's post yesterday and have yet to find them. I guess that I need to call them.

Can't say that I've seen a spring on the inner RS axle shaft of my truck. I'm a total NuuB to TTB's. Is it there and hidden inside the RS beam, or is it something added when rebuilt for longer wheel travel? I would assume that the spring is to push the splines apart resulting in the RS output shaft staying in and engaged with the differential. I can see how a bolt-on retainer might be preferred.

Currently the truck has a rear Tru-Trac and I am very impressed with it. My feelings about anything not selectable in the front are tainted by the decades of having a Lock-Rite in the front of Patch. I've repeatedly seen guys say "you can just unlock one hub." Well, BS! First, unlocking one hub puts a strain on the locker that it wasn't designed for as the loading isn't balanced like it is even when one side is 'ratcheting'. I've seen a Detroit blow up in a casual LH turn onto a residential street because one (rear) hub became "unlocked." The resulting carnage pretty much destroyed that whole axle. Second, in ~30 years of off-road experience I have never, ever seen anyone stop long enough to do that. IME it just doesn't happen. That is how I ended up deciding on an ARB, I want something that I can turn on when I really need it but most of the time it will be unlocked.

The TTB uses small u joints and is the weakest part My fix for both the Jeep and the Bronco was to weld the joint caps. Just a couple of MIG tacks on each one. No more failures. My theory is the hub yoke is flexing and putting enough stress on teh caps to allow them to pop out.
Jeeps up tp about 2018 and big broncos all use the same size U joints. Jeep realized the problem and when to bigger joints

PaulW wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 12, 2022 7:44 am

ARB is great, but way overkill in a TTB even for mils use. On my hard core Jeep ARB is the only way to go, but my Baja Bronco never needed for a true locker. If you go to Moab or Farmington and do the difficult lines than a locker would be required because the Trutrac just wont cut it because one wheel up is something Trutrac cant overcome. Neve had that happen in Baja because the big challenge is deep sand that Trutrac excels in.

id rather have stock axles and an ARB than RCVs and a limited slip/open diff.

the only upside i see in an RCV setup is the center joint, which unless you are trying to get more than 16" of travel with a stock width setup should be up to the task.

i had a rear ARB in my last bronco and loved it. they thing wouldnt turn with the locker one, so ran open unless i needed it. being able to have an open diff in the snow/ice awesome.

I'm trying out an OX in the rear once the 8 lug conversion is done. Opted for the "integral air" shifting, which means that they put an o-ring on the op-rod making it the "air cylinder piston" and a poke-n-hope fitting where the cable housing anchor would screw into the cover.

The small U-J's seem to make a good argument in favor of the RCV's.

I have been thinking about the small U-Joint issue for a while and I have thought about running the F250 Dana 50 TTB housing knuckles and C's with 1350 or if I could get 1410 to fit that would be great. Also I like the Idea of going to 35 spline axles.

I currently am running a Eaton mechanical LS in the front and it does well in Baja, but not so well in slow crawler stuff. I like the idea of a selectable locker up front. I have had a couple friend's with ARB air locker's and loved them until they got a air leak and the pump kept kicking on all the time. One of the updates a friend did was upgrade to a steal braided air line and ditched the stock line. I know it is probably not possible, but ARB makes a 40 spline unit now, that would be a cool thing if it could be used.

I like the Idea of the Ox Locker with the cable on the front, but with 20 inches of travel, I am not sure if the cable would be doable.

Then there is the extreme upgrade to a Ford 9 inch TTB and run 35 or 40 spline with CV joints and spider trax front knuckles and C's. Solo and a couple other guy have done them with some success. The 40 spline ARB would be doable in that. But the budget is out the window then.

In the end it's all about what you like to do off-roading.

David Wright

OX in the front isn't possible due to their using the cover as part of the locking/unlocking mechanism. If it were possible, the way to route the cable would be to jump off the frame and onto the beam would be at the left beam's chassis pivot. I suppose it would be possible to weld the features needed to support the shifting mechanism into the LS beam, but it would be some tricky fab work.

ARB uses 5mm poly tubing and poke-n-hope fittings, which is just about unobtainium in the US, excepting for buying from ARB. On my '88 4rnnr I used 4mm - 5/32" tubing and poke-n-hope fittings from McMaster-Carr. The current ARB bulkhead fitting at the diff casting uses a 5/16-24 thread on the outside to clamp down on the sealing o-ring inside of the bulkhead fitting. I modified a -3AN to 5/16-24 steel adapter fitting to mimic the ARB fitting's features adjacent to the o-ring. That allowed a direct -3 braided SST hose connection at the diff. Applying a capillary action Lock-tite to this fitting's threads means that water can't get down into these upward facing threads and cause corrosion. Something like PST in the threads would also work for this.
On the chassis I used a typical -3 AN brake hose adapter fitting poked thru a chassis tab and modified a poke-n-hope fitting to seal on the fitting's inverted flare cone. That anchored the chassis end of the -3 SST hose. I also used big rig pneumatic toggle valves (https://www.alliedelec.com/product/norg ... /70517475/) instead of ARB's solenoids to switch the air on and off. No issues with this plumbing, both diffs perform as they should. Only real issue with the whole system is that the Puma compressor that I used is loud when it's running.

Forgot to mention that with the poke-n-hope fittings that if you can buy the DOT Air Brake version, do it! They have an inner metal sleeve that keeps the tubing from collapsing under the o-ring when not pressurized. Cures most of the air leaks when using that type of fitting.

ntsqd wrote:Forgot to mention that with the poke-n-hope fittings that if you can buy the DOT Air Brake version, do it! They have an inner metal sleeve that keeps the tubing from collapsing under the o-ring when not pressurized. Cures most of the air leaks when using that type of fitting.

Great fix idea for the ARB

David Wright

Credit where due, those of you who move in Early Bronco circles will know the Lars P. name. It was his suggestion.

ntsqd wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 14, 2022 6:23 pm

Credit where due, those of you who move in Early Bronco circles will know the Lars P. name. It was his suggestion.

Lars has some solid info for sure!

ntsqd wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 14, 2022 3:42 pm

OX in the front isn't possible due to their using the cover as part of the locking/unlocking mechanism.

You're not trying hard enough.

I did say:

ntsqd wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 14, 2022 3:42 pm

OX in the front isn't possible due to their using the cover as part of the locking/unlocking mechanism. ...... I suppose it would be possible to weld the features needed to support the shifting mechanism into the LS beam, but it would be some tricky fab work.

Perhaps I should have said "isn't easily possible"
You're right, No way in hell that I'd ever do that. I'd add those features to the beam stamping itself.

Coupe of comments
Before deciding to go with OX read a lot of reviews reviews.

When you buy an ARB it will come with way more extra plastic air lines than you will need. They are available to buy on eBay as are the push-on fittings and plastic repair kits. Don't like plastic then buy the metal braided kit. The kit uses AN fittings and the usual high pressure hose.
Bottom line is ARB is better than anything else and is reflected in the price. I have had ARB on 3 of my rigs and never once had an issue with the airlines. The only issue ever was a bad pressure switch for the compressor. My only complaint although minor is the oil vapor coming out the compressor solenoid vents. I solved that with an extension tube to push the vapors onto the ground.

Granted Currie is on 1ton solid front, has anyone tried a Detroit locker up front?

https://youtu.be/k5t5NEBV6_I


Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

Already own an OX for the D60. A friend was a very early adopter, put one in the front of an XJ that he then went places with it that normally only crawler buggies would go. Only issue that I know of was the exhaust melting a zip-tie, which then allowed the cable itself to get against the exhaust. It's an experiment, if the OX gives trouble I'll put an ARB in it's place. I bought the internal air actuated version, so switching to an ARB will be trivial in terms of the control system.

Had a Lock-rite up front and a Detroit in the rear under under a live axle Yota for over 20 years (sold the truck with it all still in place). It was great for going straight and I frequently would drive the really rough in 4-Lo with BOTH hubs unlocked because the turning radius, already bad in those trucks, got really bad with both hubs locked. It was that experience that dictated dual ARB's for the 4rnnr. Truly transformative to have the dual ARB's.

Directly from the RCV tech line, this rules them out for my use. I've no desire to build a support & exploring vehicle that needs to be prepped and maintained like a race vehicle. Too bad too, I liked the idea of CVJ's in the front axle. Had me thinking to see if I could find and adapt-in a transfer case with an AWD option, like the NP242 that TZ pointed out......

"The only sure maintenance is greasing. You'll need to grease the CV's every 3-5K miles or every 4-5 trails with 3-5 pumps of grease. The boots will always leak a little bit of grease requiring the joints to be refilled. If you pump too much grease in the joints, they will sling, however the only issue then will be mess. At some point internal components may wear and need to be replaced. There is no consistent timing to this and usually a sign of wear is clicking. Once the joints begin to click, it is not a sign of failure though it can be, it is more a sign of wear. At that point you can either chose to rebuild or run them until they fail. All failures are covered under warranty, however wear is not."

Regarding the inner Joint:

"You would need to remove the axle, pull the boot back and grease the internals direct. Unfortunately, due to the setup there was no better way for us to design it."