Gday, mate! Every now and then it's good to put the daily grind on hold, step outside your normal routine, and do the adventure lifestyle. Even though writing for this magazine is the best job in the world,it is possible to get burnt out. Lucky for me, I was able to get away on a two-week trip to the land down under. It all started during a formal sales dinner, the wine-and-dine meetings where our sales reps and advertisers get together and try to hash out a deal, while us editorial guys tag along for free food and drink. While I was sitting there all uncomfortable in my fancy shirt and too-tight dress shoes, I struck up a conversation with this funny-talking bloke, Andy Brown. As it turned out, Andy is one of the Brown brothers who own and run ARB in Australia.
In case you're new around here, ARB is known in the states for its selectable air locking differentials, burly steel truck bumpers (called bull bars down under), and Old Man Emu suspensions, but these parts all originated in Australia where ARB operates 10 company-owned 4x4 shops as well as 18 franchise stores. What this all means is that Australia is ARB's home and the outback is its backyard, so you can imagine how excited I was when Andy invited me to come over to his place to play in their giant sandbox.
The next thing you know I was sitting in a giant Quantas Airlines 747 for a 14-hour flight to the city of Melbourne along the southern coast of Australia. The plan was to meet up with 11 other off-road journalists from around the world and a half dozen ARB employees for a two-week stint in the Australian outback behind the wheels of eight ARB-outfitted 4x4s.
You might think a trip like this is a dream vacation, and truthfully, it is. Not only were we spending the days driving cool trucks over giant sand dunes, slippery mud holes, and rocky river bottoms, but we spent most nights either chuggin' beers in some crazy outback pubs or crackin' brews around a campfire, telling wacky stories about why four-wheeling is better in our home country before drifting off to sleep under the most amazingly bright stars.
Another unique aspect to the trip was that many of the trucks are models we don't get here in the U.S. And as our tour was nearing the end we arrived at the ARB/Warn Outback Challenge where we watched some of the more extreme outback trucks attempt different obstacles while hauling all their spare parts and fuel. I can honestly say I wasn't too excited about coming back home after this vacation-er, work trip. Australia is a great 4x4 destination and if you ever get a chance to go you definitely should.
Factory Tour
Our first stop was ARB's headquarters in Melbourne, where Andy Brown showed us all the cool stuff that they make and sell around the world. ARB has long been focused on making products for traveling to remote areas where reliability and strength are most important. The products have a reputation as some of the best. ARB does the majority of its manufacturing in Australia, but also has production managers who constantly travel to check up on the other factories and suppliers to ensure that only top-quality products receive the ARB stamp. | 
Did you know that ARB offers a full line of recovery gear in Australia like this winch rope? ARB stores supply items like first aid kits, tire deflators, its famous fridge/freezers for storing food in your truck, and a variety of jacks, tire repair items, and safety equipment, as well as a full line of camper shells for the work, weekend, or expedition off-roader. | 
ARB does tons of testing on its Air Lockers and has this giant machine that uses over 20,000 lb-ft of pressure to do destructive stress testing of both ARB and other manufacturer's products. The goal is to find the weak link and upgrade it long before customers get their hands on the parts, though the weak link is often found to be the OEM axleshafts and not the ARB bits. There are other machines as well to simulate lockers being engaged under power and for long-term shock testing of its Old Man Emu products. Hundreds of man hours are also applied with computerized design and stress analysis as well as real in-the-dirt testing. |