TL;DR - I'm not happy at all that the ARB fridge wouldn't cool on my last trip. I'm going to be reaching out to ARB support to (hopefully) get the issue resolved. When I showed up in Las Vegas for Three Days of R&R, I followed my usual procedures, picking up the Tacoma from storage, turning on the various systems, and then heading to the grocery store to provision the fridge with a few days' worth of food. As I was stopped for gas on my way to Utah, I happened to glance at the control panel for the fridge…
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TL;DR - The zipper finally failed catastrophically. Both CVT and YKK had amazing customer service and solved the problem in different ways. While exploring the backroads of Oregon's Hart Mountain, the zipper on the cover of the CVT tent finally failed. This has been an ongoing issue for the last several years, and I've been babying the zipper by cleaning it every time I close the cover. End of the road. When the slider finally failed, it was time for a different approach. I started looking for a new slider online. Mine had the marking YKK 10RC cast onto the…
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TL;DR - I no longer recommend SPC upper control arms (UCAs) if they contain X-Axis bushings. In my last rig review, mentioned replacing my UCAs due to a worn out bushing. Since then, I've added a significant update to Replacing my SPC Upper Control Arms ...with SPC UCAs which I think is worth highlighting here. The new SPC UCAs that contain X-Axis joints are not lifetime parts as I was initially told by SPC when they convinced me to participate in their trade-up program. In fact, the life warranty (3 years, 36K miles) of an X-Axis joint is less than the…
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TL;DR - After cinching down the cover for the tent a few hundred times, the stitching for one of the buckles on one of the cover straps ripped out. I sewed it back together and everything is good again. I think there was probably some very minor manufacturing defect in one of my straps that only reared its head after I used the strap a couple hundred times, since I inspected the other strap and it looks just fine. This is one of those things that some might feel like they needed to buy a new strap for, but fixing…
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TL;DR - The 12V power cord has a design flaw. ARB is good about standing behind their warranty however, and sent me a new one. We love our ARB 50qt fridge - it is @mrs.turbdb's favorite "mod." However, after two+ years of regular use - say on the order of 175 nights camping - it's clear to me that there is a design flaw on the 12v ARB fridge power cord. Namely, the injection molding used for the right-angle plug that goes into the fridge has a seam that easily cracks, exposing the wiring - a possible short circuit/fire hazard. I…
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