I'm looking for feedback from duners / offroaders that are running bearing carriers and/or micro stubs manufactured by RBP Mfg. in Orange County???

As far as I can tell, they are the only ones that make a 24 spline micro stub axle and bearing carrier for my car. I'm debating on replacing one micro stub that broke with the same part from them, or replacing both stubs and bearing carriers from another manufacturer. The andvantage to upgrading would be bigger/stronger set up that would be easier to replace parts with. The draw back is the significant expense associated with doing that. I'm willing to do it, if it's worth it, and is a bolt up change.

BTW, I'm running 934, LS1, 2D.

Thanks for any advise. Feel free to PM if you don't want it going public.

GB

Have you checked Napa yet for S10 hubs might be the way to go or kartek

I'm building a Sandstorm Fabrication car. Two of my friends have their cars already and both have RBP micro stub kits(930). The oldest car is in it's 4th season and has had no bearing problems so far. I'm going to be using them in my new build unless I find a smoker deal on something used.

I have a couple of friends who have Amplified's with the RBP setup. Both have had problems with breakage and bearings. RBP offers a 300M replacement stub as well as a larger diameter stub which is stronger. If you go to the larger dia stub you don't have to replace all the parts, just the stub,bearings, flanges and the nut. RBP says other than that you would have to change to a mid-board which would be costly..

I've made it no secret that i was vary unhappy with my 934 RBP micro stubs, I had nothing but problems with them. I started looking at all the SCU and AllStar cars in my group and none of them ever had a problem with theirs. I did some checking and what they are all running is the KarTek Micro Stub set up. I made the switch 2 seasons ago and have been totally happy with them. Now I have heard that RBP has made improvements to their set up but I chose to go with a proven product.

Edited to add this;
I only replaced the axle and bearing, i had to have the arms machined out to fit the bigger KarTek bearing (KarTek did this for me). I was able to reuse the brakes rotor and adapter plate. I had to drill out the adapter plate for the larger studs and buy new larger lugs nuts.

Are the a quality part like the chevy hubs?

The chevy hubs have 3 bolt holes that bolt the hub to the arm. I think GB has more bolt holes on his current hubs and arms so I don't think the chevy hubs will bolt on.

I think I should say 'bolt' just one more time

call Bob.his newer 300m upgrade is way better.i know of a few people that bob knows well and gave them the 1st few sets....now on a season and half and no problems so far!!! just send him the aluminum flange and hat to drill out for the bigger lugs and $1200.00 and you wont have any more problems.
i know scott was going to do the upgrade to your car,but decided to sell it instead.

Give Bob a call. He will take care of you. He is the one that most of the other companys copied to make there brake kits anyways!!

Loren call Bob and do his upgrade real easy and I'll help you put it together and tear it down if you want. I can take apart the rear pretty fast. Let me know.

It would be intersting to compare the cost and items that have to be changed to run the kartek kit vs the RBP. Am thinking of the new 300M RBP also, but like others have said..no issues with Kartek.

Awesome replies, thanks everyone.

More info: Over the last few days I've talked to Kartec, Fibertech, Bob at RBP, and a few others, not to mention several hours of internet searches.

Bob is a nice enough guy, I just had never heard of them and wasn't sure if they were reputable. Sounds like they are for the most part, so I appreciate that feedback.

What really got me thinking about the upgrade to Kartec was that Bob's new 300m micro stubs are $349 EACH. That seems pretty expensive to me. And then he tried to sell me the custom bearing carrier and that was another $300 plus each (versus the stock one, which is $80). So if I go with his upgraded package, I'm looking at over $1200 bucks. Now I know I can pick up a set of carriers and stubs from Kartec for about the same price, the big question I had, is would it bolt up. And it appears the answer is no based on Sandphyco's post.

Sandphyco, what did it cost you to convert over?

I don't think they will bolt up without modification. Bob's will bolt right up you just have to send him one piece and he will drill it it out and send it back to you. Then when the bearings go out it will only cost you the price of the bearing which is $25-$30.

What piece are you referring to Scott? And as far as the $25 - $30 for bearings, are you referring to his upgraded bearing carrier being rebuildable? Versus the stock one which is a throw away??

Yes the bearings are completely rebuild able and can be greased verses the old ones on the car that cannot and when they fail you just throw them away.

We have one of his most resent built 930 micro kits. We bought the 33 spline 300M stub axle kit with his chromolly bearing hubs. Yes they are not cheep, $600 a pair. But they will hold up much better then the stock Chevy bearing hub. They run a double tapered roller bearing and are rebuildable. Another very nice feature is the zerk fittings, so you can grease them without having to tear them down. Overall his kit looks to be very nice quality and overall the machine work looks to be very good. Everyone I have shown the chromolly bearing hub to has been very impressed with the look of it.

Now for the bad part about RBP. It took over 4 months to get all the pieces for the kit. At the time we wanted to buy his kit he did not have any in stock, but we were assured he could build one in a week or two. Well it took several phone calls and trips to his shop for him to get all the parts built and to us. We got mutable excuses why he did not have our parts done. One excuse was he could not get 300M material, another excuse was he accidentally gave our stubs to another customer, One time we showed up and his employee tried to give us 934 parts that were not part of the 930 kit, and the aluminum hub was not drilled to the new larger studs for his bearing hub. If we were to ever buy another part or kit from him, he would have to have the kit 100% done and boxed up before I would pay a dime or even spend the time driving to his shop.

Thanks Nikal, that's good feedback.

I have never had Bob take 4 months to get parts, but this does kind of sound like him. I think the longest I have waited is 2-3 weeks. He is a little scatter brained, but he always makes good on his stuff. He does hate to ship things though. I have had really good luck with his brake kits, and if you compare them to other brands, they are as good if not better than most out there for a better price. I used Jamar ProX products quite a bit before I switched to RBP and for the money his was a better part for less.

No the KarTek bearing carrier will not bolt up without a little machining. If you bring your old bearing into KarTek and hold it up to one of theirs you will see that theirs is much bigger. I bought the stub axles (they are 300m) and bearing carriers from KarTek and had them machine out my arms to fit their bearing carrier, I don't remember what they charged at the time, best to call them. I did have to drill out the rotor hub to fit over the larger bolts on the KarTek bearing carrier and I had to dill out the adapter plate and buy the correct mag wheel lug nuts. The brakes lined up and my axle length didn't have to be changed.

SCU uses the KarTek kit on his cars, there are a few people on this board that are happy with there RBP micro stubs but I don't know of one unhappy SCU owner.

This was the big question. Everything else seems pretty straight forward. Thanks!

I went thru the same thing a while back I ended up just uprgrading to the 300m 24 spline stub axle. I got 1,000 miles out of the chromoly ones and have almost 1,000 on the 300m ones so far no problems, also never had a bearing failure i replaced the bearings when i did the stub axles just cause it was apart.
If I ever upgrade to bigger stuff i will most likely go with pro-am stuff just for availability of parts, I was thinking of doing the bigger RBP stuff when i originally broke the stub axle but he didnt have all the parts and wasnt sure when he would.

Which ever decision you make, kartek or RBP will be a good one. I dune with Bob and I do not hesitate to use his products. Most everyone in our group runs his products and no one is breaking. I have always received great service and support from him. I am sure that there are people who have complaints with kartek as well. Everything will break sooner or later on our cars.

Thanks for the input Olmansand. What drive train are you running???

On Saturday I drove up to RBP and spent 1 ½ hours talking with Bob and checking out my options. I ended up going with the standard bearing carrier and the new 300m axles for both sides. Eventually I'd like to upgrade to RBP's 33 spline set up with custom bearings...it was really cool and the craftsman ship with top notch. It would require some fab work to the trailing arms...but it was substantially beefier. One of the great things about staying with the same size is that I'll have an extra set of bearings and axles (the one good set on my car now) to carry as spares.

The Kartek conversation was cool, but required a LOT of work to the trailing arm and was pretty expensive.

All in all, I spent $800 for two new 300m stub axles and two bearing carriers. It was a straight bolt up application (aside from having to drill out the CV bolt holes to 1/2 to accommodate the new 1/2 stub axles holes), it was a significant upgrade in strength (Bob claims conservatively 300m is 30% strong than Chromo), and I'll have a back up set in case of field breakage.