Not sure if this is much help, but I know the campbells have an ARB one mounted on the back of one of their chase trucks, fully exposed to the elements and they live in Arizona. So it must do good with the heat....
I love the road manners with my Yukon grizzlys in the buggy. Drives like a normal vehicle on road, unless your hoggin on it around corners. Then it will lock up. Agility customs aka Ryan Maxfield could get you taken care of. @Agility Customs
I know a few people that live on the east bench, sandy area that have motion sensor sprinklers to scare of the deer from eating their flower beds. Seems to work pretty good.
What trans are you running chris? Almost sounds like your converter isn’t fully seated in the trans and it’s causing it to bind. We ran into this same problem with a buddy’s rig a few years back...