ARP entry set to incomplete every 300s (5min) - even permanent ARP

Problem:

Every 5 mins, I lose connectivity to the default gateway, until the gateway sends an ARP request for this host's IP.

Troubleshooting:

My router sends an ARP request for this host every 30s and this host will reply.

I tried setting a static ARP entry on the router, no help.

I tried setting a static ARP entry for this host for the routers IP, no change. The permanent ARP entry gets aged out <<<

crj-mbp:~ user$ arp -an

? (192.168.0.1) at 0:60:64:19:ca:39 on en1 permanent [ethernet]

? (192.168.0.254) at 90:72:40:1:fb:fd on en1 ifscope [ethernet]

? (192.168.0.255) at ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff on en1 ifscope [ethernet]

crj-mbp:~ user$ arp -an

? (192.168.0.1) at (incomplete) on en1 ifscope [ethernet] <<<<<<

? (192.168.0.254) at 90:72:40:1:fb:fd on en1 ifscope [ethernet]

? (192.168.0.255) at ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff on en1 ifscope [ethernet]

I read about the problems people were having with unicast ARP on Mavericks, so disabled it via sysctl. This didn't help.

Sucessful Workaround:

I increased the aging timer for ARP (or MAC not sure which) via sysctl like this:

crj-mbp:~ user$ cat /etc/sysctl.conf

net.link.ether.inet.arp_unicast_lim=0

net.link.ether.inet.prune_intvl=9999999999

Does anyone know why OSX isn't sending an ARP request for the default gateway before it expires, or when it does?