Is everything made in China?????

[Lee]

Jeeze....... just completed maintenance on the 70 Highboy. Replaced the rear axle bearings and seals.

All of the local parts houses only carried bearings made in China. I wanted bearings made in the good Ole U.S. of A.

Someone (or somewhere I read) told me to get Timkin brand bearings as they are U.S.A. made. I found that a store nearby carried Timkin so I went and picked them up. These bearings were in the stores packaging not Timkin. Anyway, I pulled the drums, cleaned everything up and installed the new races. As I prepared to grease up the new bearings I realized that the box they came in stated "Made in China" !!!!!

The new bearings are marked "Timkin" and the part number. BTW, the old bearings I removed were also Timkin but were marked "Timkin U.S.A.".

Does anyone make USA made bearings?

Lee

[Kurt Combs]

About two years ago I bought a new pair of Justin work boots, yep made in China. There is something fundamentally wrong with a western wear company making things in China. So I feel your pain, but my guess is you will have a hard time finding American made bearings.

[Donnie]

Lee, yes it's sad to say, but most of the large brng manufacture's are now GLOBAL== plants all over the world..Not only cHINA, but East Europe, Japan & on & on.........Torrington bearing, which we have used in converters & automatic transmissions since forever has just merged with Koyo Seico, used in a lot of Japanese trans. Torrington was headquartered in New England ...I have no idea where they are being mfg. now...Donnie

[motzingg]

yep.

these guys are friends of mine in Milwaukee who still believe in quality parts and 'old school' customer service.

give them a call- they dont do internet. they can usually find whatever bearings you need that are either USA or quality taiwan, japan, euro, etc. The taiwan bearings from Koyo or others are usually just as good as USA. Sadly lots of stuff just isn't made here anymore.

http://www.yellowpages.com/milwaukee-wi ... rp-8436686

[mcheath]

Is everything made in China?????

Yeah, pretty much.

[BobbyFord]

http://www.ntnamericas.com/en/about-ntn/brands/bca

[KnockKnock]

Federal-Mogul not only owns BCA, but also includes National bearings & seals as well; where they are actually manufactured, I can't say for sure.

[averagef250]

USA manufacturing is still pretty huge. Lots of stuff is made here.

Bottom grade tapered bearings and races like wheel bearings are not made in USA because the margins are so low the only way to compete making such things is to do it in countries where the labor is dirt cheap.

Most "commodity" bearings that I use are KOYO or SKF and are made overseas in Japan and Europe.

Timken still makes a lot of fine bearings in the good old USA, but they don't make the low grade bearings, they make the high precision, high cost stuff requiring very skilled labor and high end machines.

The part I find funny is there are actually counterfeit bearings coming out of China. I buy a lot of commodity size ball bearings like 6203 2RS and I've made the mistake of thinking I was getting a smoking deal on a large lot of SKF bearings off Ebay when in fact I got cheap China bearings in fake SKF boxes.

The Chinese aren't to blame for this. Ignorant customers who drive pricepoints down encourage greedy distributors to have Chinese manufacturers make cheap junk. The Chinese make products for customers, to their specifications. They don't associate brand stigmas with quality products like the Western world does, they simply view the price as a direct indicator of the quality.

[colnago]

It's sad, really. I think any one of us would rather pay five bucks more for a quality USA product than for Chinese junk, but we are definitely in the minority. Unfortunately, that means that we do it right now ... then we do it right again in five years because the Chinese part fails us! I guess that's why honest-to-goodness OEM parts are so pricey, but then you only have to change the wheel bearings once. Even Ford isn't made in the USA anymore; from what I've seen, most of them come from Canada.

Joseph

[fmartin_gila1]

Couple years ago replaced a broken tail light assy on a Chevy pickup. The light assy had a sticker "Made in Canada", the attached wiring had a sticker "made in Mexico", shipped in a box made in the USA.

Fred

[averagef250]

My '70 F-250 was built in Canada. Actually, the majority of the 25 or so bumpsides I've owned were made in Canada.

It's a world market today. To think everything can or should be made in the old USA is faulty logic.

Cheap crap isn't going to come from China in a few years, but we'll still have cheap crap being sold here. China will do what every developing country does and grow to the same standards of living as the rest of the world. Somebody in some other hell hole country will work for $3 a month making the garbage crap you can buy.

[jimmy828]

Not anything to do with auto's but i have noticed that the beef such as steaks,etc from Mexico have made it to our local grocery stores here in Asheville NC

[colnago]

Not anything to do with auto's but i have noticed that the beef such as steaks,etc from Mexico have made it to our local grocery stores here in Asheville NC

Hmmm, I've noticed that our local grocery store in SoCal just changed "brands" of chicken they're carrying. I'll have to look at the label next time (or maybe not; ignorance is bliss). Always cheaper to undercut the next guy and keep the profits up.

Joseph

[Donnie]

Beef has been coming from Brazil for years. Japan's economy has been in the crapper for 20 years, they were just getting their head above water...no pun intended. ....when disaster struck, BIG TIME.....now they are subletting a LOT to china....South Korea is eating their lunch. Notice the Japanese vehicles quality as of late? ..............Then look at the Korean mkt????/ Chhina is even making parts for German cars...
THE GLOBAL ONE WORLD ECONOMY REALLY SUX ! ! !.....................Donnie

[averagef250]

I noticed Toyota North American vehicle standards and design really took a big direction change in 1995. They stopped doing things the "Toyota way" and started doing things exactly the same as Detroit builders for the American market.

Toyota (Toyoda) is a world company, they are beyond huge. They have an amazing array of different vehicles designed for their specific markets.

An example would be the difference between the 100 and 200 series Landcruiser that is sold in North America and the 70 and 105 series cruisers sold in Japan and Australia. America wants a suppository shaped SUV with loads of plastic crap, a high revving V8 and in dash navigation. Asia and Australia customers want inline six and turbodiesels with solid front axles and durability. Australian Landcruisers get the A442 automatic or H150 cast iron 5 speed. American versions get the A340/A343 autos with no option of stickshift since 1988. Americans buy on looks, widgets and a HP number. We want hype, not facts. Other countries buy on quality.

Bottom line is manufacturers make what the customers demand. The USA consumer trend is to buy cheap crap. Just look at how many Harbor Freight (Hazard Fraught) stores there are out there.

The good news is that there are still a large number of successful manufacturing businesses in North America building quality products for the world.