Jeeptang

Buy my teraflex hinge

maxspongebob

I share your feelings about buying Chinese products. Being in the electronics industry I can say that I have done way more than my share of comparing domestic and overseas products. Sometimes there is no other choice but to buy their products, but when there is, you should make every effort to buy Made in USA.

The answer to your question has 3 parts.

1. China does not pay it's workers what U.S. workers are paid. They don't need to because it is a communist country and a worker has to do what the government tells them to do, or they are punished. Lower wages = lower cost products.
2. Chinese production does not create products to the same standards we do. Materials are lower quality, there is no OSHA, there is no EPA. They have much less quality controls where the failure rate is higher on a production run. So the product might look ok, but it may not function properly or may have much lower tolerances.
3. Chinese currency is tightly controlled. Where the value of the $ is tied to our markets, the value of the Yen is set by the Government. If they want to increase the amount of trade that they do with other countries, they just reduce the value of the Yen, this increases the relative costs of other countries products compared to Chinese products.

I use the following rule of thumb: If my life depends on it then I don't buy the Chinese product, or if the Chinese product costs more then half the price of the US product (I expect to buy a second to replace the fist broken one) then I don't buy the Chinese product.


BTW, despite what some say, mixed reviews is equal to mixed quality. Which surgeon do you want, the one who looses as many patients as he saves, or the one who never lost a patient?

Jeeptang

Maxspongebob you nailed how I feel for sure.

I bit the bullet today and purchased the JCR crusader with shield carrier. Pretty excited. Northridge had the carrier in stock but I have to wait a couple weeks or so for the bumper. It's raw and I'll be powdercoating a texture finish.

ShutterBug

maxspongebob

Fabulous. That is one nice looking bumper.

Vladimer

You get what you pay for. Lots of guys in the club have to jimmy holes and oval out holes to make things fit. Latches on their tire carriers seem to have never heard of what long term means, and the paint holds up to rust as well as teenage girls to liquor.

Chuck-The-Ripper

I haven't experienced any of that and your dumbass motto of "you get what you pay for" is absolutely irreverent here as smittybilt bumpers are in the same price range as almost every other.

Alp1n3

I have had the XRC front and rear bumpers on and the XRC armor and rock rails from smitty and i have zero complaints. Even when I was installing the armor fenders the passenger read had been welded at the wrong angle and no matter how many fat guys with beer bellies we got to stand on it we couldn't bend it enough to fit to the jeeps tub so I called smittybilt up and they were extremely helpful.. I sent a couple pics and they sent me a new one within 3 days of calling. Everyone is going to have different opinions about they're experiences with stuff. It's all in how you handle your patience and understanding when it comes to manufacturing things on a small scale compared to our cookie cutter homes or vehicles like which we drive

Jonathan_JK

Just got the Tire carrier and it works Just as good as the TeraFlex one my buddy has. They are both made in China so I really don't care I paid $498 While my buddy paid $711 and they both do the same thing. I bet they come from same plant probably in different sections or on a different floor.

Extremneon

Thanks to Eric at Offroad Elements!!

Great company to deal with, would recommend.

I got my Smittybilt X20 12K winch this evening. I will keep up with this thread and post up with the quality and how it functions and hold up over time.