The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: PegLeg45 on May 04, 2020, 12:04:50 PM
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One of the things we have talked about on this forum (off/on for years) is our dependence on foreign products and how we ought to buy American made products as often as possible.
I know full well that sometimes the price difference is way too far apart for folks on a monthly budget to buy certain products from an American maker versus a maker outside the US, but we should do so as much as we can.
It has been my observation that the US made stuff lasts longer and is better quality, so you buy less in the long run and the money expenditure ends up am even wash.
Someone shared the link below that is a list (not a complete list, but fairly extensive) of clothing and other products that are made in the USA.
One item, for example, is sun glasses. There are several companies (Gatorz, for one) that make glasses that are comparable to Costa (a very popular brand right now).
Anyway, here is the link to the list pages:
https://www.madeinamerica.co/pages/thelist
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Start with ammo. ;D
Fortunately most of the foreign, worth while manufacturers all have US facilities.
FN, CZ, Beretta, Glock, and SIG is now entirely American owned. ;D
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While bored out of my gord in the hospital, I decided to crack the "made in USA" by finding a US made toaster.
I may have gotten taken. I got a Breville which I believe is actually Australian owned. Now I like the Aussies, but I think the toaster I got was China made despite my efforts.
It's a nice toaster with a "look see" and a "little bit more" options. But in retro I still contend it's hard to fine true USA made toasters.
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May have posted this before..
http://www.allamericanclothing.com/SFNT.html
http://www.texasjeans.com/news.html
http://www.wigwam.com/index.aspx
http://www.shopnewbalance.com/information/madeinusa.asp
http://www.carolinashoe.com/category.asp?CatID=284
http://www.redwingshoes.com/footwear/filter-usa
http://www.chippewaboots.com/category/classics
http://www.weber.com/
http://www.kershawknives.com/searchresults.php?search_by=madeinusa&search_value=0&brand=kershaw
http://www.benchmade.com/about_knives/anewclass.asp
http://www.gerbergear.com/index.php
http://www.all-clad.com/about-all-clad/Our-Craftsmanship/
http://www.lodgemfg.com/
http://www.manpans.com/
http://www.cutco.com/home.jsp
http://www.nordicware.com/
http://www.usapans.com/
http://www.uswings.com/index.asp
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Saw a post on FB, about this. Look at the bar code. American made products start with 00 - 09 . Chinese start with 9
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If it can't be U.S. then at least don't buy Chicom crap....
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Something to keep in mind if US isn't an option. Taiwan, Israel, and Japan all sent us medical supplies.
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If it can't be U.S. then at least don't buy Chicom crap....
Something to keep in mind if US isn't an option. Taiwan, Israel, and Japan all sent us medical supplies.
Yep.
Like Alf said, some stuff might appear to be made somewhere other than China, but the company is owned by China.....and they are buying more and more companies through secondary holdings.
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Buy Japanese, They HATE China ;D
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May have posted this before..
http://www.allamericanclothing.com/SFNT.html
http://www.texasjeans.com/news.html
http://www.wigwam.com/index.aspx
http://www.shopnewbalance.com/information/madeinusa.asp
http://www.carolinashoe.com/category.asp?CatID=284
http://www.redwingshoes.com/footwear/filter-usa
http://www.chippewaboots.com/category/classics
http://www.weber.com/
http://www.kershawknives.com/searchresults.php?search_by=madeinusa&search_value=0&brand=kershaw
http://www.benchmade.com/about_knives/anewclass.asp
http://www.gerbergear.com/index.php
http://www.all-clad.com/about-all-clad/Our-Craftsmanship/
http://www.lodgemfg.com/
http://www.manpans.com/
http://www.cutco.com/home.jsp
http://www.nordicware.com/
http://www.usapans.com/
http://www.uswings.com/index.asp
I've seen some of those posted here before. Some of the companies on the list make things in the U.S. and elsewhere. I used to buy New Balance walking shoes a lot and while checking labels in the store I saw some made in China. There's a Red Wing shoe store about 5 miles from me so I can actually try boots on instead of ordering something online and hoping for the best. Unfortunately my work boots stretched out really bad. I tried a combination of insoles and pieces of insoles to take up the slop. I ended up putting thick felt insoles in them and I think I have half insoles under those but I'm too lazy to look. Now it feels like I'm wearing high heels or platform shoes or something when I wear them. More recently I've seen some Gerber knives made in China, and maybe Kershaw too but I'm not certain. I have a Leatherman knife and some tools on the way, and they make everything in Oregon. I used to buy Ray-Ban sunglasses most of the time but last year Midway had some Oakleys on sale and I got a pair. I like them but I learned I can't stick them in the front of my shirt collar when I take them off. The rubber on the earpieces is so grippy it will grab any whiskers or chest hair they encounter. :o
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A trick to look for is "Assembled In". There are ways to get around the different import and labeling laws. I learned this one in the mid 70's. It was a Series I Chevrolet LUV. Chevrolet and Isuzu got around several importation laws by assembling in the US. What they did was ship the incomplete vehicle to Seattle, WA, and assemble it there. What was left to do? Install the box! They were shipped with the fully assembled box strapped to the chassis with 4x4's spacing it up - Cut the straps, pull the blocking, six bolts, four screws for the filler neck, and plug in the wire harness. The Chevy LUV was "Assembled in the USA".
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Yep. Checking labels tells some of the story.
I wear Justin boots. Some are made in the US and some are not and they may be sitting right on the shelf next to each other.
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A trick to look for is "Assembled In". There are ways to get around the different import and labeling laws. I learned this one in the mid 70's. It was a Series I Chevrolet LUV. Chevrolet and Isuzu got around several importation laws by assembling in the US. What they did was ship the incomplete vehicle to Seattle, WA, and assemble it there. What was left to do? Install the box! They were shipped with the fully assembled box strapped to the chassis with 4x4's spacing it up - Cut the straps, pull the blocking, six bolts, four screws for the filler neck, and plug in the wire harness. The Chevy LUV was "Assembled in the USA".
That really sucks that they could get away with that. Now it would say something like assembled at ___________ with __% North American content, right on the window sticker. My Silverado was made in Pontiac, Michigan and so was the one I had before it. Some of the people I worked with in Grand Blanc moved there before our plant closed. They probably helped build my truck. My best friend and some other guys I worked with now work less than a 3 mile drive from my house, at the the Flint Truck Plant where they make crew cab and double cab trucks. If I bought a crew cab or double cab truck before they all retire it would most likely be made partly by people I know. The only regular cab long-bed Silverado still being made is a work truck. I think those are still made by my ex-coworkers in Pontiac. It will say on the sticker where the engine was made too. Some might be from the engine plant right next to the truck plant by me. I don't know what they make engines for. But if the trucks were made of all Japanese parts like that Chevy Luv they couldn't get away with saying assembled in the U.S. without saying 0% American parts. I think it only has to say North American, not U.S.
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The LUV started production in 71 1/2. However, they didn't designate them by model year. They referred to them by Series. Mine was a Series one. They also were not really Chevrolets. They were Isuzu with Chevy badging. 100% Isuzu!
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Yep, Chevy LUV, made by Isuzu. With the Chevy name and bow-tie slapped on for decoration, or to fool people. I didn't know they just called them by their series instead of the year. They sold them for about a decade until the S-10 came out but I hardly ever saw one. Maybe one for each couple of years of production. People around here just didn't luv 'em and this a GM town, scratch that, the GM town. It all started right here. I've seen nearly as many Chevy C/K pickups with flames and/or bombs painted on the sides where the gas tanks are as I have Chevy LUVs. :)
The NUUMI joint venture in California had Chevy Novas, Toyota Novas as I called them, then Geo Trackers, then Chevy Trackers all rolling out alongside Toyota Corollas. Toyota wanted to build their cars here their way and not have to worry about any import restrictions. GM wanted to learn how to run a car company but still couldn't get it right. The ideal was to have coils of steel going in one side and cars come out the other but I don't know how close they got. I think it's where GM got started on Just In Time, or Not Quite On Time as I call it whenever a line runs out of parts because they don't keep a stockpile. When I worked for GM they always wanted to be more like the Japanese. Once in awhile they'd have us go to a meeting in the garage with the plant manager and other higher-ups a bunch at a time until everyone in the plant went. Once when they told us in a meeting we were going to do things more like the Japanese, I raised my hand and someone passed me a mic. When it was my turn to speak I said you mean the people who had to invent a new work for working yourself to death? Karoshi. Out-produce everyone else or die trying. That's what they want but wouldn't say so.
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Which Chevy was nothing but a rebadged Suzuki? I remember seeing them, driving one at work for beater use, fixing the work one, but I can't remember what GM called it.
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I think the Geo or Chevy Tracker was a Suzuki Samurai or Sidekick. I can't keep track of who put what name on what else.
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I had one of those Toyota Nova's. The best car I ever owned .
Sold it when I moved to Ca .
As far as I know it, or at least the frame and motor, are still going strong.
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The Chevy S-10 and GMC S-15 compact trucks that had four cylinder engines still used Isuzu engines. My dad bought a first-year S-15 GMC in 1982 when they came out and it had a 1.9L Isuzu engine.
I inherited the truck in 1986, my senior year of HS.
After several expensive repairs, $370 for a riveted together factory carb and $600 for a rebuilt cylinder head, I said no more of that crap. So I put a 327ci Chevy small block V8 with a 350 auto trans in there and let it roll. It was actually easier to change spark plugs in the V8 than it was with the 4 cylinder.
Chevy was still using Isuzu parts on the S-10s in the 90's....look at the 1996 Isuzu Pup and they're duplicate bodies of the 94-up round-nose S-10s.
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GM ended up buying all, or at least part of, Isuzu. Their diesels are all Isuzu. The old Oldsmobile was a good diesel for what it was designed for, but people were looking for what it wasn't. Translation: They wanted a 454 big block, but they bought a Vega 120 four banger. That, plus the fact that they made it a 350 ci, so, of course, the know-it-alls claimed it was just a gas engine with diesel injectors in it.
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GM ended up buying all, or at least part of, Isuzu. Their diesels are all Isuzu. The old Oldsmobile was a good diesel for what it was designed for, but people were looking for what it wasn't. Translation: They wanted a 454 big block, but they bought a Vega 120 four banger. That, plus the fact that they made it a 350 ci, so, of course, the know-it-alls claimed it was just a gas engine with diesel injectors in it.
Yeah....that always got me when my gearhead friends were bench-racing and someone brought up 350 diesels. I was like, "Yeah...they're practically the same engine....except for the thimble-sized combustion chambered heads and 2.5 times the compression ratio of a gas engine, etc." 8)
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Didn't they just drill and bore a different set of holes in the existing casting ?
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As I recall, the heads were the main difference, I think you could swap the heads, Intake system and install a distributor and convert it back to use gas.
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The block used similar dimensions because using the same bore and stroke meant Olds could build the engines using the same tooling as the gas engines. The block was a beefed-up design intended to deal with the engine’s 22.5:1 compression ratio, which was nearly 3 times the CR of the gas engines.
Biggest differences were inside the cylinder heads and the head bolts. To get that high of combustion ratio, the chamber was tiny. One thing Oldsmobile didn’t change was the head bolts — type, pattern and number. And that would prove to be the engine’s undoing … or at least part of it.
There were two key problems with the Olds diesels. First, the head bolts simply weren’t numerous or strong enough for the diesel’s high compression ratio, so they started blowing head gaskets.
And, one of the consequences of a blown head gasket is that coolant can enter the cylinder, and unlike air, coolant does not compress. If a given cylinder took on enough water, a piston on its upward compression stroke would literally run into the immovable object. The piston would stop, but the crankshaft wouldn’t; the connecting rod would bend and mucho mechanical destruction would ensue. High compression engine using low compression parts and it didn't take long for the engines to start grinding their own internals to bits.
In most cases, this would render the engine irreparable — but in the event it didn’t, repairing the engine using the same type of head bolts would simply give it another fine opportunity to destroy itself. ;D
Second big problem: cost-cutters decided not to add a water separator.
Unlike gas, diesel is subject to water condensation — hence the need for a water separator.
Without one, water in the fuel becomes water in the engine, where it can rust either the cylinders or the very complicated mechanical fuel injection pump.
The former could destroy the engine, while the latter would screw up the engine’s running characteristics and possibly crap-out the pump — which, in a mechanically-injected diesel, is an incredibly intricate and complicated device that is expensive to replace.
I attached the two different heads showing the combustion chamber. The gas is first and the diesel second....note the diesel looks like a flat-head. ;D
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Didn't they just drill and bore a different set of holes in the existing casting ?
No, all castings were of new design. The concept of the 350 ci was that they were able to use existing tooling with minimal change, and the only needed changes in the metal work line was holding fixtures.
The three main failures that I recall from being in a dealership in that era were, first, the glow plugs wouldn't hold shape. The tip would mushroom, and couldn't be pulled back through the hole when changing. For this reason a bad original glow plug meant the head came off. After a couple years the replacements were better. The second failure, and this was also fixed, was that this was GM's first venture into torque to yield bolts. However, the head bolts were not engineered heavy enough. Simple fix - New bolts when you replaced the glow plugs, or new glow plugs when you replaced the head bolts due to failed head gasket. The third failure, and I don't think there was a fix for this until they redesigned the block, was the bottom end. The main bearing cap bolts were not long enough to hold the diesel torque in place.
This was one of those areas where GM's strange structure showed up. As they attempted to do something new, rather than letting Detroit and their track record handle it for the larger group, they went to Olds. The idea was that this was to be a car/light truck engine, and they did not want it influenced by Detroit's Class 8 and industrial focus. Of course, the ever loving, Detroit engineers were full of compassion and understanding as Oldsmobile fought their way through.
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Didn't they also try an aluminum head that warped like hell ?
They started that before I went in the Marines and I've never been a car guy, but I remember people who were car guys talking about it.
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I think the aluminum head issue for GM was in the new V6. The Big 3 all suffered with aluminum. If you overheated the engine, the head would warp right away. You couldn't shut them down fast enough if you saw the temp gauge rising. We had a K car, and I replaced a head during Christmas break in 93.
Before the diesel, GM fought the Vega and Monza. These cars were built to replace the Corvair, and to compete with Japan. Great little cars, that failure to read MOM (Manufacturer's Owner's Manual) led to an issue. The 120 ci four banger was intended to be a throw away engine. No tune ups, no timing belt changes. They were inexpensive, and they were intended to be a new long block at about 40,000 miles.
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No, all castings were of new design. The concept of the 350 ci was that they were able to use existing tooling with minimal change, and the only needed changes in the metal work line was holding fixtures.
The three main failures that I recall from being in a dealership in that era were, first, the glow plugs wouldn't hold shape. The tip would mushroom, and couldn't be pulled back through the hole when changing. For this reason a bad original glow plug meant the head came off. After a couple years the replacements were better. The second failure, and this was also fixed, was that this was GM's first venture into torque to yield bolts. However, the head bolts were not engineered heavy enough. Simple fix - New bolts when you replaced the glow plugs, or new glow plugs when you replaced the head bolts due to failed head gasket. The third failure, and I don't think there was a fix for this until they redesigned the block, was the bottom end. The main bearing cap bolts were not long enough to hold the diesel torque in place.
This was one of those areas where GM's strange structure showed up. As they attempted to do something new, rather than letting Detroit and their track record handle it for the larger group, they went to Olds. The idea was that this was to be a car/light truck engine, and they did not want it influenced by Detroit's Class 8 and industrial focus. Of course, the ever loving, Detroit engineers were full of compassion and understanding as Oldsmobile fought their way through.
Yeah....because they used the regular bolts from gassers. You can't use something designed for 8.5:1 compression with something that makes 22.5:1 compression. ;D ;D ;D
Some of the cost-cutters I used to work with also found that out in the hydraulic sector of the joint I used to work at. Can't use grade 2 bolts on 5000 psi pressure lines either. ;D ;D ;D