Some of the Chinese stuff I've gotten lately has been of surprising good quality. When they start making nuclear weapons
for $150 each, we will be in big trouble. And yeah, I've heard lots of moaning about Chinese "junk' which also exists. Just
as Japanese "junk" often was in the late 50s.
A few recent experiences. Note I am still recovering from a 800-mile move and still replacing equipment I sold.
#1 I needed a small log-splitter. "Small" means something 5-6 horse and self-powered instead of the three-point monster on
the back of my tractor that runs with a PTO pump. Tractor Supply had what I wanted on-sale. Same price I had my pick of a
USA Kohler motor or a Chinese motor. First thought was picking the Kohler. Three of them there and we could not get any of
them running. In fact, nobody there could even figure out, for sure, what the "plus" and "minus" controls meant. Note it is
not even explained in the Kohler manual. I then tried the model with the Chinese motor and it started first pull. And
besides the binary "plus" and "minus" markings, it also had "on" and "off" and "open" and "closed." So it seems the Chinese
speak and write better English them the people at Kohler do.
#2 I needed a small rear-tine, walk-behind tiller for cultivating potatoes. I have a three-point tiller and also a 8 HP
Troybuilt but needed something smaller and lighter. Again - I had a choice of two same-price machines. Kohler started up OK
after 8 pulls but ran lean. Even when hot and there was no main-jet adjustment. So I then tried the one with the Chinese
motor. One pull it started and ran perfectly.
#3 The carb was bad on my 8 HP Troybuilt tiller. Has an 8 horse Briggs & Stratton I/C engine that is likely early 1980s
vintage or late 70s. I have tried to fix the carb many times and gave up. Looks fine inside, all is adjusted right - but it
runs erratically. I have had three 8 horse Briggs do the same thing with the same carb problem. New carb is over $100 from
Briggs. I took a chance and got a new Chinese carb on Ebay for $12 shipped to my door. No tax, no shipping fee. I cursed it
at first when I tried to install because it is drilled and tapped all metric. After finding some proper metric hardware to
install - it started and ran so good - is almost scared me.
#4 I was using my old 70s Bolens garden tractor that has a cast-iron 12 HP Wisconsin engine. The exhaust pipe fell off the
engine. It is 1 1/4 pipe thread and the threads in the engine were pretty much gone. Biggest pipe tap I had was 1" so I
went looking for a 1 1/4" pipe-tap. To my surprise, a local place had one for $85. I refused to spend that much. I looked on
Ebay and found one from China for $14. I figured it would be low quality but also figured I'd only use it once and never
again. So I got it. To my surprise, it is excellent quality and I got new threads tapped my USA made engine pretty quick.
for $150 each, we will be in big trouble. And yeah, I've heard lots of moaning about Chinese "junk' which also exists. Just
as Japanese "junk" often was in the late 50s.
A few recent experiences. Note I am still recovering from a 800-mile move and still replacing equipment I sold.
#1 I needed a small log-splitter. "Small" means something 5-6 horse and self-powered instead of the three-point monster on
the back of my tractor that runs with a PTO pump. Tractor Supply had what I wanted on-sale. Same price I had my pick of a
USA Kohler motor or a Chinese motor. First thought was picking the Kohler. Three of them there and we could not get any of
them running. In fact, nobody there could even figure out, for sure, what the "plus" and "minus" controls meant. Note it is
not even explained in the Kohler manual. I then tried the model with the Chinese motor and it started first pull. And
besides the binary "plus" and "minus" markings, it also had "on" and "off" and "open" and "closed." So it seems the Chinese
speak and write better English them the people at Kohler do.
#2 I needed a small rear-tine, walk-behind tiller for cultivating potatoes. I have a three-point tiller and also a 8 HP
Troybuilt but needed something smaller and lighter. Again - I had a choice of two same-price machines. Kohler started up OK
after 8 pulls but ran lean. Even when hot and there was no main-jet adjustment. So I then tried the one with the Chinese
motor. One pull it started and ran perfectly.
#3 The carb was bad on my 8 HP Troybuilt tiller. Has an 8 horse Briggs & Stratton I/C engine that is likely early 1980s
vintage or late 70s. I have tried to fix the carb many times and gave up. Looks fine inside, all is adjusted right - but it
runs erratically. I have had three 8 horse Briggs do the same thing with the same carb problem. New carb is over $100 from
Briggs. I took a chance and got a new Chinese carb on Ebay for $12 shipped to my door. No tax, no shipping fee. I cursed it
at first when I tried to install because it is drilled and tapped all metric. After finding some proper metric hardware to
install - it started and ran so good - is almost scared me.
#4 I was using my old 70s Bolens garden tractor that has a cast-iron 12 HP Wisconsin engine. The exhaust pipe fell off the
engine. It is 1 1/4 pipe thread and the threads in the engine were pretty much gone. Biggest pipe tap I had was 1" so I
went looking for a 1 1/4" pipe-tap. To my surprise, a local place had one for $85. I refused to spend that much. I looked on
Ebay and found one from China for $14. I figured it would be low quality but also figured I'd only use it once and never
again. So I got it. To my surprise, it is excellent quality and I got new threads tapped my USA made engine pretty quick.
