Psssst! I think he was alluding to the sometimes-lacking quality of Chinese-made goods.

As for the rear brakes, it takes almost no time from "Hey, children, what's that sound?" to a metal-on-metal, cringe-inducing rotor-gouging noise. Fortunately, I heard the noise just start a few weeks ago while up in Denver, babied the brakes as much as I could on the way back, and got them swapped out before producing too many metal shavings.

 

The Antares tires on my truck are made in China, and they are quite honestly some of the best tires I've owned. Better than the NEXEN's that were on it previously.

The Patagonia's that Matt on the Winder Towing channel just put on his XJ are made by Milestar.... which I believe are also Chinese. Those are also some very good tires. I hate defending them, but they've definitely come a long way.... now if they could get rid of the Kung Flu.

 

My comment was tongue-in-cheek, because you're right, White. They have gotten a lot better along with other products. It all boils down to the company making (or having made) the product, and their dedication to the quality process. This is especially true when you reduce or remove the human aspect through automation, as I suspect is common in the tire-making process.

 

LOL I didn't even think of that cz I just expect anything rubber to be made in China (I also see your following comment about tongue in cheek... it's still funny tho!) I saw how one of the rubber hairs could look like a small nail or something... yeah the joke went right Over my head. It was an early morning for me lol

And yeah if I could've taken the wife's car on our road trip my brakes would've been ok, just one small gouge... but yeah the road trip killed it. I tried to be easy on the brakes and for the most part the actual road trip was mostly interstate it was just when we got to her parents house I ended up doing a lot of stop and go driving

 

I didn't think the hair was a nail until you mentioned it. Now it only looks like a nail. I can't unsee the nail that isn't there.
We don't need to get snow tires around here but I really like my Cooper AT3 tires.

 

Just some China FYI. China's a funny place for manufacturing. The same production line making Milwaukee tools can also be making HF, questionable quality tools. Contracting QC companies from all over the world is big business in China. They're one of the few businesses that gets an open arm attitude from the Chinese Government. Even though Milwaukee and HF tools may come off of the same line, they go through completely different QC standards. There's also different QC standards within the company. Detroit Axle for example makes a lot of OEM parts for the Big 3 and those parts go through strict QC controls whereas their aftermarket parts don't have the same QC standards. Another issue effecting Chinese quality is the changing expectations from the Chinese Government. They are well aware of the Chinese quality reputation and they want to change that. The government jailing managers over poor quality is having a drastic effect on quality in some of their industries. Their emerging auto industry for example. They actually have mandated quality goals. Managers that don't meet those goals have a bleak future waiting for them. It's some interesting reading if anyone is interested. In a way I like how they don't protect corporations and the people running them like we do here. Here, it takes over the top egregious acts by corporate officials to be held individually responsible for their acts. Not so in China. Remember the baby formula that had poison in it? Those officials were executed. That's incentive to do things right the first time. Here, you can sue the company for money and it's not even the responsible individuals money. It's corporate money.

 

I wonder if they have upgraded this machine yet?



I bet not.

 

Best hope no hydraulic hoses blow out.

 

AK, hope you don't mind me passing this pic along to JP.

JP, the ground triangle shape is evident. Anytime you see it you're looking at the wrong knife.

 

River, I saw where that was alluded to in my reading and how it applies to the old manufacturing processes. That will definitely help me to stay on the right track.