RVs made in China??
In another thread someone posted the link below about RVs being made ins China. This could or will be a reality? I hope not IMHO. What are other peoples thoughts? There goes a lot of jobs. What...
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A lot of mechanical things made in Ch*na are terrible as exampled above. Their metallurgy is substandard or the parts are made too thin or fragile. I bought a Chinese made ball joint removal tool recently and the "C" part of the clamp snapped. Could have caused a serious injury but fortunately it went flying off away from me when it broke.
We just bought a new trailer that has Trailair (Lippert) equalizers. I was at a frame shop and they showed me Dexter equalizers in comparison. The Dexter ones are waaay better built and are made in the US as far as I can tell. I am guessing that the Trailair must be made offshore because the plastic bushings are worn out already and we've only put around 100 miles on them (plus at least 2K miles from the factory) and the shackles are pretty thin compared to the Dexter ones. Going to upgrade to Dexter regardless and which has wet bolts and brass bushings along with top quality.
With things like electrical products, they have to have a CSA or equivalent label on them or they aren't legal for sale here. When it comes to many RV components such as frames, suspension and brakes, there aren't government mandated safety and design standards so they can flog whatever they want. No FVMSS, no SAE, no nothing. Very sad really. No wonder so many people have problems with suspensions and frames. We have made in China AxleTek brakes on our TT when we were supposed to get AlKo brakes. I wouldn't expect the AxleTek brakes to last very long, plus are they made to any gov't mandated standards??? I doubt it. If they cause serious injury, who would you point your finger at? RVIA may have some of their own standards but they aren't gov't mandated safety standards and they aren't available to the public.
Who knows what rickety, thin, substandard, poorly made, under-designed parts we are presently already towing down the road that are made offshore, and usually in China. At this point, if Chinese made RVs came to North America, I hate to think of what questionable quality they would be made of and to what standards they would comply with.
The industry here needs a wake up call here regardless which should include the gov't. stepping in and creating mandatory design and safety standards.
We just bought a new trailer that has Trailair (Lippert) equalizers. I was at a frame shop and they showed me Dexter equalizers in comparison. The Dexter ones are waaay better built and are made in the US as far as I can tell. I am guessing that the Trailair must be made offshore because the plastic bushings are worn out already and we've only put around 100 miles on them (plus at least 2K miles from the factory) and the shackles are pretty thin compared to the Dexter ones. Going to upgrade to Dexter regardless and which has wet bolts and brass bushings along with top quality.
With things like electrical products, they have to have a CSA or equivalent label on them or they aren't legal for sale here. When it comes to many RV components such as frames, suspension and brakes, there aren't government mandated safety and design standards so they can flog whatever they want. No FVMSS, no SAE, no nothing. Very sad really. No wonder so many people have problems with suspensions and frames. We have made in China AxleTek brakes on our TT when we were supposed to get AlKo brakes. I wouldn't expect the AxleTek brakes to last very long, plus are they made to any gov't mandated standards??? I doubt it. If they cause serious injury, who would you point your finger at? RVIA may have some of their own standards but they aren't gov't mandated safety standards and they aren't available to the public.
Who knows what rickety, thin, substandard, poorly made, under-designed parts we are presently already towing down the road that are made offshore, and usually in China. At this point, if Chinese made RVs came to North America, I hate to think of what questionable quality they would be made of and to what standards they would comply with.
The industry here needs a wake up call here regardless which should include the gov't. stepping in and creating mandatory design and safety standards.
