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Good source for USA bearings?

K85 Octane

K85 Octane

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The Oreilly's and Pepdouches don't carrier USA made bearings anymore, at least not around here. I can sometimes find SKF stuff at Pepboys, sometimes. My favorite wholesale house can't guarantee the Timkin bearings they HAVE TO ORDER are USA made. I used to get the good stuff from them but it seems that time has passed.

I ended up getting Centric or Ctex (not sure) bearings with Taiwan and China written on the boxes, not even stamped on the bearings. I've even noticed lately the price difference between Chinese crap and USA stuff is closing. Someone is making a sh**ton more now, since I guess we've become jaded to "Made in China".
 
I will never knock someone for trying to Buy US made, but, as long as you stick to good mfg's, I've heard good things about the quality of the ones coming from overseas.

Yes, the "new" timkin's may not be the same as the old ones......but i'd stick to the name, and trust them.

If you search on here, i think you'll find a lot of the same opinion. Sucks to buy foreign, but the quality has definitely improved on items like bearings.
 
Even back in the 90's when I was a parts counterman,many of the Bower/BCA or SKF bearings we sold had a "country of origin" spot on the box,many came from Israel,Istanbul,Spain,India,etc...so the name on the box did not gaurantee it was USA made,just that a USA based company packaged them....we rarely had any comebacks or complaints about the bearings...nowadays China makes most of them,I'll admit they can be dicey at best...I'm unsure if you could find any USA made ones at a local bearing supply store...its a pig in a poke nowadays..
 
Whenever I've boght bearings from Off Road Design or 4wdFactory they have always been USA made. I have gone to 'bearing supply' warehouses (industrial suppliers) and can usually get USA made bearings when requested. Japanese made bearings are also very high quality from my experience.
 
Well I've only seen the Japanese bearings in motorcycle stores or small cars. I don't think I've ever seen a large bearing from Japan. I'd rather buy from them too.

I guess I'll try ORD next time, maybe for spares.

This f*****g sucks.
 
"Made in China" IS NOT BAD.....

It's our U.S. manufacturers, that check the "cheapest way possible" box,
And send you sh*t products.

It's not like we're sending over one spec, and they're sending us something totally different...
These people have to approve these items.... Think about it.

Actually, china has 3 different "standards" when it comes to this crap....
1. Good quality - normal manufacture process, standardized safety regulation, etc.
2. Bad - The cheap versions of tools, and products, I.e., Harbor Freight, MIC Craftsman, etc.
3. Knock off - fake sh*t, all of it....

So, don't readily knock "made in china".... It's not their fault.
I don't see you knocking cheaply made U.S., crap.

But, also.... If we don't start manufacturing things here, like we used to, we're going to lose the fight.
 
I will readily and willingly knock whatever I want dammit. :D. Plus, I hate China, pretty much everything about the country and how they handle themselves. I'd rather buy cheap USA made stuff than equally made cheaper China stuff. At some point, and I don't see it far off, the price difference closing. There are already many examples of Chinese produced tools going for the same price as USA made (higher quality or not) tools. If its really that cheap and worth shipping stuff to the USA, than someone is making BANK charging the same prices. Most offenders have board members and stock holders to appease, not to mention POS unions, but thats a whole other argument.

Just like Japan, producing cheap toys and products. They got wise and made quality a priority. Now they have well made stuff, when they aren't outsourcing to China. Now China picks up the cheap crap. Who's next? All the while Americans are losing jobs, buying cheap sh1t, and preferring Japanese autos.

Oh that went off into left field, sorry.
 
FWIW some of the best bearings made always came out of Europe, IIRC Germany specifically.
 
TheBeast_88K5 said:
"Made in China" IS NOT BAD.....

It's our U.S. manufacturers, that check the "cheapest way possible" box,
And send you sh*t products.

It's not like we're sending over one spec, and they're sending us something totally different...
These people have to approve these items.... Think about it.

Actually, china has 3 different "standards" when it comes to this crap....
1. Good quality - normal manufacture process, standardized safety regulation, etc.
2. Bad - The cheap versions of tools, and products, I.e., Harbor Freight, MIC Craftsman, etc.
3. Knock off - fake sh*t, all of it....

So, don't readily knock "made in china".... It's not their fault.
I don't see you knocking cheaply made U.S., crap.

But, also.... If we don't start manufacturing things here, like we used to, we're going to lose the fight.
Click to expand...


yeah, yeah, yeah, Issaam, we've heard this before... :whistle: ;) :haha:

I'm sure it's true a good portion of the time, greedy US companies, etc...

with that said, f*ck China, for inundating the skateparks of America with cr@ppy "might as well be balsa wood" skate decks! :angry1: :deal:

it's mostly the greedy popsicle companies, but I've had a few "modern" vert boards explode into toothpicks.... literally.... :doah:a good pogo rock on pool cope will blow that sh*t up..... :haha:
 
oh, and german, and especially swiss bearings, kill it...





















in skate wheels!!! :woot: :haha:






oh cars... :whistle: ummm, I generally just get whatever, and if it fails prematurely, I notate it's origin...
 
TheBeast_88K5 said:
For this statement alone.... You win. :bow: :haha:
Click to expand...

And yet it doesn't bring me the bearings I want :( Oh well, gunna run what I have and be happy with it. The bearings I toasted were USA Timkin, only lasted me ~a year, maybe 500 miles. :doah: makes me sad, shoulda woulda coulda cleaned them out properly
 
Are you worried about finding them local, or online?
Cuz West Coast Differentials (Rancho Cordova, 10 mins from me.) carries USA Timkens.
I'd bet it'd only take a day to ship from here to you.

Call em.... They're great guys to deal with! :D.

http://www.differentials.com/

(916) 635-0950


They even carry the IMPOSSIBLE to find 10B big bearing spindle. :haha:
 
Thanks for the info guys.


And since I'm tired of the ol' "glob of grease in the hand" packing style, I picked up this from Oreilly's. Guess what, :D it's made in the USA :haha::waytogo::woot:


orly_34550c.jpg
 
K85 Octane said:
Thanks for the info guys.


And since I'm tired of the ol' "glob of grease in the hand" packing style, I picked up this from Oreilly's. Guess what, :D it's made in the USA :haha::waytogo::woot:


orly_34550c.jpg
Click to expand...


It looks like it will chop and dice veggies too! NICE! :thumb:
 
nope but does 1 hell of fast and good job greasing the bearings FAST . :thumb:

i got one and that was after i used one from a guy i use to work with who is a teck for over 30 years.
 
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