Is there anything left for the Chinese to copy?

bmwpower · Oct 26, 2009

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=66263

Dead ringer for Prevost coupler....at a fraction of the cost.
Wonder how it performs?

jshillin · Oct 26, 2009

They have had them for a while and they are junk. It worked quite well for the 1st few weeks and then mine started leaking at the seams within a month of light use.

Merkava_4 · Oct 26, 2009

I'm used to the common type with the pull down collar; who's the originator of that?

autoace · Oct 26, 2009

Maybe it is time for us to copy the Chinese, lets start with the bath houses, and some fine young women with fans, to keep up cool during our "bathing". Second we will limit how many kids someone can have, to cut down on welfare caes. Third, Merk. can pick up a woman in a Buick, and it would be thought to be the ultimate luxury car. :spit:

Merkava_4 · Oct 26, 2009

autoace said:
Third, Merk. can pick up a woman in a Buick, and it would be thought to be the ultimate luxury car.

LOL!!

fatfillup · Oct 26, 2009

They have yet to copy QUALITY!!!!!!!!

norry · Oct 26, 2009

fatfillup said:
They have yet to copy QUALITY!!!!!!!!

Beat me to it.

GTO · Oct 26, 2009

fatfillup said:
They have yet to copy QUALITY!!!!!!!!

Truer words were never spoken.

t100 · Oct 26, 2009

totally POS. i bought a pair, leaked, replaced for another pair, still leaked. finally returned them for good.

chadster1 · Oct 26, 2009

Merkava_4 said:
I'm used to the common type with the pull down collar; who's the originator of that?

Milton would be my guess.

48548 · Oct 26, 2009

autoace said:
Maybe it is time for us to copy the Chinese, lets start with the bath houses, and some fine young women with fans, to keep up cool during our "bathing". Second we will limit how many kids someone can have, to cut down on welfare caes. Third, Merk. can pick up a woman in a Buick, and it would be thought to be the ultimate luxury car.

I think we need to start with limiting how many kids people can have, and I will be the first to start no kids from me :lol_hitti

arkangel06 · Oct 26, 2009

48548 said:
I think we need to start with limiting how many kids people can have, and I will be the first to start no kids from me

Ill second that no kids here

xroad · Oct 26, 2009

fatfillup said:
They have yet to copy QUALITY!!!!!!!!

Give it time. Right now, they have no other country competing with them in producing crappy stuff. Once you have other countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, India, or even African countries down the road making craps as well, China will crank up the quality. Japan did that, Taiwan did that .....

Zrexxer · Oct 26, 2009

There's probably not as much market for them to produce these as in the past:

48548 · Oct 26, 2009

arkangel06 said:
Ill second that no kids here

I can't afford kids with my ratchet addiction :thumbup:

Snappy · Oct 26, 2009

I think it's more like "try to copy". I'll stick with Milton myself.

HandyManny · Oct 26, 2009

fatfillup said:
They have yet to copy QUALITY!!!!!!!!

I think a lot of folks could say the same thing about a lot of US made products being produced within the last 20 years or so. We didn't invent everything. There is a lot of what we enjoy today that was introduced, invented or developed by Eastern and Middles Eastern cultures centuries ago. Every nation at various times in history has had their golden moments.

Fortunately for us there are still a few quality Ameican made tool brands still around, but one day soon that will sadly come to an end.

mrpowderkeg · Oct 26, 2009

When communist china companies copy a product, (rip off the design) do they have to pay patent royalties, or anything of that matter?

Kurt4440 · Oct 26, 2009

Cars, trucks, construction equipment...

srmofo · Oct 26, 2009

the sad part is they are buying all our old equipment from the 50,60,70s and when they figure out how to use it all properly, the usa is fucked. Ive noticed the only things we commonly produce anymore are made of plastic or composites.

mrjsl · Oct 26, 2009

Kurt4440 said:
Cars, trucks, construction equipment...

Well, some years ago, I saw a Chinese copy of a Cat D7 Dozer.

back2class · Oct 26, 2009

Actually it is part of Chinese culture. Without going into great detail, when I was in college I studied chinese culture and history. It is not a culture that puts much value in innovation or free thinking. The do value repitition and and such. They as a culture have not been innovators but have been copiers. The reason you see them basicaly copy everything is in a big part......cultural. You may see quality increase but the chinese will never be creators of many products or ideas.

ImportTuner · Oct 26, 2009

jshillin said:
They have had them for a while and they are junk. It worked quite well for the 1st few weeks and then mine started leaking at the seams within a month of light use.

I have the Milton's and they did the same thing; maybe the Milton's are made in China ..

mrjsl · Oct 26, 2009

back2class said:
Actually it is part of Chinese culture. Without going into great detail, when I was in college I studied chinese culture and history. It is not a culture that puts much value in innovation or free thinking. The do value repitition and and such. They as a culture have not been innovators but have been copiers. The reason you see them basicaly copy everything is in a big part......cultural. You may see quality increase but the chinese will never be creators of many products or ideas.

I've visited a couple of plants in Asia where they manufacture OE and aftermarket parts for auto & heavy duty equipment. I used to be a filtration expert, so I was looking mainly at filters of all types. They showed me a reverse engineered copy of a rather popular and complicated US made fuel/water separator, and it was perfect, except they had no clue exactly how it worked, or what some of the internal parts were for. They had reproduced it down to the smallest detail, but had little understanding if its function.

While I was on the plane from Hong Kong to LA, I met an American who runs a plant in China that makes ladies purses for department stores. He said they send over a sample, and the chinese build it. But they have to be careful to send a perfect sample, because if there is a flaw in the leather, for example, they will reproduce the flaw best they can.

xroad · Oct 26, 2009

back2class said:
Actually it is part of Chinese culture. Without going into great detail, when I was in college I studied chinese culture and history. It is not a culture that puts much value in innovation or free thinking. The do value repitition and and such. They as a culture have not been innovators but have been copiers. The reason you see them basicaly copy everything is in a big part......cultural. You may see quality increase but the chinese will never be creators of many products or ideas.

I think you should go back and demand your money back from the college.

Let's see, the compass, gun powder, clock, paper, to name a few.

makgreens · Oct 26, 2009

the real cheap ones from HF work...like the ones in the crates...maybe thats my luck
but i havent tried the one the OP showed

makgreens · Oct 26, 2009

and for $10 more you can get the milton one and i couldnt find a country of origin

HandyManny · Oct 26, 2009

back2class said:
Actually it is part of Chinese culture. Without going into great detail, when I was in college I studied chinese culture and history. It is not a culture that puts much value in innovation or free thinking. The do value repitition and and such. They as a culture have not been innovators but have been copiers. The reason you see them basicaly copy everything is in a big part......cultural. You may see quality increase but the chinese will never be creators of many products or ideas.

There are lots of European cultures that are every bit as closed to free thinking and innovativeness as you're talking about. I studied history a lot when I was in college (didn't major in it). Western civilization copied and borrowed a lot of innovation and inventions from the cultures of the far east and middle east.

As Xroad stated - ****, compass, gun powder, paper, etc. Even the steam engine and propullsion.

back2class · Oct 26, 2009

xroad said:
I think you should go back and demand your money back from the college.

Let's see, the compass, gun powder, clock, paper, to name a few.

LOl. You may be right except the clock. Honestly, I believe everyone else here realized I was speaking of the culture in general and not trying to quote the stuff we all learned in middle school.

HandyManny · Oct 26, 2009

back2class said:
LOl. You may be right except the clock. Honestly, I believe everyone else here realized I was speaking of the culture in general and not trying to quote the stuff we all learned in middle school.

Middle School? We had "Junior High" back in those days.

No I get what you meant. I just don't believe that everything coming out of China today is junk. Maybe a lot of what we see in discount stores is junk. I would however just be tickled pink if we could get manufacturing, craftsmanship, and production back to what it once was in this country. Right now we don't have room to bash the chinese made stuff. Get things back to the way they used to be in this country and we can bash the Chinese made stuff all we want.

Monte · Oct 26, 2009

I would rather buy the new Prevost "S1" couplers - you only have to push the button once to release the plug instead of twice like the older ones or the HF copy.

xroad · Oct 26, 2009

xroad said:
Let's see, the compass, gun powder, clock, paper, to name a few.

Well, I wanted to see if you guys are paying attention. I was going to put down "internet" but that is too obvious. Besides, everyone knew it was Al Gore that invented the internet so that would not have fly.

That culture thing ..... I find it hard to believe that. That is like the commanders in WW2 telling the American pilots that the Japanese fighter pilots are inferior because they have slanted eyes. Yes, we were more superior but not because they had slanted eyes.

All the Chinese bashing I take it as just bashing. I cannot believe the majority of people here truly believe the Chinese cannot produce quality goods. They have a space program and they have built their COPY of the MIG fighters. You think the quality of those two programs are like the stuff at Harbor Freight? Yes, they stole much of their technologies, which pissed off the Russians to no end, but they did not get their by accident.

They make their **** because it is economically driven.

tatra · Oct 26, 2009

But they have to be careful to send a perfect sample, because if there is a flaw in the leather, for example, they will reproduce the flaw best they can.

so if we send them snapon instead of craftsman we'll get better quality?.... :bounce:

xroad · Oct 26, 2009

HandyManny said:
I would however just be tickled pink if we could get manufacturing, craftsmanship, and production back to what it once was in this country.

Same here but I see that as a loosing battle. Not until all the countries in the world raise to the living standard of where we are. There is always going to be a Vietnam, or Pakistan, or some country with cheaper labor than China to take their place. We can built quality goods but only can target a very small market. Majority of the North American buyers will buy the Craftsman as they are today, or worst.

norry · Oct 26, 2009

mrjsl said:
They had reproduced it down to the smallest detail, but had little understanding if its function.

This becomes a big issue when material quality is important. There were some cars made as direct copies of Japanese or Korean models (they copied the Chevy Aveo and, of all things, the Isuzu Rodeo) and crash tests showed the Chinese models were much less safe. The reason turned out to be that the original used stronger steel in certain places to 'define' how the car should crumple to protect the occupants. The Chinese factories used the same steel everywhere. Looked the same, worked differently.

And they're plenty capable of being creative. Right now, modern Chinese culture emphasizes misusing that creativity to get away with cheap, unsafe products. It took a lot of creativity to figure out how to game a test for protein by using melamine. Real bad idea, but a very creative one.

SocketDeviler · Oct 26, 2009

If there's nothing left to copy I'm sure we'll figure out something to sell them so that they can sell it back to us.

gte718p · Oct 26, 2009

tatra said:
so if we send them snapon instead of craftsman we'll get better quality?....

No, but if you sent them a wrench and said I want 1,000,000 copies of this. I am going to do a QA check on each lot. We will reject the lot if of 500 randomn samples have more then 10% out of spec. You will get exactly 50 that are out of spec and the rest will be to spec. Its amazing and it doesn't matter what specs they are. China makes a lot of high quality equipment these days, your just no going to find it a HF.

The problem is companies go to China and say I want a million wrenchs that look like this and I want to pay a dollar each. If they bother to include technical specs they are silly like I want them to be shiny and they don't care about material properties or tolerances. They get exactly what they ask for. HF sells it for 3 dollars, makes 100% proffit and is happy.

ImportTuner · Oct 26, 2009

Monte said:
I would rather buy the new Prevost "S1" couplers - you only have to push the button once to release the plug instead of twice like the older ones or the HF copy.

I would if I could find a vendor selling them at a decent price ..

Fedwrench · Oct 26, 2009

Aircraft carriers, M1 Tanks, satellites, Tech 2s, and anythin else ther's a market for...

Monte · Oct 26, 2009

ImportTuner said:
I would if I could find a vendor selling them at a decent price ..

what is a decent price for you ?

Ultimate Garage has them for 22$ ea.

Is there anything left for the Chinese to copy?

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