Made in USA

TwistedCU

New member
I try to support companies that keep our jobs here. It seems harder every day to buy only things with that label. Nowadays you can call your internet providor and you'll get re-routed to Aktar in India to field your browser related questions. My old standby Levi Strauss red-tab Jeans are now Hecho in Mexico. Parts of my Jeep were made in Canada and the Transmission on my old YJ was some kind of Asian piece of crapola.

SO anyhow I am looking into tires again.

Anybody know which tires are still made here? Which ones aren't?
 

Bridgestone, Firestone, etc. and all the generic no-name brands they produce.
 

I do the same thing as well.

Cooper, Goodyear, Falls, Guardsman, Kelly Springfield, Mastercraft, Sears Roadhandler & Unocal 76 all made in USA according to: http://www.usstuff.com/prodlist.htm


edit: "Also watch out for tires made by foreign owned companies like Firestone, Bridgestone, Michelin, BF Goodrich, General, Uniroyal, Yokohama, Continental, Dayton, Dunlop, Pirelli, Toyo & Armstrong"
 
I believe Interco is Louisiana.
Goodyear and BFG both have plants in Bama, don't know where the profit goes.
 

You know, it is almost impossible to keep the money in the states. We may purchase a product from a USA company, but they will get most of their parts and or assembly done abroad. Who gets the profit? Who knows? The French are benefiting from the Iraq war because a Jordan cement company is really ownes by the French (50 some % of the shares), and the govt. says that is okay as long as we do not give the work to the French directly! what mess did we get ourselves into!-al
 
I know what ya mean about it being near impossible. My brother and dad both are members of the IBEW, so not only do we try for American made, we try for union made too. Its gotten to the point were ya think stuff is both (like carhartt jeans) then you find that some are American union made, and others arent. Geez.

Anyway, back to tires, somebody mentioned that Mastercrafts are American made. So i just thought id throw in that i love my Mastercraft Courser MT's!!

Nathan
 
Then I guess nobody here owns a jeep.. many of its parts are made in other countries..... heck, many aren't even assembled in the US (mine was assembled in Australia, for example). - Just making a point..

Don't worry about it, buy the tires that are best for your situation. You can't keep the money in the US even if you try.
 

graewulf said:
Don't worry about it, buy the tires that are best for your situation. You can't keep the money in the US even if you try.

That philosophy is what is killing the economy. The tires that best fit my situation would be ones that were made by an american. I may not be able to keep all the profits from things I buy in the country, but I can patronize the companies that employ us. You may think it won't make a difference, but think the cost is too high not to try.

As far as forign companies manufacturing here, I have more respect for them than a company that built itself on the backs of Americans here moving jobs overseas. Damn I sound like a democrat :roll: but it's true.

I forgot about Cooper. I'll check them all out before I decide.
 
BTW - I posted this in the wrong forum by accident if one of the Mods wants to move it to the Gen. forum it would be both understood and appreciated.
 
I will buy american if and only if they have a product that is equal in quality to something that is made/owned by overseas interests. I have 2 jeeps and two hondas. I bought hondas because they were superior to anything american made that was available when I bought them. American made has gotten better over the last 10 years, but we still have a long way to go before we are on par with honda and toyota. When I bought my hondas my grandad was running a GM dealership. He got mad but the simple fact is every car my family bought from his dealership was a POS (80's and early 90's). My 93 honda has 165K on it and has been in the shop for maintainance ONLY. My dad's buick had problems from the 2nd day off the lot, and his GMC truck lost the AC, radio, speedo, gas guage, rear end, and carb within 1 year of purchase. The doors don't close right anymore and the trims falling off. No problems like this with my hondas.... My jeeps as they came from the factory were complete nightmares. BBD carbs, 2 piece rear axles, plastic hubs; they are decent vehicles now only because I rebuilt them to be decent vehicles. Like I said, I'll buy american if you give me something worth buying, even if it means paying a little more, but I'm not buying crap just because it has "made in the USA" on it. The problem isn't people not wanting to buy things made here, it's that the average US worker stopped taking pride in his work and just started throwing things through the man. process and the quality control went to nothing. You can see it in cars and if you really want to see it look at firearms. The guns made in this country up to the mid 60's were far superior to the junk being thrown out now. There's too much stuff with "made in the USA" that is just junk, plain and simple. Like I said, things have gotten better, but not enough for me to waste my money on junk. I work to hard for it to throw it away........
 

drive shafts

I think there should be some imports. It holds US companys accountable. It's just outta hand now with no strong regs or tarriffs and it's hard or near impossible for some manufacturers to compete with a sweatshop. Until they make some changes I will only buy foriegn when there is no other choice. Unfortunately that is becoming increasingly so.
 
yeah, I will buy american if the products are equal in quality and the prices are anywhere in the ballpark. Some things US made are better. I got some cheap cast D rings that were made in china that I scrapped in favor of US made Drings that cost twice as much because the grade of steel from china is poor quality (IME anyway). My honda was assembled in Ohio, but was under supervision that doesn't allow crap to roll off of the assembaly lines and onto the showroom. I know some people think I'm unamerican for the way I think, but I think it's unamerican for our craftsmen to send something off their workstation without caring whether it's done well or not. Going back to firearms, if you take a winchester rifle made in the 50's to one of the old guys working on the line, thier eyes light up as they see something that they know someone really put some effort into to ensure quality. Then in the 60's winchester revamped thier whole line/production method to cut costs and what you end up with is cheap crap, with no pride in manufacturing. That happened in everything industrial in this country, and it hurt them bad when the japs came in with thier cars made with an emphasis in quality control. The US firms learned and are getting better, but my next ride will still be a 4 runner for the wife, cause my bosses new trailblazer is a POS. As for my grandad the GM dealer, he flew B29's in WWII and bombed Japan, and he bought a Honda generator last year. Said he hated to admit it but the US made one he had before was a piece of crap and he needed something reliable. He hates his GMC truck he got from his own dealership but said he just didn't think he could go far enough to buy a Japanese truck......
 
I agree mostly with what Twisted has to say...but :) I have a few points worth considering/ranting about. I'd like to say first that I agree buying should be in a person's head when purchasing products. Supporting the economy is definitely at this level should be somewhat important to Americans. I'm not American (I'm Canadian) but have been living here for ~6 years and I try do buy American as much as possible on my lowly student budget. I realize supporting the economy that I live under is important and frankly there are a lot of great US made products.

Onto my points, firstly, buying imports is not killing the American economy, imports have been around forever in this country. This administration is killing the economy (that was a major pot stirring statement). I have no vested interest in politics since I am unable to participate in elections here, but I have followed along since I have lived here and it is pretty obvious that the current ecomomic problems are mainly due to the current administration. You just have to rewind a few years to the Clinton administration to see this fact.

Secondly, I agree with wm69's sentiment that (and this is a gross generalization of course) pride in American workmanship has fallen dramatically. I think that unions may be a signifacant factor here (another major pot stirring statement, and yes I have been unionized). Unions were a great idea and essential during the first 3/4 of the last century, but recently things are getting out of control. People want more money, more benefits and want to do less work. It's a terrible attitude and unions promote this. Why as an American business owner/manufacturer would I pay an American employee X dollars (+benefits, etc.) to do a half assed job when I can go to another country and pay a worker there X/2 or X/3 dollars to do a better job because they are overjoyed to get work. And this doesn't mean that it will be a sweatshop, since standards of living are much different in other countries. The same thing is happening in Canada now, US companies that once built factories in Canada for cheaper (certainly not sweatshop) labor are bailing out to go to Mexico and other countries because Canadian workers want more to do less. For example, Twisted's example of Levi Strauss, now Hecho in Mexico, used to be Hecho'd in Canada long before moving to Mexico. I know I used to work one of the 5 Levi's plants in Canada (unionized). Now all of these plants will be closed as of the end of this month.

Work attitudes are also reflected in immigrants to this country who work their asses off doint the jobs that US workers refuse/don't want to do (like taxi drivers, custodians, dishwashers, ect. etc. etc.). At some point people should be made to suck it up, get off their buts and work for a living (and of course this is a gross generalization again because this attitude is held by only a fraction of the population). Hell my mother has been in the service industry for 25 years, managing various restaurants over that time. These days she can barely keep dishwashers staffed because kids these days just don't want to work (gross generalization), and if they do they want this day off and that holiday, etc.

Anyhow, I'll stop ranting here and leave you with - Yes, buy American when possible but don't screw yourself on quality or price and it's time for pride in American (and Canadian) quality and work ethic to improve. You can't have your cake and eat it too!

P.S. One of my favorite things here is in the maple syrup lane in the grocery store. Title on the bottle - "Pure Vermont Maple Syrup" (in small letters below, product of Canada). LOL
 

I've been very pleased w/ my Firestones. I'd look into em'!!!
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well said geopig, I work in the golf industry and we SEARCH for latino immagrants to work on our courses, not because they work cheaper, but because they work harder (like you said, generalization). I buy a lot of american goods, but I try to find things that were made 40+years ago :lol: Back to the subject: I have tried a hell of a lot of tires and I won't buy anything but Michelins for my cars and BFG's for my trucks. My experience with BFG car tires was unsatifactory and michelin doesn' make a good AT/MT tire for my jeeps, but I'm happy with the M's on my car and the BFG's on my jeeps. Don't know who gets the $$$'s off of em, but I've tried a hell of a lot of tires and these have given me the best wear for my $$$, so that's what I'm buyin'
 
Geopig I totally agree with the workmanship statement, and I have been union for 10+ years. Unions as well as just about everything else that deals in politics have indeed fallen prey to greed, but I believe a large portion of the problem is the lessened neccessity for employment in this country. Many are not willing to work hard in the land of entitlement.

::Rolling up sleeves::
This statement however:
buying imports is not killing the American economy, imports have been around forever in this country. This administration is killing the economy (that was a major pot stirring statement). I have no vested interest in politics since I am unable to participate in elections here, but I have followed along since I have lived here and it is pretty obvious that the current ecomomic problems are mainly due to the current administration. You just have to rewind a few years to the Clinton administration to see this fact.
Well that's just plain wrong.

First of all everyone in the world has a vested interest in the US' politics, able to vote or not.

Second - Buying imports supports companys that export jobs. This results in less income for americans and lowers our tax base while it raises our expenses (the now-unemployed are now an expense instead of a source of income). Simple math my friend.

and last but not least: Many people do not truly understand the economy, they only know and see what is spoken and written in the media. First of all, although I credit Bill Clinton with one of the greatest accomplishments in recent President's history (Shutting down the Gov't to force the balancing of the budget - sheer brass and brilliance in my book!) I in no way credit him for the economic success while he was in office. WIth all the technological advances like the internet (which AlGore did NOT invent by the way :lol: ) during his term, the economy was bound to have substantial success. A large problem is that the economy, although doing exceptionally well, was never quite as stong as it seemed. Many if not most corporations were lying through their teeth and overstating their worth and understating their losses and debt. I believe this to be the #1 cause for the economy to take the sharp dive that it took. There was no accountibility for 8 years as corporate execs frolicked in their illegal stock trades and fabricated statements. You know, all the stuff that everybody is up in arms over Martha Stewart for. They all did it. She must have really ticked off somebody to have become singled out for it.
We were riding high on a pink cloud that was not as high as it seemed. Although the economy was doing so well money was shifted from our defense and intelligence budgets and the military went through one of it's toughest financial periods ever as the rest of the world was fat and happy.
Then 9/11/01. The attacks, enron, worldcom, etc and the obvious happened. I'm in no way going to defend Bush's economics, he's just as bad if not worse but I just wanted to put it out here that your boy Clinton was not the economic genious that so many claim him to have been - Just opportunistic.
 
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