Chinese Tires on my JD

[Engine_Tech]

Originally Posted by Semipro

I'm really disappointed to find that the 3032e I plan to buy has Chinese tires on it. I've had bad experiences with Chinese tires as have others according to this forum. I didn't buy John Deere over the others expecting something like that.

Have you compared the tires on the other "premium" JD models? The 3032e is from the "value line" of JD tractors and less expensive tires are likely part of keeping the price lower. And by lower I mean relative to more deluxe offerings from JD or others, no that the price of a 3032e is anything to sneeze at.

[LBrown59]

Want China get JD
Want Japanese get Kubota,
Er sompthin like that.

[Cyclone Jake]

Originally Posted by kennyd

Are there any tires companies in the US anymore?

Titan/Goodyear ag tires are still made in the US. There is a facility I have been by in Des Moines, and according to their website, they have others.

[ChuckinNH]

Outsourcing has become a way of life in manufacturing companies I'm afraid. Having worked a lot of years there myself, it makes me a little sad. It is an easy out for managers who sometimes only look good by making others look bad, and fail to address the internal problems that make things more expensive. We can, and do often make things better, and cheaper at the same time right here in the good old USA. There was a good story about Ariens ( I am pretty sure) in a trade journal a few years ago. They are a family run business of the old school, but things weren't going so well for them. Costs were rising, and of course companies like Kubota were giving them a run for their money. So, they decided to outsource some mower parts to China. What they found was that there was a 40% scrap / rejection rate, and they sure couldn't send parts back for rework, and still save any money. They were doing a lot of rework in house. Then they hired a couple of young engineers that had a plan. They rearranged machinery, found the source of the problems, and brought the production back in house. By going to China they had saved something like $100,000 a year on the parts but lost much of it in rejected parts, and rework costs. After the re do by the engineers they actually saved almost $100,000 a year over the cost of outsourcing, and the quality was very good. If I remember right rework was in the low single digits. It was a great story, and proved what I had thouht all along. The crusty, supreme exhaulted dictator I say that with much respect, who started, and ran the company I worked for said once that all the labor in one of the products that we manufactured was only 8% of the cost of producing that item. If labor costs were doubled it wouldn't have had that much impact on our profits.

So yes, outsourcing is here..... in a world of blame based failure justification. It just puts the folks to blame further away, and even makes that part easier.

[Ramairfreak98ss]

so what brand are they?

most our machines have carlisle tires for the mowers

same on the little tractors too

our 09 deere 4720 has TITAN brand tires... im pretty sure its got a made in usa logo on them for the R4s... but i agree..

you buy a gm or chevy, you want michelin, goodyear, bridgestone tires

you buy a kia or haundai and you get kumho or fawken or sumitomos brand new blah.

[Hoosier Hay Man]

So yes, outsourcing is here..... in a world of blame based failure justification. It just puts the folks to blame further away, and even makes that part easier.

\

Speaking of out sourcing, we were at one of our industrial trade shows this year when we approached by two gentalmen form India seeking subpar steel. They would need it by the container load. We stated we only deal in steel that is certified to the mill and a ASTM standard. They stated that what they could use subpar because what they needed it for would not require such high standards. They wouldn't mention what they needed it for though. Maybe it was for garden tools? Maybe they can't get cheap steel form China? but that personal conversation reinforced to me that India and China have know intention of playing by the rules. The end customer wasn't on these gents minds, making a cheap priced product was.
It is also scary if they were successful at finding a source and what they manufactured from it.