Counterfeit Bearings

[Kyle_in_Tex]

While trying to find some good bearings, I ran across this link from the Koyo USA website:

WBA - Stop fake bearings |

apparently, besides super cheap bearings from China\where ever, there are now counterfeiters.

When you can buy 10 bearings on Amazon for 14.99, you should guess something is fishy. You might put these bearings in your low end applications, but give me the good ones. I consider my lawnmower blade hub speed to be a demanding application. Even good ones don't last forever, but they usually last much longer.

This might be why some tractors don't cost much. You get what you pay for.

I would consider bearings to be strategic for a country's ability to roll along smoothly. There are not many "Made in USA" bearings anymore.

Let me know if you find them. I believe many Timkens are made in China now too. Hard to compete with $1.49 bearings when most customers just look at the dollars and not the quality. Koyo uses premium Mobil grease in theirs. Do you think the Chinese are using it?

 

[RNeumann]

Yep biggest problem is finding the “quality” ones. Even the big bearing websites don’t have many USA bearings. One of the many “benefits” to the decisions they’ve been making for the last 30 years.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Yep biggest problem is finding the “quality” ones. Even the big bearing websites don’t have many USA bearings. One of the many “benefits” to the decisions they’ve been making for the last 30 years.

Go to Motion Industries or Applied Industrial Technologies.

Here's Motion Industries page for deep groove bearings. Have fun. Pick your size, pick your brand, pick your particulars...just don't pick your nose with someone looking.

Radial & Deep Groove Ball Bearings - Motion Industries

 

[Industrial Toys]

Unless you are an OEM and want to build somethning nice and CHEAP, I always considered the price and quality of name brand bearings to be a real bargain.
.
My EX GF has this quirky but good doctor. He once told her, "you are either a nose picker or a liar". Not sure what bearings have to do with that?

 

[Diggin It]

I hit one of those ten for $15 deals a few years ago. I had been going through deck bearings on a Craftsman 42" deck at least once a season. Got tired of paying $5 or more for each one. I figured if they failed, I'd have a few on hand to replace as needed.

Put the first set of four in right after I got the. Haven't changed a one since. They've lasted far longer than anything else I tried.

 

[MacLawn]

I do my best to avoid all things Hecho en Chine, but dagnabbed if it ain稚 about impossible. I知 for quality.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I hit one of those ten for $15 deals a few years ago. I had been going through deck bearings on a Craftsman 42" deck at least once a season. Got tired of paying $5 or more for each one. I figured if they failed, I'd have a few on hand to replace as needed.

Put the first set of four in right after I got the. Haven't changed a one since. They've lasted far longer than anything else I tried.

Maybe they work great in your location.

 

[Oldoak]

Maybe they work great in your location.

Yep, they're located on his Craftsman 42" deck.

 

[SandburRanch]

Yep, there's plenty of evidence quality has gone to **** but a good percent of lawn tractor application failures is the manufacturing of the assembly they are used in and that isn't a recent problem. With ball bearings, one of the 2 bearings needs to be able to float ( push fit ) and how many manufacturers do that? Very few.

Extreme example: A very non mechanical Brother In-Law takes his tractor to a mower repair shop to have the deck bearings replaced. After a few hours operation he calls me saying he doesn't think it's right. I disassemble and find 1 assembly was re-assembled without the spacer sleeve between the bearings. If you be mechanical and understand the forces ball bearings were designed for you know that those 2 bearings didn't last 30 minutes.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I believe many Timkens are made in China now too. Hard to compete with $1.49 bearings when most customers just look at the dollars and not the quality. Koyo uses premium Mobil grease in theirs. Do you think the Chinese are using it?

I was in my john deere dealer getting parts and there was this huge pile of deere parts on the counter, mostly bearings...

EVERY package I looked at said "Made in China"... How many of those do you thing had Mobil grease in them??

SR

 

[ArlyA]

We used track pods with many, many bearings in them so the manufacturers reduced there price by putting poor, less costly bearings in them. They'll used $3 ones and they should go for something for more $ that actually have seals in them. They'll only last a few years, then we're out looking for new ones or something that's better than the crap the manufactures installed.. No fun having to drag a lame machine in.... OEM does not necessarily = better

 

[Captain Dirty]

I hit one of those ten for $15 deals a few years ago . . . Put the first set of four in right after I got the. Haven't changed a one since. They've lasted far longer than anything else I tried.

The following story in apocryphal but has a ring of truth: The American Widget Co. goes to a Chinese vendor to supply bearings. The vendor makes thousands of high-quality bearings and wins the contract. Having secured the contract, the vendor starts to incrementally cheapen the bearings. The MBA'a at American Widget see warranty claims rising, investigate, and discover what the vendor is doing. But, the MBA's realize that if they pay the vendor less for inferior bearings, the costs savings will more than pay for the warranty work increase. So everybody (except the consumer) is happy.

If you were lucky enough to get the original, high-quality bearings your widget will run forever. Not many of us are that lucky.

 

[Oldoak]

I was in my john deere dealer getting parts and there was this huge pile of deere parts on the counter, mostly bearings...

EVERY package I looked at said "Made in China"... How many of those do you thing had Mobil grease in them??

SR

None, not in those "Made in China" or "Made in U.S.A." if they were the two piece cup and cone tapered roller bearings. No grease at all, just a coating of oil as a rust preventative. The same with open, non-shielded/non-sealed ball bearings.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

None, not in those "Made in China" or "Made in U.S.A." if they were the two piece cup and cone tapered roller bearings. No grease at all, just a coating of oil as a rust preventative. The same with open, non-shielded/non-sealed ball bearings.

Are you trying to say NONE of the bearings I looked at were sealed???

You'd be wrong about that...

SR

 

[Oldoak]

Are you trying to say NONE of the bearings I looked at were sealed???

You'd be wrong about that...

SR

I didn't say that. I wouldn't know what type of bearings you looked at. You didn't specify. I said if!

 

[John White]

I needed a bearing for my metal cutting band saw. $15 at Applied Power (Bearings Inc) I got 10 of them off Ebay for $10. Look like same bearings used in roller blade skates or skate boards.