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Thread: Knock off cheap trailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro Ebay calipers

  1. #1
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    Knock off cheap trailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro Ebay calipers

    No, I would NEVER use one!!

    My question is, have any of you found a way to tell that they are the China copies versus OEM once on the trike??

    I see zinc coating color and hardware issues, but has anyone found a dead giveaway such as a casting flaw??

    Thanks for your thoughts...
    All our government does is distract us while they steal from us, misspend our tax $ and ruin our country

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dirtcrasher View Post
    No, I would NEVER use one!!

    My question is, have any of you found a way to tell that they are the China copies versus OEM once on the trike??

    I see zinc coating color and hardware issues, but has anyone found a dead giveaway such as a casting flaw??

    Thanks for your thoughts...
    Good luck with this.

    I find most Chinese stampings and castings have what I can only describe as a roundness to the edges. Aside from this, which is hard to describe without parts in your hand, I would say be wary of eBay sellers out of California where most of this stuff enters the USA.
    It sucks to get old

  3. #3
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    It's getting hard to tell....

    And these days people can "restore" something with the abundance of knock off parts now available.

    I know how to tell a China light switch from OEM, how about you guys??
    All our government does is distract us while they steal from us, misspend our tax $ and ruin our country

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dirtcrasher View Post
    It's getting hard to tell....

    And these days people can "restore" something with the abundance of knock off parts now available.

    I know how to tell a China light switch from OEM, how about you guys??
    Alright, pop quiz, is this a China light switch, or Honda made? :P

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/193004724056

    Generally fit and finish of China parts are horrible, wiring is even worse (crimps, wire size, solder work, etc). For calipers, there's probably "ok" China made ones, and completely junk China Knock offs of China knock offs. I've seen it first hand, OEM parts on a china quad are better quality than China parts sold on other sites.

    One thing that's generally a dead giveaway it's a China part is that it says the brand is generic, or unbranded. Another is their wording, instead of saying it's an ATC350X caliper, they say it's a caliper for an ATC350x, they love to use the word "for" to say it's a part that fits, but isn't OEM.

  5. #5
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    I know I’ve said this before but don’t anyone fall for this ebay front caliper he’s been selling lots of them for $79.+shipping
    It’s a China knockoff that can be bought for about $20 bucks.
    Just another heads up to save someone some cash.
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Shep

  6. #6
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    TexFest is offline At The Back Of The Pack Arm chair racerAt the back of the pack
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    Quote Originally Posted by ps2fixer View Post
    Alright, pop quiz, is this a China light switch, or Honda made? :P

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/193004724056

    Generally fit and finish of China parts are horrible, wiring is even worse (crimps, wire size, solder work, etc). For calipers, there's probably "ok" China made ones, and completely junk China Knock offs of China knock offs. I've seen it first hand, OEM parts on a china quad are better quality than China parts sold on other sites.

    One thing that's generally a dead giveaway it's a China part is that it says the brand is generic, or unbranded. Another is their wording, instead of saying it's an ATC350X caliper, they say it's a caliper for an ATC350x, they love to use the word "for" to say it's a part that fits, but isn't OEM.
    looks like a china part
    TPC 450R

  7. #7
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    Is that a joke or are you serious?

    It's actually my listing, it's a switch from a newer Honda TRX model with the wiring modified to work on the 3 wheelers. Sadly no modern switches have the perfect layout for the 200x/250r so it has a start button (good for people with goki kits) and also has the correct kill switch function (off = black/white shorted to ground). Here's an example of another model from Honda with Choke, would likely be a perfect replacement for the ATC250ES/SX machines but the kill switch works backwards.

    https://www.partzilla.com/product/honda/35020-HM7-A00

    Just for fun I checked the Honda box they come in, Made in Vietnam, so I guess it was a trick question xD, still Japanese designed by Honda with their quality control... unless partzilla sells fakes.

    Anyway, not trying to make this thread about my products or anything, just wanted to see what dirtcrasher would say but you beat him to the reply lol.
    Last edited by ps2fixer; 09-06-2019 at 04:55 PM.

  8. #8
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    The give away is in the plug connector.

    Look inside the end, 1 is squared off, one has curved inside corners...
    All our government does is distract us while they steal from us, misspend our tax $ and ruin our country

  9. #9
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    Depends on the connector housing type =). Most of the connectors from the 3 wheeler era are squared off though. Since this is a topic I have a lot of hands on with I'll show some photos of differences. I modify Chinese ignition switches a LOT, seems people love a cheap switch over a Honda built switch for ~3x more the price, so I do my best to make the China switch less Chinese. Again, not trying to make this about my products, just want to fill in the back story a bit.



    As you can see in this photo, I have a bit of a collection of connectors and such. The top 3 bags are all china connectors and the bags under that are all source from Honda parts which is a bit of a newer market I've been testing out. I have a lot more connectors stocked up, just grabbed a few bags for the example. Also the left top bag is the same as the right side, just the terminals are removed on ones on the right, so it shows their greenish colored plastic more. Some of their connectors are more yellowish, I'll show that later.



    First things first, the connectors you can see the crimps on easily. In the photo above, the two center terminals are from a China part, it's crimped so poorly I could probably pull the terminal right off the wire. Also their terminals are much much thinner. The far right ring terminal is 0.6mm thick while the China one is 0.3mm. On the left side are 3.5mm bullet male terminals, left to right - Brass Taiwan made (KS brand), Tin plated brass Taiwan made (WST brand), OEM Honda marked with NT for the brand, and the Chinese one with no brand marking at all. There's a bit of a difference Honda vs the Taiwan connectors I use, but for the most part they are very similar quality, just my crimper tool isn't as good as Honda's to make the nice pretty crimps. My $35 crimpers can't compete with $500+ crimpers, but they get the job done.



    Next up is the connector housings, in this area I feel China doesn't do too bad besides the color of the plastic being a bit off. My terminals fit in the Chinese housings well too. I haven't done any oil resistance testing or anything to see if the plastic grade is any good or not, so that could be the weak area. Connectors left to right is - OEM Honda (82 ATC110 CDI Connector), connectors I use (terminals marked HL, not sure what brand they are), and two Chinese housings. You can see the color differences on the Chinese connectors fairly well in the photo, the one I use is very white while the other two are yellowish and light greenish. OEM one of course has yellowed from age, oil etc and the terminals inside are horrible (corroded).



    Finally, the terminals that are installed in the connector housings, this is again where china falls short on ignoring the fact they use tiny wire on top of things. I didn't have an OEM terminal handy to show OEM of this connector style, so I grabbed one from a newer style connector that's a little smaller and the wire side has a seal (.090 series vs .110 series). Left to right is terminal I use (HL brand, guessing Tiawan since it seems my supplier stocks mainly Taiwan terminals), China no name, OEM Honda (Brand mark looks like N9), and again another connector from my supplier that's the same series as the Honda one, which again is WST brand Taiwan made.


    The photos ended up a bit more pixelated than I expected, I can take higher res photos if someone wants to see better. I have nearly all connectors on hand for Honda harnesses, and nearly all versions of the OEM Honda 3 wheeler harnesses, so if you want to see Honda vs my supplier's connector/terminals or if I happen to have a China part with the same connector, I can post up a photo of them to compare.

    Also while talking about Chinese electronics, if you get a multi meter from China and the readings are inconsistant, sand the probe tips down to the brass and the connector that goes into the meter, it makes a wildly inaccurate meter fairly accurate, like within the specs of the meter ~1%. Shorting the probes together should read 0.0 ohms, the two chinese meters I have read 0.4 ohms and if I take that off from ohm readings I get accurate measurements within 0.1 ohms of my better quality meter. I don't know what they plate the connectors with on them, but some chinese fuses I bought for a customer was the same way, poor connection, sanded down the silver coating down to the brass, and now great connection (atleast good).

    Hopefully this post is interesting/helpful for you guys.

  10. #10
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    ^ Excellent share!! You definitely found your "niche" in the electrical world of ATV's and ATC's...

    It's nice to work with smart people
    All our government does is distract us while they steal from us, misspend our tax $ and ruin our country

  11. #11
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    Thanks, I try my best. Too bad this niche isn't the greatest profit wise. I'm slowly poking at other options to try to off set that some though. As I make new products, my total sales go down, so I've been stagnate at the same income level for like 3 years now, but have probably doubled the number of products I make/mod. It is what it is, I still prefer working for myself vs another business. At least with the situation I'm in I can work at my own pace and hours. Could be possible I'm cutting my self short on prices, but I hate to charge higher prices than I already do, have to keep a happy balance between what the customer is willing to spend vs what I'm willing to make per hour/$ invested.

    I guess my post above is more of a China vs Taiwan vs OEM Japanese connector/terminal quality. Didn't know my terminals were Taiwan branded before, I thought they were Japanese, no wonder I could never find name brand Japanese connectors for a better deal than my supplier lol. Once I buy the big $$$ crimpers, I might have to switch to the Japanese terminals.

    Also, everything I get as a byproduct from modding Honda & Chinese parts I keep. Wire goes for recycling, connectors I bag up for just encase I need them, rubber boots I try to match up to products that I reproduce so they are more OEM like and offer a dust cover (ex 85-86 250r harness), and cut off terminals goes in my brass scrap container. Connector housings are not exactly cheap, I've used the Chinese ones on and off and haven't had any bad reports from customers, but anything I make that's fairly expensive I stick to the better quality stuff.

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