[ozhummer]

I do a lot of work up in China and have some of my products partially and fully manufactured up there. Australia just cannot compete, not even close … I have found a company who makes air lockers – they look remarkably like the ARB locker (Remember, ARB has a lot of their gear now made offshore and I have a suspicion the lockers are too).. Anyway, I got a quote from ARB for a rear locker and the quote came in at about $1600 with compressor. The company in China have a locker that will fit the Vitara, ironically with the same part number as the ARB one for under $500 with compressor and $400 without.
One thing that most people believe is that every product made in China is rubbish quality. This is totally incorrect! – What China does offer is manufacturing to whatever quality and cost you request. So you can get manufacturing done at the high end as I do. In fact, I get plastic injection moulding done up there and during a factory visit was watching our product being made right alongside GME radio and EPIRB enclosures. It is very important to have a quality certification company QA any products before they leave China to ensure quality ..
So what am I getting at.. well I have a QA person up there and I have organised for him to visit the manufacturer of these air lockers to give me a report. I have a feeling they may be identical to the ARB except $1000 cheaper. If anyone is interested PM me. IF they are rubbish, then I’m getting an ARB one.

[joel]

remember, do you have any evidence of arb lockers being made overseas?? or you just throwing accusations around?
australia cant compete, because of people like you.
this attitude saddens me, i will pay the extra $1k just to keep it done here, once the ass falls out of the mining sector. wtf else do we have??

this reeks of emg.


not hating you ozhumm,

[Rusho]

Currently up to 22 pages

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=16760&hilit=Chinasoong

[ozhummer]

I should have searched the forum first ..

Looks like others share my disappointment with ARB's massive mark up for their Aussie customers ....

[tanshi]

is the 1600 including fitting?

you can buy and import genuine airlockers from lowrange offroad for cheeper than that

yes. i have bought 3 from there. and they were cheeper to buy and ship from the US. than to get here.
(i had to wait for one to be shipped from AUS to the US so they could ship it back at one point)

[ozhummer]

I was told by an ARB staff member the reason the lockers were cheaper in the US was because they are cheaper to ship to the US than Aus!

The mining sector is already stuffed in aus cause the gov has regulated and screwed the industry, not to mention the high wages for unskilled Labour. Watch as companies like Rio Tinto pull out (12 months ago I was working for them so I have seen first hand)

The reason Australia cant compete is because companies like Arb dont support their back yard and choose to mark products up by 500%. Ive just spent $1150 on an Arb bullbar, in the US the same arb bar can be got for $650. And they are made here.

I manufacture in Australia, of all thing's electronic stuff, I could do this in china cheaper, but choose not to. But I do source components from there china, the same as GME does..

If ARB were to support us with competative prices then we all would support them back.. I dont like the idea of a chinese air locker, but if the ARB ones were priced here the same as they are in the USA then I would get theirs in a flash!

joel wrote:

remember, do you have any evidence of arb lockers being made overseas?? or you just throwing accusations around?
australia cant compete, because of people like you.
this attitude saddens me, i will pay the extra $1k just to keep it done here, once the ass falls out of the mining sector. wtf else do we have??

this reeks of emg.


not hating you ozhumm,

[ozhummer]

Quote was near $1600 for Locker, Compressor and airup kit - NO Fitting....

tanshi wrote:

is the 1600 including fitting?

you can buy and import genuine airlockers from lowrange offroad for cheeper than that

yes. i have bought 3 from there. and they were cheeper to buy and ship from the US. than to get here.
(i had to wait for one to be shipped from AUS to the US so they could ship it back at one point)

[tanshi]

which compressor? they have 3 models and one is nearly $500

[ozhummer]

CKMA12 - their standard one for both lockers and tyre inflation - I think the cost was about $360 inc the tyre inflation hose.

[ozhummer]

I have just been speaking with ARB in Melbourne who assure me the Air Lockers are still totally made in Aus (Melb). When asked about the cost diff between the USA and AUS they said the US market was much larger and distributors relied on volume sales with small margins, not low volume high profit margin as in Aus. Low Range in the USA have the lockers for just over $1000 so not worth bringing these back to AUS as they would attract GST and shipping so would be more expensive than local. As for the Chinese copies, After watching destructive tests ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewt7f-h8Wn4&) I think I will pay the extra for the ARB one.

[christover1]

Get shipping quotes. I often find internal deliveries cost me more than international, on some things I buy.
Depends on present Aus Dollar value, too, of course

PS. I live real close to ARB, but never shop there any more.
I used to get great deals and service at the door.
The world is changing.

[tanshi]

if you know the right people you can pickup brand new airlockers for under $1000
bought an RD209 two weeks ago

[atari4x4]

yep, club discount will knock a fair bit of the RRP at ARB

[ozhummer]

hmmmm .... pm me

tanshi wrote:

if you know the right people you can pickup brand new airlockers for under $1000
bought an RD209 two weeks ago

[fordem]

ozhummer wrote:

I have just been speaking with ARB in Melbourne who assure me the Air Lockers are still totally made in Aus (Melb). When asked about the cost diff between the USA and AUS they said the US market was much larger and distributors relied on volume sales with small margins, not low volume high profit margin as in Aus. Low Range in the USA have the lockers for just over $1000 so not worth bringing these back to AUS as they would attract GST and shipping so would be more expensive than local. As for the Chinese copies, After watching destructive tests ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewt7f-h8Wn4&) I think I will pay the extra for the ARB one.

This too has been discussed in these forums before, the numbers are a matter of public record, and available on the internet - the last time I looked the export market was 22% of ARB's total revenue, and the US market is therefore less than 22% - Australian aftermarket sales were 66% or THREE times the rest of the world combined - any arguement that US pricing is lower because the market is larger is nothing more than BS.

Edit

I dug up some numbers for you

[ozhummer]

Then they told me BS! ....

fordem wrote:

ozhummer wrote:

I have just been speaking with ARB in Melbourne who assure me the Air Lockers are still totally made in Aus (Melb). When asked about the cost diff between the USA and AUS they said the US market was much larger and distributors relied on volume sales with small margins, not low volume high profit margin as in Aus. Low Range in the USA have the lockers for just over $1000 so not worth bringing these back to AUS as they would attract GST and shipping so would be more expensive than local. As for the Chinese copies, After watching destructive tests ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewt7f-h8Wn4&) I think I will pay the extra for the ARB one.

This too has been discussed in these forums before, the numbers are a matter of public record, and available on the internet - if you care to check ARBs annual reports, you'll find that the export market is less than half of ARB's total revenue, Australian sales is where they make their money - any arguement that US pricing is lower because the market is larger is nothing more than BS.

[Gwagensteve]

This isn't a defence of ARB or their pricing strategy, but I don't think there's anything in your post, Ozhummer, that is contradicted by Fordem's.

The US market does operate on much lower margins. That doesn't mean necessarily mean the wholesale price of an air locker is different in the US to here, it means that the retailers markup is lower.

It's been proven many times that it's now quite possible to match US airlocker pricing locally.

Here's another thought re US pricing. I remember when the AU dollar was about 70c to the US, and Airlockers were about $800 in the US. What's happened to airlockers is that they have become more expensive in the US in the last couple of years, but not here.

That's not the case with most of the stuff we buy, because it's all coming from China and/or through US distributors.

Steve.

[atari4x4]

ozhummer wrote:

Then they told me BS! ....

fordem wrote:

ozhummer wrote:

I have just been speaking with ARB in Melbourne who assure me the Air Lockers are still totally made in Aus (Melb). When asked about the cost diff between the USA and AUS they said the US market was much larger and distributors relied on volume sales with small margins, not low volume high profit margin as in Aus. Low Range in the USA have the lockers for just over $1000 so not worth bringing these back to AUS as they would attract GST and shipping so would be more expensive than local. As for the Chinese copies, After watching destructive tests ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewt7f-h8Wn4&) I think I will pay the extra for the ARB one.

This too has been discussed in these forums before, the numbers are a matter of public record, and available on the internet - if you care to check ARBs annual reports, you'll find that the export market is less than half of ARB's total revenue, Australian sales is where they make their money - any arguement that US pricing is lower because the market is larger is nothing more than BS.

totally off topic, but when you quote someone... 99.9999% of all forum users reply under the quote so it flows as a conversation would & is easily readable, typing above a quote makes it hard for anyone else to quote & reply.

seems that there area few people on here that do it now & it's kind of frustrating.

[joeblow]

Roothy....ummm... sorry ozhummer.....please do more research before getting all worked up, and the search button might of helped.

I too would offer things like lockers alot cheaper if I didn't have to make them myself and could just clone shit.

[ozhummer]

What's this Roothy business ??? (he does just live down the road from me!)

[joel]

ban..

[BertZook]

joeblow wrote:

Roothy....ummm... sorry ozhummer.....

naaah I dnt think is them. Remember the all emg and roo stuff, they not market zooks, so why they would waste their times in here

ozhummer wrote:

After watching destructive tests ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewt7f-h8Wn4&) I think I will pay the extra for the ARB one.

its cool, but again its a video made by ARB, of course they are gonna look better, they arent gonna do a video saying "ups, yep, the chinese copy was better".... or "oh well, ARB was good, but the chinese copy was not to bad aye, pretty similar performance.."

[Fatzook]

BertZook wrote:

its cool, but again its a video made by ARB, of course they are gonna look better, they arent gonna do a video saying "ups, yep, the chinese copy was better".... or "oh well, ARB was good, but the chinese copy was not to bad aye, pretty similar performance.."

Regardless of the confict of interest, the test needn't have taken place, as all but the dumbest consumers could come to the conclusion that ARB is the higher quality product.

What the test DOES show, is the difference in quality on a measurable scale. So you can see EXACTLY how much less product you get for your massive saving.

At the end of the day, people who whinge about ARB's prices will buy an auto locker, CIG, or a chinasoong.

Poor man pays twice.

[joeblow]

Fatzook wrote:

Tight, poorly researched man pays twice.

Fixed.

[fordem]

atari4x4 wrote:

seems that there area few people on here that do it now & it's kind of frustrating.

There are times when it needs to be done.

I often do it when there are posts below the one I'm replying to - if I consider it necessary to clarify what I'm replying to - as in this case. I'll also do it when I feel the need to have the post I'm replying to "on record", as it will reveal any edits made subsequent to my reply.

As you can see in this case - I did edit my post - to get my "off the cuff" numbers a little closer to the truth - it's one thing to estimate ARB's export market as less than 50% of the total, but, when I found my original post and the numbers taken from their annual report turned out to be less than half my estimate, I decided to go back & revise.

[Zook_Fan]

fordem wrote:

atari4x4 wrote:

seems that there area few people on here that do it now & it's kind of frustrating.

There are times when it needs to be done.

I often do it when there are posts below the one I'm replying to - if I consider it necessary to clarify what I'm replying to - as in this case. I'll also do it when I feel the need to have the post I'm replying to "on record", as it will reveal any edits made subsequent to my reply.

As you can see in this case - I did edit my post - to get my "off the cuff" numbers a little closer to the truth - it's one thing to estimate ARB's export market as less than 50% of the total, but, when I found my original post and the numbers taken from their annual report turned out to be less than half my estimate, I decided to go back & revise.

It was a dig at ozhummer for writing above the quote, not for people using the quote function at all.

[atari4x4]

correct, see how retarded it reads when you do this to a quote

Zook_Fan wrote:

fordem wrote:

atari4x4 wrote:

seems that there area few people on here that do it now & it's kind of frustrating.

There are times when it needs to be done.

I often do it when there are posts below the one I'm replying to - if I consider it necessary to clarify what I'm replying to - as in this case. I'll also do it when I feel the need to have the post I'm replying to "on record", as it will reveal any edits made subsequent to my reply.

As you can see in this case - I did edit my post - to get my "off the cuff" numbers a little closer to the truth - it's one thing to estimate ARB's export market as less than 50% of the total, but, when I found my original post and the numbers taken from their annual report turned out to be less than half my estimate, I decided to go back & revise.

It was a dig at ozhummer for writing above the quote, not for people using the quote function at all.

[atari4x4]

atari4x4 wrote:

correct, see how retarded it reads when you do this to a quote

Zook_Fan wrote:

fordem wrote:

atari4x4 wrote:

seems that there area few people on here that do it now & it's kind of frustrating.

There are times when it needs to be done.

I often do it when there are posts below the one I'm replying to - if I consider it necessary to clarify what I'm replying to - as in this case. I'll also do it when I feel the need to have the post I'm replying to "on record", as it will reveal any edits made subsequent to my reply.

As you can see in this case - I did edit my post - to get my "off the cuff" numbers a little closer to the truth - it's one thing to estimate ARB's export market as less than 50% of the total, but, when I found my original post and the numbers taken from their annual report turned out to be less than half my estimate, I decided to go back & revise.

It was a dig at ozhummer for writing above the quote, not for people using the quote function at all.

like that