Not made right here anymore.....

Proudly Made In the USA

Not anymore they aren't.


So I finally had killed a Carhartt jacket.

As the 'Polar Vortex" (cold Canadian air come a few weeks earlier than normal for those of you based in the real world) had come and reminded me that I needed to find a replacement for that worn out 10 year old Jacket.....

Sadly, when I went and looked at Carhartt outerwear, I discovered that ALL of the tags said something other than "Made in the USA"  Some said "Made in Mexico", others "Made in Bangladesh" One said "Made in Indonesia"...


NONE of the jackets I looked at said "Made in USA". Zero. None.

This changed somewhere around 2011.

Just something to think about next time you buy a jacket.

One more gone.

Strong Arm Lift Supports

Bought a new set for the Escape on ebay; the guy there has a store and they advertise that they're Made in the US. Their website has them in Australia, I don't know what that is all about. And the guy's ebay store is called Lift Supports Depot, where  I bought pairs of American made struts for the cost of a single Chinese made strut from Autozone.


Note: Not all of the struts on the Ebay store are Made in the US.

Customer service you won't get from most places

(crossposted from Middleoftheright.net)

So about 12+ years ago I purchased a GPI fuel transfer pump. I have several diesel vehicles and I needed a pump to transfer stored diesel to the appropriate vehicles. I generally buy diesel from the stations when the price is down (I might buy 150 gallons at a time if the price drops far enough) and store it for when the price jumps or when I just need to fuel the tractor or generator or whatever.

Now, this fuel pump has worked well for me for several years. I replaced a hand powered pump because I just got too lazy to pump 20 gallons or so of diesel by hand (do you know how many strokes of a hand pump that is?) I'd bet that this pump has moved in excess of 5 thousand gallons, both into and out of the fuel tanks.

Sadly, earlier this year, the pump no longer moved fuel. The electric motor would run but no movement of fuel. For a while,I was using a different pump I had because I was too busy to take the broken pump down and open it up to see what was wrong.

I got an exploded parts breakdown off the website and took the time to observe the pump and determine what parts I needed. When I called GPI to see where I could buy the parts, the conversation went like this:

"Hi, I need to order a gear and key set for a 150S pump. "

"Ok".

"and a gasket kit for the gear plate."

"Ok"

"And any other parts you think I need"

"Does the pump prime?"

"No"

"then I'll send you a poppet valve kit too....I need your address"

"123 XXXYYY City state"

"Cool, I'll get those out today"

"How much will that be?"

"I'll send them to you"

"Yes, I got that, how much and do you take Visa?"

"I'll send them to you"

"yes, and what are the charges?"

'I am sending them to you at no charge. "

"Oh, Thank you"

Didn't expect that, and the pump is 12+ years old. I doubt that the parts cost them that much to make, but still, this is well beyond what I expected as customer service. Hell, I'd have at least expected to have to pay for postage.

Oh, and BTW... these fuel pumps are MADE IN AMERICA.

Little Big Shot

Hose nozzle. Comes highly recommended by Partner. Made by disabled US veterans. I will be picking one up tomorrow to test for myself.  Ten bucks or $20 for three.

Trusty Cook Dead Blow hammers

Someone just gave me one- and I was very pleased to discover 'made in the USA' on the handle. very nice. Also supposedly awesome for tenderizing steaks, or so I'm told.

Made in America: ProShot Cleaning Products

I spent yesterday in the factory where most of this stuff is made. Very, very very high quality stuff, made by a hardcore gun nut who understands how to be obsessive/compulsive about quality. Buy some of their stuff, you will not be disapointed.

I had to move around my emergency kit some last weekend (the truck version) and came across my emergency flashlight. I store it without batteries and have a fresh unopened set of batteries and the flashlight in an old sock, together. Now, I love my Maglites. I love my little LED lights. I love my Surefire. That said, when I think "Flashlight" this is the image that comes to mind. .

  The Brightstar is the quintessentail "original" Flashlight and they are as durable as a brick. They're all plastic on the outside, which means they can be used inside electrical cabinets (Some older models had metal screws holding the switch on but I think that is now gone on all models) and a three D cell version costs $11 something. They are designed for industrial use- the light wands you see cops using and most airport ground people are usually brightstars. No, it doesn't have high technology ultra super bright bulbs or whatever, but they work for about 19 hours before needing battery replacement. Brightstar has moved up to some fancier models and they certainly do compete with the higher end flashlights in many arenas, but the original, ubiquitous BrightStar, still the familiar black and yellow, still damned near indestructible, is still Made in the USA. At $12, I find myself wondering why I don't have a few more of these.