King Kutter going chinese?

I was at TSC a couple days ago, and I saw some gray painted implements that are identical to the yellow King Kutter, but in gray. I was told this is KK's chinese line? Any solid confirmation of this? Are they going to offshore all production?

Why not? Everything else is. I have a KK 5' blade I bought at TSC this spring and has metric pins.

you think that only KK is off shore look at John Deere parts Case ih, ford NH , they all use off shore parts

where you been last 20 yrs

Shoot more then half of the JD line is jap made and same for most other company"s. We as the people in the U.S priced are selfs out of jobs. Any more your lucky if you can buy a true U.S. made thing and even then most are owned by some other country any how

I just thought that KK was a American company, that's all. ( american manufacture) No I am not surprised that is going that way. I doubht that they are union, either. It really doesn't matter anymore if your job is union or not. Nobody can compete with labor rates of a dollar or less per hour. No matter how hard or how smart you work. If you are exposed to global competition, you will suffer.

And not to sound like a commercial, but I work for a company that sells replacement parts for those mowers. Ever break one, shoot me an email!!

I dont want to sound racist or acuse anyone.
But slavery IMO is very much alive,as using slaves in the USA is "thank God" no longer alowed,instead the jobs are taken to 'slaves' in their own country where they get exploited by their own fellows,ie.China,india and such where they get paid penny's a day.

OK let me have it.

Spook,
I am a dealer for them and yes, some of the parts are chinese. They are assembled in Indiana from parts from all over.

i looked at king kutter rotary mowers at TSC once and decided they were not for me. they looked flimsey built and the gearbox for the 5ft. model are very low hp rated. the model i saw was already dented on the top deck by something that was dropped on it. musta been heavy to dent that deck steel or the deck was very light steel. anyway, all these chinese products are going to bite us in the butt someday. only a matter of time.

"priced are selfs out of jobs."
What would be a good wage? Some of those Chinese displaced by the Olympics were going to lose their $1-1.6 a day.
Other countries protect their people and way of life and us in the US are for sale to the highest bidder or lowest bidder.

Borrowed a friends auger hopper. You know those poly black ones. Mine is gone. I think it was borrowed out and not returned. This one I borrowed is pretty new and made who knows where. Came from TSC. I dumped oats in it to auger into a wagon a couple of days ago but the darn thing just buckles under the weight of 31# oats. What a d@mn joke. Tossed it aside and made a wooden one.

Good example is the GM 'workers' that went on strike a couple years ago when they were receiving $81/hr total compensation when plenty of peole would do the job for $15/hr.No company can stay in business like that.

Problem is you're not competeting against low wages. You're competeting against automation.

The folks who move production off-shore are just doing so because right now it's cheaper then the capital investments in automated equipment.

Toyota's plant under construction currently in Alabama, originally for Highlanders but as I understand it being reprogrammed for a new hybrid, will employ 2,000 workers. Making 150,000 cars/year. Pretty amazing, huh?

For the last two decades, the general trend each year has been for efficiency (productivity) to increase 3% per year, while U.S. Industrial Output has grown 1% per year. Yes, it has been growing folks. Problem is, in simple numbers, if you only grew output 20% in two decades but improved efficiency 60%, you can sack 40% of your workers since they're no longer needed.

Companies making fairly complex stuff -- not the handpainted curios and such -- face a pretty simple decision. They can spend their money investing in newer, more automated equipment; or they can spend their money to move the factory and ship goods from a lower wage country. In either case, most of the jobs that went into manipulating materials and assembling them in the U.S. are going to disappear.

GM stayed in business a long time. I have a deal about sharing the wealth. Some people say actors, basketball and football stars make too much, but if the TV stations and companies that pay these people are making billions then why not?