Researching US-made Recovery Gear

I'm starting to build my recovery kit and am comparison shopping across US manufacturers for the major items such as kinetic ropes, tow straps, soft shackles, hard shackles, tree savers, hitch links, etc. I want to be economical with my choices, but for safety reasons, am not comfortable going the Amazon/Harbor Freight route. Anywhere else I should be looking besides

-Factor55
-Bubba Rope
-Yankum
-Master Pull
-US Cargo Control
-ASR Offroad
-Safe XTract

 

Agency 6
Bleepin Jeep sells a Freedom winch line with good design features made in the US

Towing/recovery gear from major US brands like Erikson and Reese can be considered trustworthy - they're US companies subject to US lawsuits if their products fail.

 

Country of manufacture may not be as good a predictor of quality as it used to be. You should go by reputation. Also be wary that items that claim to be made in the USA actually aren’t.

If the preference for USA-made gear is motivated by patriotism, well that’s a different story.

 

Good points. Preference is strictly motivated by safety rather than patriotism. Maybe US-made was not quite accurate, as I would be just as comfortable using a Green Pin hard shackle from Van Beest (The Netherlands) as a US-made Crosby shackle. But I'm not comfortable using a no-name hard shackle from Amazon that costs $15 for a pair. I'm really just searching for reputable companies that properly test and label their products and whose products won't injure or kill someone out on the trail when properly used. Believe me, I don't want to spend more than I need to. But I do want to be safe about it.

 

Don't knock out ARB but I'm not sure if they manufacture in AU or elsewhere.

 

Some people prefer the US to not be a nation of mere resellers, gig workers, and Amazon hustlers. It's not just patriotism, it's common sense. A US manufacturer has more to lose then someone who contracts a random factory in Dongguan or Yiwu.

 

Add me to the list of people who think there should be more manufacturing in the USA. But you are oversimplifying it.

You can buy a no-name recovery strap on Amazon that was made in China.

Or you can get a recovery strap from RhinoUSA, an American company who has their products manufactured offshore. Why is one any more or less of a reseller than the other? It’s a big gray area.

This is why I say it’s best to go by reputation.

 

Would you know when RhinoUSA gets squeezed on margins and contracts a different manufacturing concern in a cheaper part of China or Vietnam who makes a cheaper substitute that looks the same or very similar?

Look at companies like Craftsman, good enough reputation, but over time with outsourcing to China, much of their tools gradually get cheapened out, yet new buyers don't care because the "rep".

When a company outsource it's up to the customer to notice, and there lies the paradox: those who have good products won't likely buy it again, but the new buyers won't know better because they didn't have the older stuff.

 

In my career dealing with rigging equipment we had to have every piece of gear certified by an in-house testing lab. Each article was tested to their respective 'WLL' ratings with an occasional test to failure sampling (those were fun to watch!)

I'm grateful to those vendors whom are now specifying such ratings. Take for example Factor 55, they publish not only WLL ratings but Max and Ultimate ratings for their products. Agency 6 publishes that they use 'certified' U.S. raw materials in the construction of their recovery products like their Shackle Blocks, Fairleads and Rings. I have the hitch point and offset ring from Yankum where they state they use Kaiser Aluminum.