Are RTR Bronco parts US Made?

[Doubleajaybrock]

Edit: I was able to get through to them regarding the Bronco tire carrier. It is made in china.

I attempted to contact through the RTR site but never heard a response back.

Sponsored

 

[JohnnyBronco]

Shouldn't make that much difference since according to Kogod School of Business 2022 index only 55% of your entire Bronco is American sourced.

https://kogod.american.edu/autoindex/2022

 

[Doubleajaybrock]

It does to me. If I can buy a 100% USA, I will.

Shouldn't make that much difference since according to Kogod School of Business 2022 index only 55% of your entire Bronco is American sourced.

https://kogod.american.edu/autoindex/2022

 

[WheresMyBronco]

I don't think they are (from what I remember back when I had my Mustang and was looking at their stuff) but hopefully they get back to you on it soon

 

[Doc TOC]

They do have a phone number - 704-459-4850

Considering almost 90% of general steel used in the US to fabricate parts comes from China/Japan/So Korea/Germany/Turkey - nope, it isn't made in the USA. US made steel is generally highly alloyed and ends up on battle fields, hospitals and in space. And some car/truck frames and bodies.

Define "USA made".
Formed here?
Waterjetted here?
Welded here?
Assembled here?
Painted here? (What about where the paint came from?)
Packaged here? (What about the packaging and labels?)

Don't fall for the political BS. The USA will be a globalized consumer for some time. The de-globalization effort is going to take 10-15 years to have a significant impact on general consumer goods. The more immediate benefactors are electronics, sophisticated manufacturing, and defense. Your future lawn chair will come from Vietnam before it comes from Iowa.

Leave the windmill tilting to Don Quixote.

 

[Doubleajaybrock]

I get that most metals don’t come from the US. I’m in the tool industry and know all to well.

When I say US made, I mean is it made here in the USA with USA workers.

I’d rather support a company that is making their products here in the USA vs a company making shit in China.

They do have a phone number - 704-459-4850

Considering almost 90% of general steel used in the US to fabricate parts comes from China/Japan/So Korea/Germany/Turkey - nope, it isn't made in the USA. US made steel is generally highly alloyed and ends up on battle fields, hospitals and in space. And some car/truck frames and bodies.

Define "USA made".
Formed here?
Waterjetted here?
Welded here?
Assembled here?
Painted here? (What about where the paint came from?)
Packaged here? (What about the packaging and labels?)

Don't fall for the political BS. The USA will be a globalized consumer for some time. The de-globalization effort is going to take 10-15 years to have a significant impact on general consumer goods. The more immediate benefactors are electronics, sophisticated manufacturing, and defense. Your future lawn chair will come from Vietnam before it comes from Iowa.

Leave the windmill tilting to Don Quixote.

 

[SS Bronco]

The wheels are made in China

 

[Doc TOC]

I’m in the tool industry

Thank you for dedicating your career to the backbone of the manufacturing industry.

I understand your point and perspective.

Supporting 'Made in the USA' is in the best interests of the US, because we are the largest free-market economy on the globe. All boats rise in that tide. I agree with @Doubleajaybrock on that. I don't agree that all things we buy will be made here in the USA.

The US never was, and probably never will be, a self-sustaining or closed economy. Ever. And rarely were we a net exporter; it was a brief period in our 247 year history.

If you want more things made here in the USA, collectively, we have to figure out how to start making them with less costly labor and value add.

Otherwise, countries with low paid labor will be making them. And Americans love consuming low cost things. Causing them to be imported.

Will it be China exporting them? Probably not much longer. They are in an economic decline, and probably will be supplanted by Vietnam and Mexico soon.

To quote the Spice Girls song:
"What do you want? What do you really, really want?"

 

[Copperhorse73]

I attempted to contact through the RTR site but never heard a response back.

Their headquarters is about 20 minutes from my house, been there a couple of times. All I can say for certain is that the metal stuff isn’t made in house. The only Fab shop stuff I saw there was carbon fiber. But, there are a ton of places to get that kind of work done here, so they may sub it out locally, may not.

 

[Figmo]

So your goal is to support companies that hire USA workers. You mean like Tik Tok?

The point being that most things are “made in China” these days. And even things that are ”made in the USA” are made here with components sourced from China.

That doesn’t mean they are not American companies. Employing American workers who support American families.

You really need to more clearly define your goal.

Is it simply to support American workers? If so…then so long as you personally are not transferring money to the Bank Of China and importing - you have achieved your goal. (though I‘ll point out that even then, US Customs employees and American longshoremen have families too and need your support)

Or is it to hurt Chinese workers? As in “Boycott China”. In which case I can only say….”good luck with that”

 

[BroncoBuckaroo]

Shouldn't make that much difference since according to Kogod School of Business 2022 index only 55% of your entire Bronco is American sourced.

https://kogod.american.edu/autoindex/2022

I read their Seven points they use to create the index. For example, even though the hard top for the Bronco is made in the USA, it’s outsourced to a German manufacturer and while it does get points for being assembled in the USA it takes a hit because it’s a non U.S. manufacturer and that component is a larger percentage of the Bronco overall. The softop Bronco is actually much higher total US parts content and score because the entire top is made in the USA by a U.S. manufacturer according to their criteria. Also they hit the standard transmission Bronco hard because it’s made in another country ..even though a portion of its (the transmission )components are made in usa.

The government also changed the way they score parts content. An engine takes hundreds of different parts from different manufacturers to create. In the past, before EV’s they counted all the parts that go into an engine and transmission as part of their equation into total domestic parts content. So for example, the 2.7 V6 is made in Lima, Oh and has a huge amount of domestic parts. But now the whole engine is considered only one component and is much less impactful in the total score. They did this so EV’s wouldn‘t score so bad, because most of the batteries are foreign sourced and are the dominate component in an EV. That’s why EV‘s have shot up to the top in US Parts content because they have very few components. So while EV’s let’s say made by Tesla may have a high domestic parts content ..they put way way way less people to work than a standard ice vehicle does. If you go back to the old standard, the Bronco has a much higher parts content than what’s now reported.

This change in how domestic content is calculated was in 2016.

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-09-01/pdf/2016-21007.pdf

 

[JohnnyBronco]

They do have a phone number - 704-459-4850

Considering almost 90% of general steel used in the US to fabricate parts comes from China/Japan/So Korea/Germany/Turkey - nope, it isn't made in the USA. US made steel is generally highly alloyed and ends up on battle fields, hospitals and in space. And some car/truck frames and bodies.

Define "USA made".
Formed here?
Waterjetted here?
Welded here?
Assembled here?
Painted here? (What about where the paint came from?)
Packaged here? (What about the packaging and labels?)

Don't fall for the political BS. The USA will be a globalized consumer for some time. The de-globalization effort is going to take 10-15 years to have a significant impact on general consumer goods. The more immediate benefactors are electronics, sophisticated manufacturing, and defense. Your future lawn chair will come from Vietnam before it comes from Iowa.

Leave the windmill tilting to Don Quixote.

I have a bathroom vanity and some end tables from Vietnam. It's what you get from Wayfair

 

[BroncoBuckaroo]

So your goal is to support companies that hire USA workers. You mean like Tik Tok?

The point being that most things are “made in China” these days. And even things that are ”made in the USA” are made here with components sourced from China.

That doesn’t mean they are not American companies. Employing American workers who support American families.

You really need to more clearly define your goal.

Is it simply to support American workers? If so…then so long as you personally are not transferring money to the Bank Of China and importing - you have achieved your goal. (though I‘ll point out that even then, US Customs employees and American longshoremen have families too and need your support)

Or is it to hurt Chinese workers? As in “Boycott China”. In which case I can only say….”good luck with that”

actually if you are lazy and shop at big box stores or Amazon you get a lot of made in China stuff. But I can pretty well zap out most foreign made goods. If you want USA made boots and jeans you go to originusa.com, if you want tableware you go to libertytabletop.com, towels and beddings go to American blanket company or redland cotton, 1888mills, etc etc., you can still get most hand tools (although not cheap), water heaters go with Bradford White (I just had one installed), appliances on the less expensive end Whirlpool all the way up to sub zero etc. Car batteries still a lot of companies out there but easy to find are Duracell at batteries plus. My drone is made in USA ..check out skydio.

Car parts for the masses are harder to get but still be done ..nothing like going to O’Reillys 3 times because the made in China part doesn’t fit or work.

Electronics are moving away from China so you can get a lot of India and Indonesia now. Even the USA is back in the game with memory chips and processing components being Re shored back in the USA. Saying that, some things aren’t available. TV’s, digital cameras, cell phones the only one I know of is the librem 5 USA.

The bottom line is a country builds wealth through manufacturing, not service. All one has to do is look at China since 1972 when they changed the law and then moved manufacturing there…they went from a poor 3rd world economic country and boomed to be in some ways the biggest economy in the world.

as far as steel and automotive…huge switch to Aluminum and other components which the vast majority comes from 5 US based smelters. With one in Missouri cutting production this year due to foreign dumping. As far as Tik Tok goes they employee only 1400 or so employees and their profits dont stay in the US. I’m all for competition both foreign and domestic on a even playing field, but in general many many other countries have very strict import laws and the USA has relatively few and the ones we have are not enforced very well. We also have high standards when it comes to the environment and child labor and most other developing counties have none.

 

[ksdon]

I appreciate the OP's question. There are a lot of Bronco add on's that are made in the USA.
Made in USA is still a selling point for many buyers.

 

[Shifts And Grins Fab]

They do have a phone number - 704-459-4850

Considering almost 90% of general steel used in the US to fabricate parts comes from China/Japan/So Korea/Germany/Turkey - nope, it isn't made in the USA. US made steel is generally highly alloyed and ends up on battle fields, hospitals and in space. And some car/truck frames and bodies.

Define "USA made".
Formed here?
Waterjetted here?
Welded here?
Assembled here?
Painted here? (What about where the paint came from?)
Packaged here? (What about the packaging and labels?)

Don't fall for the political BS. The USA will be a globalized consumer for some time. The de-globalization effort is going to take 10-15 years to have a significant impact on general consumer goods. The more immediate benefactors are electronics, sophisticated manufacturing, and defense. Your future lawn chair will come from Vietnam before it comes from Iowa.

Leave the windmill tilting to Don Quixote.

The steel we use is US made steel. I know some other fabrication shops do the same. I can't speak for RTR.

Sponsored