Posted by Paul Cook on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 at 14:01:03:
In Reply to: Re: Braden (probably knockoff) winches from Northern Tool posted by Matt Wilson on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 at 02:15:42:
To aid in the reconstruction of both friendly and vanquished countries after World War II, many US companies licensed foreign governments and private manufacturing companies to build their products. They were built to original specifications and most parts of the licensed items were interchangeable. Often, the production license provided for quality control by the parent US company. The Rhino "replica" was reportedly a legitimate version licensed by Braden. Usually, these licenses expire so it is hard to say if a particuler Rhino is built to the original dimensions and quality control standards. I bought one for a low price from VPW at the Redbud Surplus (Dave Anwell) buyout sale. Mike told me they had used Rhino parts with no problelms in several winch rebuilds.
And, yes, metalurgy is a concern, but the natural metalurgical degradation of my fifty-four year old WDX makes this issue more theoretical than realistic.