Brakes, hubs and coupling used on FW trailers all seem to come from Tie Down Engineering
http://www.tiedown.com/amarinedls.html. My guess is FW then get the spring assemblies from somewhere else, the wheels and tires from Carlisle, winch from somewhere else, and fabricate the trailer frame and axles themselves, then paint and assemble the lot.
So it's a bit unfair to blame FW for
all of the trailer problems. As pointed out, they are built to a price point but the component suppliers have a hell of a lot to answer for as far as quality goes... My guess is that almost all of these components are actually made in China and not the USA... for example we all know the Carlisle tires are Chinese, and I know that the spring rockers on mine are.
Now Chinese made does not always equal poor quality... I used to race engines with Eagle con rods in them (Eagle is a US company, but the rods were forged and machined in China with just the final finish completed in the US). Never had a single rod or bearing failure and used to spin these small block Chevs to as high as 8500 rpm. I commented about this to Eagle once, and they said they have a stringent incoming QA and inspection procedure and all of their agreements allow them to return any substandard parts to the manufacturer at no cost. They paid a slight price premium, but got 100% quality checked components with no duds.
I suspect that back when FW started making trailers, all of these components were made in the US, but doubt if any are these days. FW need to revisit their component suppliers and re-establish quality standards. Make the suppliers pay for any warranty repairs due to their product failure. Once you do this, they will push back on their Chinese manufacturers, the quality will improve, and everyone wins! Believe it or not, I am not pro-Chinese by any stretch of the imagination, but the Chinese
can make good quality products if the price is right, unfortunately most companies seem to buy on price alone and are quite prepared to sacrifice quality for a low price.
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I hope the straps are working well for you! The one on my bow is working flawlessly. Unfortunately business is about profits and the US/Canadian manufactureres just can't compete.
