I noticed something interesting this week. I had a mixed bag of freshwater reels to service. Several Quantums, Shimanos and okumas. I had just finished up 2 Quantum tour reels when I started on an Okuma Helios. I noticed right off that the design was nearly identical. There was some small differences in the frame and internals but not much. Many of the parts looked to be identical and swappable. Okuma is a manufacturer that's based in Taiwan. These quantum reels have Korea stamped on the bottom. I wonder if Okuma set up a plant in Korea and is subcontracted to build quantum reels now? I already new that there is a plant in Korea called doyo that builds many US brands of reels including all pure fishing brands, lews and most BPS reels. I didn't think they built quantums there though because they are very different inside from those others that doyo builds. Not that it matters who builds what, it's just interesting.
I think Quantums and Fin Nors are made by Zebco. Most of the reel companies copy each other with very minor design changes to avoid patent issues.
Quantum and fin nors and van stall are all listed on zebcos website. That doesn't mean for sure that they still manufacture them. Zebco, which is owned by Brunswick, shut down their Tulsa OK. plant in 01. They said they were moving production to China. What they never said for sure was if they built or bought a plant in China that they run, or if they just subcontracted all manufacture to an existing company in China. I have now noticed that some Quantum reels say China and some say Korea. I just wonder if a bigger well known tackle manufacturing company, that was already based overseas, is running those plants.
I just checked the reels I mentioned. The okuma worm gear with it's nylon drive gear and end parts did fit in the Quantum and works perfectly. The drive gear and pinion gear also swapped and works smooth.
Several of the low end Okuma reels are made by Banax in Korea, IIRC.
Nothing to be concerned about, they are as well made as any for the price and Banax is top notch quality when the reel demands it.
That may be the answer to what I saw. I always thought that Banax was building Quantums reels. If they are also building some reels for Okuma than they designed both reels to use lots of the same parts.
Shoot Alan Hawk an Email Pro Reel with your findings. He could probably fill you in, or be very interested in the part swapping you have discovered. As I have discovered, knowing which reels share OEM plants can be the difference between keeping a reel going, and binning it. Alan H has been on the trail of OEM's and marketing bollocks for many years, and I thank and respect his efforts in doing so.
They are all made right here in the same plant. Penn, Quantum, Fin Nor, Abu...
I have rebuilt Pflueger President reels with Penn Fierce parts. The gear trains are the same.
http://www.haibofishingreel.com/?lan=en
Wow,
Gone are the days of these reel companies making their own products.
All outsourced by haibo.
I do have two Fin Nor Lt-100's, but I stay away from the rest.
I know my old Penn Senators were made in Philly and I fish them every time I hit the beach.
They may seem old and outdated, but they have the guts to get done what I am trying to accomplish.
With all the upgrades our members have made and more to come, I can't see me fishing anything else besides an Everol. ;)
Hello,
If Penn, Quantum, Fin Nor, Abu are built of identical parts how is it with reels like Avet, Accurate, Shimano, Daiwa and Seigler?
I myself use Avet, Accurate, Penn, Shimano, FinNor, Okuma and Abu. Perhaps its time to start supporting the brands that are doing it "right"
I know that the small Abu baitcasters are made in Sweden.
When you look at their website, you can see Haibo has their fingers in many pies, more than just fishing reels.
The "Chinglish" is hilarious too!
Quote from: Mumin on January 20, 2018, 10:01:36 AM
Hello,
If Penn, Quantum, Fin Nor, Abu are built of identical parts how is it with reels like Avet, Accurate, Shimano, Daiwa and Seigler?
I myself use Avet, Accurate, Penn, Shimano, FinNor, Okuma and Abu. Perhaps its time to start supporting the brands that are doing it "right"
I know that the small Abu baitcasters are made in Sweden.
Abu has been owned by pure fishing since 02 or 03. Can't remember for sure. At that time they shut down most Swedish production. All revos and max series casting reels are made in Korea. Many round abu ambassaduer reels are also made in Korea. I have heard that they kept a small plant open in Sweden to produce special edition ambassaduer reels only.
Quote from: Mumin on January 20, 2018, 10:01:36 AM
Hello,
If Penn, Quantum, Fin Nor, Abu are built of identical parts how is it with reels like Avet, Accurate, Shimano, Daiwa and Seigler?
I myself use Avet, Accurate, Penn, Shimano, FinNor, Okuma and Abu. Perhaps its time to start supporting the brands that are doing it "right"
I know that the small Abu baitcasters are made in Sweden.
This post is filled with inaccuracies. I honestly don't know where to begin it is so off. But respectfully, do your research and get it straight. I simply don't have the time or inclination to correct all the errors.
I want to reiterate, I am not saying nor do I believe any of these companies are doing anything wrong. They have every right to conduct business how they see fit. As long as the reels are quality, and the brand you get them from has good customer service, that's all that matters. My interest in this is purely educational. Knowing that some brands are built by the same company has often allowed to me to get parts I couldn't get or get a better deal on parts. The drive gears from several similar reels actually swap with perfect fit. Knowing which ones has allowed me to buy them from the brand that sells parts cheaper than another brand and also to get a gear ratio that wasn't available for a certain model but the one from another fits it. I can buy drive gears from Lews for about half the cost as Abu charges. I have fixed many revo reels with lews gears.
yeah the round Abu baitcasters up to 5600 are made in Sweden the rest are made somwhere else.
Quote from: Pro Reel on January 20, 2018, 03:12:21 PM
Abu has been owned by pure fishing since 02 or 03...... All revos and max series casting reels are made in Korea. Many round abu ambassaduer reels are also made in Korea... small plant open in Sweden to produce special edition ambassaduer reels...
.
Quote from: Mumin on January 20, 2018, 04:44:49 PM
yeah the round Abu baitcasters up to 5600 are made in Sweden the rest are made somwhere else.
Actually, Abu became part of Pure Fishing in 1996. Ambassadeurs up to and including 6xxx are made in Sweden, at the factory in Svängsta. Ambassadeur 7xxx and up are made in the far east. A few low-budget versions of smaller Ambassadeurs are also made in the far east, as are Revo, Max and spinning reels.
.
I mentioned Alan Hawk earlier in this thread. I went to his blog to see what he has been working on, and immediately read this post....
http://www.alanhawk.com/blog/rotr.html
Quite depressing really. Towards the end of the article when the numbers come in, you realise the cess-pit the online retail word really is. Can't help but wonder how many of Haibo's associated brands invest in practices described in the above article.
So when I see Fred and others giving glowing reviews on items (tools etc.) on this forum, I will always check these items out. Probably the most trustworthy reviews on the internet can be found here on this forum.
Quote from: Rothmar2 on January 20, 2018, 10:09:30 PM
I mentioned Alan Hawk earlier in this thread. I went to his blog to see what he has been working on, and immediately read this post....
http://www.alanhawk.com/blog/rotr.html
Quite depressing really. Towards the end of the article when the numbers come in, you realise the cess-pit the online retail word really is. Can't help but wonder how many of Haibo's associated brands invest in practices described in the above article.
So when I see Fred and others giving glowing reviews on items (tools etc.) on this forum, I will always check these items out. Probably the most trustworthy reviews on the internet can be found here on this forum.
I am very sceptical of anything I read, particularly on the internet and because of that probably also add a little sugar to the above blog, but bye and large, I would believe what is written there.
An example; We sometimes use Airbnb for holiday accommodation and found them pretty reasonable, until we arrived at our (expensive) overnight accomodation at a spot in Ireland. I immediately saw something was wrong when we stopped our car, the place looked from the outside like it needed serious maintenance. Inside it was filthy, the microwave covered with sticky gunge like a reel that has not been opened for 10 years, everything was tacky and dirty. One toilet stank.
We set very high standards of hygiene, therefore I sometimes have to say to the wife that we need to accept that people have different standard, regardless of how we see it!
To cut a long story short, the place had very good ratings, not one was negative or had a negative word in it until we got there! All photos were taken in such a way that they only showed the good aspects. It was in no way possible that the place had become like that in a month and I kept on asking myself how this was possible?
I complained to the owner and to Airbnb. The latter was not easy to start a dispute with, but once I had the right contact it worked fairly smoothly and Airbnb refunded half of what I paid. OK, my faith was a little restored, but in reality they should have refunded everything, that is what I would have done if it was my business.
PS I am only mentioning Airbnb, as an example of how this can go wrong. It was not my intention to run them down or give them bad publicity. We have used them a number of times for holiday accomodation and have mostly been very satisfied and usually found them good value for money with hosts that go out of their way to please.
this is what their homepaige says ->
- ALL SEIGLER REELS ARE 100% MADE IN THE USA
- Avet Reels are all designed, machined and assembled in our factory in Chatsworth California. Every part including all internals are made in house with the exception of the bearings which are sourced from several suppliers around the Los Angeles area.
- Accurate, Handcrafted in the USA
- Shimano, didn`t find direct comments about manufacturing.
- Daiwa, didn`t find direct comments about manufacturing.
What do you think about these coments?
Read the same thing about Avet reels. The term "Handcrafted" for Accurate...??? Could mean whatever they want it to. Raw materials are one thing, but in house fabricating/manufacturing is another... They fab.& man. their own ARB's? Seigler: again, godda define the term "made".
Gfish
Quote from: Mumin on January 21, 2018, 11:25:32 AM
this is what their homepaige says ->
- Shimano, didn`t find direct comments about manufacturing.
- Daiwa, didn`t find direct comments about manufacturing.
What do you think about these coments?
Shimano and Daiwa manufacture such a range of reels that it's unsurprising that they are made in different places. Their flagship reels (Stella and Saltiga respectively) are made in Japan, as are the next couple down the food chain, but in Shimano's case many of the lower end reels are made in Malaysia; with Daiwa some of the midrange (like the Lexa I just bought) are made in Korea. In both cases I don't know where their very cheap reels are made as I don't own many, just an older lower-end Daiwa that was made in Vietnam.