C1Q S186 KM55R
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bertsmobile1
Lawn Royalty
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I know Stihl own Zama but when the factory moved to China they became a part owner of the factory
No one from the West can set up in China without a local business owning 50 % which of course keeps a good amount of the profits in China & prevents it becoming a slave economy .
CTS is to old Zama factory in Hong Kong , apparently run by a lot of the old management .
Of course I forgot that the Zama brand & there fore web site is 100% Stihl owned so they can do with it as they like.
Good thing I kept all of the old wholesale paper catalogues so at least I can cross for older stuff .
Another job for boring TV nights, download all of the IPL's off the Zamma site
Might check Wayback to see if they purged it from there as well.
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This explains why CTS quality seems as good as Zama carburetor kits and they are adding some of the newer carburetor kits. I just just some RB-186 kits that just became available. Darn local dealer was wanting $25 per kit and CTS was $20 for 10 kits. Their Walbro kits are just as good too. It just the time delay in getting the kits that can be a problem.
The problem I have with Stihl is they changed the Zama RB numbers in their system to Stihl PN numbers. This makes it nearly impossible to even a get kit from the local dealer as they too can't seem to cross or even order the kit when given the Stihl part number. Their solution is to just order a complete carburetor. At least the Stihl 2019 Technical Reference I have helps a lot as the local dealer I purchase from apparently don't have it.
And like you Bert I am an info pack rat on things I work on; although, most mine is in electronic format.
The problem I have with Stihl is they changed the Zama RB numbers in their system to Stihl PN numbers. This makes it nearly impossible to even a get kit from the local dealer as they too can't seem to cross or even order the kit when given the Stihl part number. Their solution is to just order a complete carburetor. At least the Stihl 2019 Technical Reference I have helps a lot as the local dealer I purchase from apparently don't have it.
And like you Bert I am an info pack rat on things I work on; although, most mine is in electronic format.
bertsmobile1
Lawn Royalty
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It never fails to amaze me the greedy mark ups that make people look for alternatives
If the factory sold to the wholesaler for the same price & they put a 100% mark up then they would be $ 4 / kit + tax, $ 5 if you add a freight fee .Then the dealer could do a 100 % mark up which would make them $ 10 tops, a price I would be happy to pay to save the time hassel .
Now of course the factory is probably selling very large volumes to the wholesaler for well under $ 2 a hit so some one is making a killing while simultaneously cutting their own throats. \
RGS is the local Walbro distributor and kits cost about 5 to 10 times the CTS price but I am happy to pay that most times for the convienance of being sent a paper catalogue with equipment to repair kit cross reference, complete with photographs which is a big time saver and I get to tell the customer it was genuine Walbro pars fitted.
However their Zamma kits come from Oregon and are almost the same price as a replacement carb so it is CTS for Zamma & Tillotsen kits + manifold & exhaust gaskets.
And yes the mower folder is getting very large as is the paper library .
Very soon I will need to start cataloguing it .
Even worse for me as model numbers & Names change from the USA to Aust and then we have the local rebranding of imported equipment to deal with.
If the factory sold to the wholesaler for the same price & they put a 100% mark up then they would be $ 4 / kit + tax, $ 5 if you add a freight fee .Then the dealer could do a 100 % mark up which would make them $ 10 tops, a price I would be happy to pay to save the time hassel .
Now of course the factory is probably selling very large volumes to the wholesaler for well under $ 2 a hit so some one is making a killing while simultaneously cutting their own throats. \
RGS is the local Walbro distributor and kits cost about 5 to 10 times the CTS price but I am happy to pay that most times for the convienance of being sent a paper catalogue with equipment to repair kit cross reference, complete with photographs which is a big time saver and I get to tell the customer it was genuine Walbro pars fitted.
However their Zamma kits come from Oregon and are almost the same price as a replacement carb so it is CTS for Zamma & Tillotsen kits + manifold & exhaust gaskets.
And yes the mower folder is getting very large as is the paper library .
Very soon I will need to start cataloguing it .
Even worse for me as model numbers & Names change from the USA to Aust and then we have the local rebranding of imported equipment to deal with.
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Always fun isn't it? At least with good computer programs we can work around some of the problems by inputting the crosses and let it keep track of them for us. I only got 326 different directories just for the lawn care stuff which help file surfing. Just make sure you check your paper files every so often as silverfish can destroy a lot info before you know it.
Here most distributors have gone paperless so snagging a PDF here and there is important to me especially anything electrical schematics.
As for Walbro most of cube kits are fairly reasonable when need on an one time deal. I even was getting the kits for the Stihl carburetors through my Zama distributor until this year when Stihl barred Zama from selling through the distributors. CTS and DC Spares have been life saver as many of the trimmer simply would not be repaired here without getting kits from them.
And one of the local Stihl dealer has no feelings for the customer with a $150 Stihl chainsaw when they want $100 just to look at it.
Here most distributors have gone paperless so snagging a PDF here and there is important to me especially anything electrical schematics.
As for Walbro most of cube kits are fairly reasonable when need on an one time deal. I even was getting the kits for the Stihl carburetors through my Zama distributor until this year when Stihl barred Zama from selling through the distributors. CTS and DC Spares have been life saver as many of the trimmer simply would not be repaired here without getting kits from them.
And one of the local Stihl dealer has no feelings for the customer with a $150 Stihl chainsaw when they want $100 just to look at it.