HF Predator Engine

[bertsmobile1]

I expect that the patents for these Honda engines have expired and they are free to use by other companies. Honda, along with all other companies, use designs covered by expired patents all of the time. Patents only last about 20 years and it used to be less. All complex products (engines, cars, electronics, etc) are built using designs that was once covered by many expired patents. If patents never expired, we would not be able to afford anything since the licensing fees would be too expensive. We may not like that another company copied an entire engine design, but if the patents are expired, it is legal.

Not on your sweet bibby.
You are describing what an honourable country like Post WWII Japan did .
They copied patient expired items, they then developed them firstly to make them more economic to produce thus knocking out all of the British manufacturing industry followed by upgrading the designs to sell superiour products to markets such as the USA & Australia devistating the industries in our countries and forcing both countries to whack massive import duties on them to give the local factories time to catch up.

Secondly , have a really close look at what is being sold.
They are not copies of 40 year old designs that have by virtue of age gone into public domain, they are copies of the current design with currently valid patients
They have to be because a design that is 20 years old WOULD NOT PASS CURRENT EPA REGULATIONS so could not be sold in most places.
What is happening in China is flag waving hand on the heart patriots fly over to China and order a load of exact copies of current items totally ignoring patients and then under cut the ligitimate owner of that technology.
It is in reality not the fault of the Chinese but the fault of the morally deficient greedy selfish local retailers / wholesalers like HF & Wallys over there, Wollies, Coles & Bunnings over here.
No Chinese factory sends a spy to the USA to buy products to take back to China, manufacture in mass, ship to the US and then try to find some one to sell them.
Everything that comes in from China was ORDERED BY A LOCAL COMPANY and generally made to order.

Australian manufacturing is a basket case but we will limp by because we have a small population and a lot of resources for the rest of the world to pillage.
The US is different, you have a massive population & very limited natural resources so have a good look at the UK of the 80's & 90's because that is exactly where HF is going to send the country.
A quarter of the country under employed or unemployed and half the workers living at or below the poverty line. They have social housing & national health, you don't.
America already has the highest infant mortality and lowest life expectency of any Western country. Want to live 5 years longer, move to Australia, not good enough then try France for 6 years longer life ?
What happens when Briggs & Kohler shift all their manufacturing to China and all their workers are sacked and more important , loose their health benefits ?

 

[RDA.Lawns]

They may not pass epa guidelines. I'm sure they won't pass California bs emissions standard. I don't know the laws on pattens on stuff like this but. A chemical patten is only good for 7 years. That's why we can get generic meds and chemicals. I use a generic round up for my grass control on some commercial accounts I have. Cost me 46$ for 2.5 gallons compared to Monsantos 100$ .

 

[Jack17]

I've bought 12" *Chicago Electric* brand miter saw at HF some ten months ago. I didn't need anything fancy just good enough a tool so I can finish up my house project...$160 out the door. I said to myself "not bad." Boy! Was I wrong. It works and cuts but constantly gets out of adjustment. Just won't keep the steady angle. Hours I've wasted adjusting it and all the crown molding and base wasted cutting and re-cutting...never again!!! I tend to believe that it'll be no different with Predator engines.

 

[NorthBama]

Very true! But it's sad we got here and see NO end in sight...

I agree I think as a country we have gone to for to turn around the jobs that have gone.

 

[sidemouse]

I've bought 12" *Chicago Electric* brand miter saw at HF some ten months ago. I didn't need anything fancy just good enough a tool so I can finish up my house project...$160 out the door. I said to myself "not bad." Boy! Was I wrong. It works and cuts but constantly gets out of adjustment. Just won't keep the steady angle. Hours I've wasted adjusting it and all the crown molding and base wasted cutting and re-cutting...never again!!! I tend to believe that it'll be no different with Predator engines.

You do have to be careful, not all HF products are made by the same standards and overall I've had good luck with the products I've bought however there are other problems, notably:
1. A lot of times when I go to the store to buy something that's on "special / sale," they're out!
- And not just one thing, but if I have a good long list they are always out of everything and I mean everything...
- It doesn't help that they offer a weak "if you let us know which item we will inform you when it's back in stock" (but at whatever price, too).
2. Most of the time there aren't enough registers open or what the problem is but I run into frequent slow moving register lines, costing me a good 20 minutes of waiting to pay. I just would like to get out of the store in some kind of reasonable order some of the time...
3. Mail order for a flat rate $7.99 shipping sounds good in theory, until I order up a good lot and they only ship me a partial and cancel all the items they're out of... Heck what about my shipping, I paid for all of it now I have to pay it again and how do I know they won't be out of those things next time, too?

It is unfortunate, they seemed like a good place to shop when they first came to my town...
On the other hand I pretty much have ordered everything I would ever need over that time frame.

I don't go back there much anymore.
Kinda sad in a way.

 

[cashman]

I installed a HF 212cc on my 24" Yazoo big wheel mower this past spring. I replaced a 15 year old Kohler CS-6 engine that the carburetor was corroded badly inside. Kohler had discontinued supplying the replacement carb for the CS-6 like mine. So far, I've put about 30 hrs. on the HF engine and it works pretty well. It has a little more vibration than the Kohler but not near as much vibration as the 5hp Briggs I/C that was on the mower before the I put the Kohler on it. This is the sixth engine I've had on this frame. It was new in 1968 and came a Iowa built 498 Clinton cast iron engine. Then I put a Wisconsin Robin EY-18 engine on it after the Clinton. Then I went through two Briggs 5hp I/C engines. And then the Kohler and now the HF.. The Clinton and the Kohler were probably the two best engines that's been on it Time will tell about the HF engine, but the one I have has worked well so far. I've posted pics of this mower in a previous thread.