Is there a Kawasaki Engine Shortage in the states ?

[7394]

Seems a friend in GA was trying to get a Scag with Kawasaki power, he waited a month & the dealer finally told ,they are having trouble getting Kawi engines at this time.
Anyhow, wondering if anyone else has heard of this ?

TIA..

 

[bertsmobile1]

World wide shortage of Kawakasi parts and engines

 

[cpurvis]

It doesn't seem to matter what you want, it isn't in stock and no idea when they'll get more.

I needed a cord for a Milwaukee drill, probably one of the most common they make. Out of stock everywhere on the internet with no idea of when they might be in stock again. Finally found one in a shop about 40 miles from home.

 

[Scrubcadet10]

from what is supplied in the USA....
workers are sitting at home drawing guvment checks

 

[bertsmobile1]

Started with the previous administration having a trade war with China so China stopped supplying assemblies to USA factories.
So lots of stuff that is made locally could not be made because the company that used to make the cords for Milwaukee for instance closed down
Now Milwaukee can not make products but Harbour Freight can get complete Chinese copies of these tools for next to nothing.
Chinese companies play the long game.
Add to that a lot of warehouses , distributors & retailers who have taken a battering from the on line "retailers" who drop ship after you have paid for the goods that they don't have are taking the oppertunity to do the same so don't place orders on the factories till they have substantial numbers of prepaid back orders .
And then along came covid 19 .
Unlike the rest of the world Oz had not done any nationwide lockdowns, just individual regions ( I am currently locked down for 2 weeks ) yet there is nothing available from here either .

 

[StarTech]

Plus when you take out as many workers as Covid has it don't help. What worst was employees that came down with the Covid would just go to work to spread it through the company. I got friend across the street that this happen to. They had to shut down operations because of it until everyone recovered. Of course the jerk was fired when they found out he knew he had it before he came to work that week.

So far I have been lucky enough to work around supply problems. Part of it was having a good amount stock on hand.

But yes China and the other Far East countries got us by the balls per say. A lot corporations went to China or other countries with cheap labor, this includes Mexico. Current reports I received is that South China is in a shut down so container ships are stalled yet again. But of that big container ship in the Middle East has been just sitting there for long time too. No telling how many of our parts on it.

Of course the last administration had to piss them all off. You can't just stop things unless you already have things in place. It takes time to build factories, tool them, then hire and train workers. Personally I blamed to whole bunch in Washington for the problems they created and are refusing to even try to fix. They all are at fault.

As for the worker just sitting home, they are in the drivers seat now. They pick and chose which employer they will work for and if the employer wants to pull things they just walk out. No more of this two weeks notice. Besides employers would never give us a two week notice of our termination but demanded it when we quit.

And for those who thinks everybody got the stimulus checks, I for one haven't seen even the first darn check. I even purchase additional parts for the business depending the very first check arriving so now I digging out the hole it put me in. Bank just loves it as I was making interest payments on the loan that I just paid off. Now do I trust the government to do what they say they will do? He** no. Only one person I can depend on and that is myself.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Yes but it sounded so good on the podium "I will bring American jobs back to America "
And President Trump was not alone his predecessor did the same thing with the "Working America" scheme.
Really got under the skin of countries down this way who had put in infractructure to support manufactured goods going to the USA.
They still have not done anything with the specialized motorcycle wheel factory that closed down here then HD got a big cheque to move production to the US although I think the foundry is actually in Canada

 

[Hammermechanicman]

I just waited over a month for a part for a 20+ year old snapper RER. Had a snapper label on the part inside a B&S box.

 

[StarTech]

As I said I blame the government bureaucrats for most what going on. To mess things really good takes politicians. Oh well sooner or later things might work out. Three years and counting down until that rocking chair money then I go from completely broke to flat broke.

I just waited over a month for a part for a 20+ year old snapper RER. Had a snapper label on the part inside a B&S box.

And yes Briggs gobbled up Snapper. I still waiting governor slingers that I order the first June and they are used on the 31 and 33 series engines. Tearing down one probably first part of next week for a camshaft failure but I got to get the Honda GXV620 off the bench. Missed ordering an oring so it is coming in later today.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Don't feel bad about OPE parts. I also do consulting and installs for audio/video and networking systems and equipment has been nonexistent. I have had jobs waitng months for equipment. Stuff is just now becoming available. It was hurry up and wait now it is just hurry up. Nothing like spending 5 hours in a new building with no HVAC yet in the network closet punching down the patch panels and it is over 90*. That was yesterday. Today i get to put a Predator engine on an old troy bilt pony and look at a generator. In my non airconditioned shop.