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Kohler engines is no more.

#1

I

ILENGINE

Kohler engines and Kohler Power Systems has been rebranded with the name Rehlko pronounced REL-co.


#2

Craftsman Garage

Craftsman Garage

ILENGINE said:
What?
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#3

I

ILENGINE

powersystems.kohlerenergy.com

Kohler Energy Rebrands as Rehlko

Kohler Energy Rebrands as Rehlko | Kohler Energy is now Rehlko
powersystems.kohlerenergy.com powersystems.kohlerenergy.com


#4

Craftsman Garage

Craftsman Garage

ILENGINE said:
So with the Kohler engines on the riding mower's at Lowe's etc. Will be called a "Rehlco engine"?
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#5

I

ILENGINE

@Craftsman Garage I would be thinking that also unless they keep the Kohler name under the Rehlco corporation, similar how Husqvarna did with Poulan. But they could also trying to distance themselves from Kohler plumbing division.

But if they start using Rehlco instead of Kohler it will leave people very confused and make people shy away.


#6

Craftsman Garage

Craftsman Garage

ILENGINE said:
Exactly. What a dumb name too. Briggs and Stratton has had the same name for 96 years ever since they were founded.
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#7

Craftsman Garage

Craftsman Garage

ILENGINE said:
Also, I have no idea why my text is appearing in other quote boxes. Until I figure it out, this is how it will be with my new computer I guess.
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#8

I

ILENGINE

@Craftsman Garage Make sure your cursor is not in the quote box when typing. May have to hit the return key before typing your message.


#9

Craftsman Garage

Craftsman Garage

ILENGINE said:
Yeah, I'm trying to figure it out
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#10

M

MParr

www.kohlerenergy.com

Kohler Energy Rebrands as Rehlko | Newsroom | Rehlko

Kohler Energy Rebrands as Rehlko | Kohler Energy is now Rehlko
www.kohlerenergy.com

It reads like this will be the power generation division.


#11

I

ILENGINE

MParr said:
www.kohlerenergy.com

Kohler Energy Rebrands as Rehlko | Newsroom | Rehlko

Kohler Energy Rebrands as Rehlko | Kohler Energy is now Rehlko
www.kohlerenergy.com

It reads like this will be the power generation division.
Click to expand...
When Platinum Equity purchased Kohler engines and Kohler power it became Kohler energy. So now Kohler energy is Rehlko.


#12

Hammermechanicman

Hammermechanicman

I am sure the quality will double as well as the price for parts <sarcasm alert>


#13

Craftsman Garage

Craftsman Garage

Hammermechanicman said:
It's Bidenflation 🙄
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#14

I

ILENGINE

Hammermechanicman said:
I am sure the quality will double as well as the price for parts <sarcasm alert>
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No, they will obsolete all the parts for the engines not built this year and after


#15

Craftsman Garage

Craftsman Garage

ILENGINE said:
Aw crap I would hate that
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#16

M

MParr

I guess we will see a similar result as Briggs and Scrapum. I hope not.


#17

Craftsman Garage

Craftsman Garage

I wish they didn't make it all these parts in China and with weak materials. I wish they still made engines that are designed to last more than 10 years, like the old Briggs opposed/boxer twin engines. Those were solid engines.👌🏼


#18

Hammermechanicman

Hammermechanicman

As much as i hate to admit it i have had good results with china parts on honda GX engines. Got a complete cylinder head off ebay for $44. Looks identical to the OEM. Bolted on and works perfect. I have installed like 20 honda style china carbs with no issues. Same for recoils. I have put a few predator engines on as repowers and no issues. OEM honda parts are expensive so i use china parts. I have put dozens of china carbs on handhelds. Most with no issues. Just put an aftermarket piston and rod in a briggs 17.5hp. Rings, piston and rod looked as good as OEM. Is china getting better or is the brand names getting worse?


#19

Craftsman Garage

Craftsman Garage

Craftsman Garage said:
Haha, I have been noticing that too. Aftermarket parts from Amazon or equivalent are starting to get better than some OEM parts. I still use OEM carburetor rebuild kit from Briggs or Kohler because I don't fully trust complete Amazon carbs. Are usually just use the new parts from the aftermarket one on the OEM carburetor shell. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a engine rebuild kit from Amazon. In fact, I've been thinking about doing a engine rebuild on a old 70s Honda horizontal shaft engine. I would use a Amazon rebuild kit.
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#20

Tiger Small Engine

Tiger Small Engine

MParr said:
I guess we will see a similar result as Briggs and Scrapum. I hope not.
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Briggs and Stratton declared bankruptcy about three years ago and another company bought them, read about it.

Kohler engines rebranded to Rehlko will hopefully be a smooth transition. When the big companies that have been in business for decades are making major changes, you know things are definitely different and a bit scary.


#21

M

MParr

Tiger Small Engine said:
Briggs and Stratton declared bankruptcy about three years ago and another company bought them, read about it.

Kohler engines rebranded to Rehlko will hopefully be a smooth transition. When the big companies that have been in business for decades are making major changes, you know things are definitely different and a bit scary.
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I know about what happened with Briggs and Stratton. I hope similar things don’t happen with Kohler.


#22

TonyPrin

TonyPrin

Incredibly the name Rehlko comes from the scramble of Kohler. Talk about dumb; successful companies choose a name for marketing and sales advantages, not by pulling letters from a bag. Maybe GE will get inspired by them but what would the new name be?


#23

Craftsman Garage

Craftsman Garage

Craftsman Garage said:
I noticed that too. If you are going to rename a business, at least pick a good name.🙄
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#24

R

RayMcD

Wonder how many on here will vote to keep the same problem?


#25

I

ILENGINE

MParr said:
I know about what happened with Briggs and Stratton. I hope similar things don’t happen with Kohler.
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From what a I have seen from Oregon products the last 2 years I am not hopeful since Platinum Equity owns Oregon and Rehlko formerly Kohler Energy formally Kohler Engines.


#26

StarTech

StarTech

Oh nuts. That explains a lot. I started having problem getting Oregon parts this year. Especially as I run out of stock and start re-ordering items.

These darn investment companies are screwing everything just to make a quick buck. Briggs is on its way out and now Kohler will probably be on the same path.

This instant reward generation is going mess everything up that took decades to build up.


#27

E

efred

What is it with corporations, that scrap a long-standing, respected name, and change their brand to some Kamala word-salad: Spectrum Health is now Corewell Health; DuPont de Nemure Paints is now Axalta, which sounds like a skin medication; now THIS?

What marketing imbeciles come up with this stupidity?


#28

Craftsman Garage

Craftsman Garage

OP should make a poll, Kohler, or Rehlko, which one would you buy?


#29

Hammermechanicman

Hammermechanicman

Craftsman Garage said:
OP should make a poll, Kohler, or Rehlko, which one would you buy?
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Clinton


#30

TonyPrin

TonyPrin

efred said:
What is it with corporations, that scrap a long-standing, respected name, and change their brand to some Kamala word-salad: Spectrum Health is now Corewell Health; DuPont de Nemure Paints is now Axalta, which sounds like a skin medication; now THIS?

What marketing imbeciles come up with this stupidity?
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You may not like the name or call it a word salad but get used to it; you'll be seeing it a lot for the next 8 years.


#31

G

GearHead36

Hammermechanicman said:
Clinton
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I wouldn't pick Clinton over ANY other choice.


#32

packy51

packy51

That's the way I'm reading it. It's their power division and not their engine division. There must have been an internal organization reason for separating this division of Kohler. Hopefully, that doesn't mean any future changes to their engine division.


#33

tgzzzz

tgzzzz

I sure wouldn't drop the brand name.


#34

I

ILENGINE

packy51 said:
That's the way I'm reading it. It's their power division and not their engine division. There must have been an internal organization reason for separating this division of Kohler. Hopefully, that doesn't mean any future changes to their engine division.
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From the article I posted

Rehlko operates a broad portfolio of leading businesses including Power Systems, Engines, Uninterruptible Power, Home Energy, Clarke Energy, Curtis Instruments, and Heila Technologies. Kohler Power Systems and Kohler Engines will lead the enterprise portfolio brand transition by officially becoming Rehlko branded by the end of 2024.

Kohler engines and Kohler power was renamed Kohler energy in May of this year when Platinum Equity become majority shareholder. As of the end of this year Kohler Energy( Kohler power and Kohler Engines) will become Rehlko, I originally was keyed into the name change transition by an official statement from Kohler by email since I am a Kohler engine/Rehlko dealer.


#35

G

Gord Baker

Engines now made in China. The Name is the same but not the quality.


#36

StarTech

StarTech

Either way it is a stupid sounding name and will probably cause us a lot of problems. Hopefully this don''t mean more problems obtaining service info and parts.

This year has been a nightmare with Gardner changing systems which I still can't order parts online; having to call the sales rep on every order. RBI changed systems too but that one had fairly smooth change over. For Gardner they have lost a lot of my purchases because of the software problems.

Parts being on long term back order is not helpful either. And this seems to getting worst. And now we having a pending dock workers union strike on Gulf and East coast. We just started getting over the Covid19 induced problems.


#37

Hammermechanicman

Hammermechanicman

A big issue i have is literally over half the stuff i need from stens is out of stock but if you go to ebay and put in stens and part number and numerous sellers have it for a hefty markup. I have been buying tires off amazon and belts off ebay. Getting to the point i may close just because of the parts hassle. Needed a switch for a shindaiwa chainsaw. Got 2 orders canceled from parts houses and finally got one off ebay. I am tired of parts houses taking your order then 2 weeks later canceling the order because they never had it in stock and couldn't get it but some random guy on ebay can.


#38

StarTech

StarTech

You're not alone about the part hassles causing you think of closing.


#39

Hammermechanicman

Hammermechanicman

The one brand i can still get parts for is JD. Pricey for the cust but at least i don't spend hours chasing parts for them. The other mowers i can easily get parts for is the old AYP craftsman riders. Any part you need is on ebay. Husqvarna is the biggest PITA to get parts for. They might as well just say all parts are NLA.


#40

StarTech

StarTech

Agree Husqvarna has become a royal pain but with two distributors I can usually get the parts; although, one vendors is higher so I try the lowest one first. I gave up on the NZTR Pivots once I found replacement bushings and now just refurbishing the pivots.

But it does seems every OEM is putting things on back order and then complaining about lack of orders. A Poulan saw here took over three months just to get a carb for it. A 2008 Kawasaki ATV took over three months to get the parts. And once I got the parts and the things reassembled the darn ignition was out. Owner sued me for taking so long. I gave up the labor and the judge let me collect the parts payment. But of course the customer now has his ATV with a closed account. He didn't even bother try to work things out with before suing.


#41

Hammermechanicman

Hammermechanicman

Had a 10 year old china ATV in for no spark. Every engine part available for it cheap. CDI module was $10. Needed a set of rear plastic wheels for a husqvarna push mower. $40 each and took a month to get them. Got 2 customers who need cams in B&S engines and cams overpriced and backordered. Got 2 customers that need height adjusters on husqvarna push mowers. NLA.


#42

StarTech

StarTech

Yes cams are getting ridiculous. Two years ago they were $56, back in May they $77, and they are now $99 from RBI. But forget the Chinese knock offs as the ones I tried had multiple problem along failing within a month.


#43

Scrubcadet10

Scrubcadet10

RelKoh...its like Kohler but backwards..... and dumb.
I hope Kawasaki can stick it out with any major dumb changes like this.


#44

I

ILENGINE

Scrubcadet10 said:
RelKoh...its like Kohler but backwards..... and dumb.
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Not quite backwards. but backwards would be close to relic. So Rehlko not too far off.


#45

Scrubcadet10

Scrubcadet10

ILENGINE said:
Not quite backwards. but backwards would be close to relic. So Rehlko not too far off.
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Yep..
When i think Relkoh...i think of a No name chinese engine you buy off Amazon for $99.... Not the Kohler that made the Command.


#46

D

DinosaurMike

Name recognition is a very important marketing tool.


#47

J

Joed756

Did you mean Welo's?


#48

H

hlw49

Kohler Relkoh has a engine plant in China and have had for years. Looks like mostly the horizontal engines.


#49

I

ILENGINE

hlw49 said:
Kohler Relkoh has a engine plant in China and have had for years. Looks like mostly the horizontal engines.
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The SH series engines have been made in China from the inception. Supposedly in collaboration with Subaru.


#50

Tiger Small Engine

Tiger Small Engine

ILENGINE said:
The SH series engines have been made in China from the inception. Supposedly in collaboration with Subaru.
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It must have been the board of directors for Kohler that wanted to rebrand and change the long standing name. Keep an eye on the quality and parts availability and how warranty is handled on the new Rehlko name. Hopefully no major problems occur.


#51

I

ILENGINE

Tiger Small Engine said:
It must have been the board of directors for Kohler that wanted to rebrand and change the long standing name. Keep an eye on the quality and parts availability and how warranty is handled on the new Rehlko name. Hopefully no major problems occur.
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I will be honest. I have my reservations about this whole thing, since this is starting to line up with trying to distance themselves from prior commitments. So I wouldn't be surprised if they change the name and basically quietly stop support of products built prior to say 2020. I and @starlink can both speak to the fact that when Kohler moved their parts and support website from Kohler plus to Kohler partners there are a ton of engine models and spec numbers that were not included on purpose.


#52

StarTech

StarTech

I know there is a lot of the specs not on Partners and have had to ask for IPLs to sent to me that I can't find anywhere. Very frustrating to say the least when working on engines.

I am kind of glad that I will be ending my support for customer equipment repairs in the near future as it is just getting to be too much of a hassle getting parts and info. These dang financial investment companies are screwing everything up. All they are looking for is the fast buck and when something is slow moving they just dump it.

We just lost the Snapper and Simplicity lines this year because these financial investment companies.

And doesn't help when distributors like Gardner changes the user's interface and refuses to fix the problems it creating. Instead they want to run two different systems at the same time. If wasn't for them being the sole Tuff Torq distributor I probably would already dumped them.


#53

R

rutbuster1

Hammermechanicman said:
As much as i hate to admit it i have had good results with china parts on honda GX engines. Got a complete cylinder head off ebay for $44. Looks identical to the OEM. Bolted on and works perfect. I have installed like 20 honda style china carbs with no issues. Same for recoils. I have put a few predator engines on as repowers and no issues. OEM honda parts are expensive so i use china parts. I have put dozens of china carbs on handhelds. Most with no issues. Just put an aftermarket piston and rod in a briggs 17.5hp. Rings, piston and rod looked as good as OEM. Is china getting better or is the brand names getting worse?
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A lot of the treasured OEM parts are made in China and/or assembled in Mexico. And that's for about anything for any piece of equipment.


#54

H

hlw49

Don't do much work on Honda engines. Distributor s##ks. Can get parts through other sources at times. Honda carbs are so cheap it doesn't pay to work on them just replace. Any way their parts look up s##ks as well.


#55

StarTech

StarTech

And just think depending on who gets in the White House next year these Chinese parts are going to cost a lot more next year due to increased tariffs. And the long shore worker strike that is depending is not going to help a bit either. It will be a triple whammy on us all.

It like everytime the minimum wage is increased to help the workers everything goes up and eat it all up and then some. What the point raising the minimum wage if it doesn't actually help.


#56

Craftsman Garage

Craftsman Garage

I don't want to start a fight or anything but here's the logic of increasing tariffs. The logic is if we increase tariffs, it costs foreign countries more to sell their crap to us, but also means that manufacturing stuff in China is More expensive, Discouraging big companies from having their items made low quality in China, and instead, to make their products in the us in better quality.


#57

StarTech

StarTech

Craftsman Garage said:
I don't want to start a fight or anything but here's the logic of increasing tariffs. The logic is if we increase tariffs, it costs foreign countries more to sell their crap to us, but also means that manufacturing stuff in China is More expensive, Discouraging big companies from having their items made low quality in China, and instead, to make their products in the us in better quality.
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This where the confusion starts. Tariffs sound great until you look into who actually ends up paying them.

Yes initially they pay but the fees just get tack on the price the next one in line that buys the items pays. From there every middle man tacks on even more as it travels thru the supply chain. Here I take my cost including shipping and other fees and mark up 35 percent using gross profit markup formula.

Example. If an item was $100 and the 10% tariff is added it them costs me $110. Well using my markup formula $100 item that was retailed for $153.85 now becomes $169.23 for the my customer. So that 10% tariff is actually raise the retail price by $15.38 by the time it get to my customer in the retail price.

So if that item gets says a 30% tariff then it becomes a $200 item. So if look at it is not the part source that pays the tariff and more but it is the final consumer that pays a heavier price. In this example the $30 tariff causes the enduser basically paying $46.15 over the previous retail price. So enduser actually pay more than whatever tariff percentage is. They get it back as they sell the items as they tack it on the sale price. And as a business I can't absorb these increases either so they just get passed along to the next buyer. So if a domestic vendor becomes cheaper overall then they get the order otherwise they don't as most usually just raise their prices too.

Even when my vendors providing price files I have to adjust some the prices in order to make a profit.


#58

V

VegetiveSteam

For what it's worth, these are the companies there were under the Kohler Power umbrella when Platinum Equity made the purchase from the Kohler family last year. As you can see, it included engines, both gasoline and diesel, and Power Systems which was Kohler's generator and controls division. The Kohler family still owns the plumbing and hospitality portions. I believe Kohler furniture was sold several years ago.

For now, according to my source, there are no plans to change the Kohler Engines name. That would be foolish IMO.

They've pretty much gotten rid of anyone who knows anything so who knows. With any luck, they will return service and education to the Central Distributors.

Hopefully they do better with the Kohler purchase than they did with the Tecumseh purchase.

1727642226999.png


#59

Scrubcadet10

Scrubcadet10

VegetiveSteam said:
For what it's worth, these are the companies there were under the Kohler Power umbrella when Platinum Equity made the purchase from the Kohler family last year. As you can see, it included engines, both gasoline and diesel, and Power Systems which was Kohler's generator and controls division. The Kohler family still owns the plumbing and hospitality portions. I believe Kohler furniture was sold several years ago.

For now, according to my source, there are no plans to change the Kohler Engines name. That would be foolish IMO.

They've pretty much gotten rid of anyone who knows anything so who knows. With any luck, they will return service and education to the Central Distributors.

Hopefully they do better with the Kohler purchase than they did with the Tecumseh purchase.

View attachment 69757
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So the kohler power group (the umbrella) could be renamed Relkoh, but still manufacture Kohler engines. ?


#60

V

VegetiveSteam

Scrubcadet10 said:
So the kohler power group (the umbrella) could be renamed Relkoh, but still manufacture Kohler engines
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Exactly, yes. Changing the name of the parent company is one thing, but changing the well-known names of the entities under the new parent wouldn't make sense.


#61

StarTech

StarTech

But I would not put it pass them.

I worked for Standard Register Company (SRC). After they brought out the Burroughs financial division they had us techs going around removing the Burroughs logos on equipment and putting theirs on them. Now of course SRC is no longer in business either so the customers are left with unrepairable equipment.


#62

Hammermechanicman

Hammermechanicman

StarTech said:
But I would not put it pass them.

I worked for Standard Register Company (SRC). After they brought out the Burroughs financial division they had us techs going around removing the Burroughs logos on equipment and putting theirs on them. Now of course SRC is no longer in business either so the customers are left with unrepairable equipment.
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After Taylor bought out bankrupt Standard Register which had merged with Workflow 1 they closed all tbe facilities in Dayton and laid off everybody but paper pushers and moved what's left of them to the 111 W first building in downtown Dayton. When SRC went bankrupt they wrote off millions in debt and screwed a lot of customers and employees.


#63

I

ILENGINE

VegetiveSteam said:
For what it's worth, these are the companies there were under the Kohler Power umbrella when Platinum Equity made the purchase from the Kohler family last year. As you can see, it included engines, both gasoline and diesel, and Power Systems which was Kohler's generator and controls division. The Kohler family still owns the plumbing and hospitality portions. I believe Kohler furniture was sold several years ago.

For now, according to my source, there are no plans to change the Kohler Engines name. That would be foolish IMO.

They've pretty much gotten rid of anyone who knows anything so who knows. With any luck, they will return service and education to the Central Distributors.

Hopefully they do better with the Kohler purchase than they did with the Tecumseh purchase.

View attachment 69757
Click to expand...
Just got an email from Medart that says Rehlko formally Kohler has announced a price change effective November 1. The title of the excel file is Rehlko price list.


#64

B

bertsmobile1

Gord Baker said:
Engines now made in China. The Name is the same but not the quality.
Click to expand...
Actually the Chinese Kohlers are better than the American ones
We get a lot of Chinese tractor style mowers here fitted with the Chinese version of the bucket engine and they are brilliant .


#65

StarTech

StarTech

What some don't know about buckets is that Kohler fixed the initial problems with them but some just can't pass the initial problems. Other than carburetors problems I only seen two with head problems, One valve seat issue and the other because a screw from the carburetor screwed it up. Much better to use brass screws instead steel ones.

ILENGINE said:
Just got an email from Medart that says Rehlko formally Kohler has announced a price change effective November 1. The title of the excel file is Rehlko price list.
Click to expand...
You should have known that was coming. New owners new higher prices and a lot more NLA items. Probably be November here when RBI releases the new price file. The I will need to edit it so I can load it here. I had change how it was handling the NLA items. So many going NLA that I still have stock of. So I switch to adding "-NOS" to the "NLA" items so I can still find them in my inventory and still have the pricing too; hence, the file editing. At one time I was sending everything to one SKU but became a problem here.

I just got my Stens price file where is has nearly 6000 SKUs being discontinued or nearly half of the parts they sold.


#66

I

ILENGINE

Just received this in an email from Kohler. This should remove any doubt about changing the engine name

Dear Customers,

This is a very significant moment for us!

We are announcing our new company name Rehlko, after more than a century of innovation under Kohler. This rebranding represents a bold step forward as we continue our commitment to building and powering a sustainable energy future.

To celebrate this new chapter, we are unveiling our first Rehlko-branded engine – the latest generation of carbureted gasoline engines for the turf market.


#67

Hammermechanicman

Hammermechanicman

New and "improved".


#68

Scrubcadet10

Scrubcadet10

It is definitely a bold move......
Hopefully they don't dump Kohler parts support.


#69

StarTech

StarTech

They could always do us like Tecumseh did us with they sold out.


#70

I

ILENGINE

StarTech said:
They could always do us like Tecumseh did us with they sold out.
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Yep, tell us they have a 10 years parts availability and then 6 weeks later they are sold out and NLA.


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