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Date:         Sat, 7 May 2016 09:41:25 -0400
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: hankook ra-08 copies
In-Reply-To:  <CAHTkEuJ0WejML61ReV41N4V+QDVF+3JvpCcyPujex6Rg3nO4Tw@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

> what is the name and where can you > get the chinese copies of the hankook tires?

> Go Form

I looked into this claim after it was repeated here several times (by the same individual, I believe). I also spoke to Hankook about it. The GoForms come from a company called Qingdao Gloryred International Trade Company, whose advertising headline is trade publications is (not kidding) "Sell cheap tyre." Qingdao Gloryred has no affiliation whatsoever with Hankook. Hankook has not shared any technology with them or licensed any technology to them. Their claim of using "Hankook technology" is based solely on the fact that their technical engineer used to work for Hankook. Given that employees often change jobs, by that standard almost any company could claim a connection to any other company. It is not uncommon for off-brand Chinese companies to make false claims of affiliation with or endorsement by name brands in order to lend legitimacy to their products. For example there are several other off-brand Chinese companies that claim to use "Michelin technology" but have no actual connection with Michelin. Laws against false advertising are not the same in China. Interestingly, these companies don't make those claims in the U.S., where they would be forced to retract them immediately.

Consumer Reports tested several off-brand Chinese tires (although not GoForms) a couple of years ago and found that they all performed at the absolute bottom of the pack for safety and for lifespan, even though some had copied the tread pattern of better known tires. They interviewed Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, who explained this disparity by pointing out that “the composition of the tire is more important than the mold.” In other words you can make the tread look the same cosmetically, but if the rubber compound is different, it's a different tire. The tires they checked were also "iffy" in other ways, such as using counterfeit date codes on the sidewall. Consumer Reports - whose goal is to find bargains and "best buys" - concluded by advising its readers to stick with the name brands, which were actually better bargains in the long run even just based on treadwear alone.

I have not tried the GoForm tire so I can't comment on it specifically. For all I know it may be a decent cheap tire on its own merits. But it has no more connection to a Hankook RA08 than any other cheap Chinese tires does, except perhaps skin-deep.

Ron Salmon The Bus Depot, Inc. www.busdepot.com


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