Gears – Part 1: Made in (Fill in the Blank)
It would be a broad generalization to say that Jeep owners fall into two bins: one that cares about Made in the USA products and tries to buy American as much as possible, and the other that buys whatever is cheapest, regardless of origin, which usually translates to Made in China. In reality, there are many levels in between, but I believe that most Jeep owners have a strong sense of patriotism and American pride, and would purchase USA made products if they are available and at the same price as overseas competitors. Some products are simply not made here, and the ones that are, usually come at a premium.
When I started researching gear brands back in 2013, I heard much of the same story that you hear today: gears are made in overseas, most of them in the same factories, regardless of the name on the box. In general, the countries of origin for most gears are the People’s Republic of China (think mainland China), Republic of China – Taiwan Provence, India and South Korea, with quality of gears varying in that order, from lowest to highest. Don’t let the names fool you, either. It’s easy to assume that Alloy USA or USA Standard are made in America, but it’s nothing more than a name. Companies will dazzle you with information about how their gears are designed and engineered in America and that they are made by global manufacturing leaders. Bottom line, if they don’t come out and scream at you that they are MADE IN THE USA, they aren’t. Again, that’s not to say that they aren’t a high-quality product. I would recommend several of the Korean-made gear brands to anyone looking to re-gear their Jeep.
I didn’t want to give up too easily, so I decided to dig a little deeper into trying to find American made gears for my build, and sure enough, a few forum threads mentioned that US Gear (a brand of AxleTech International) made 4.88 gears for the JK Rubicon that were 100% USA made. Lucky for me, that was exactly what I needed. Additionally, the rumor on the forum was that the gears were a different chromoly than what is typically available for Jeeps. While most gears are 8620 (standard OE material – 0.6% nickel), the JK gears were 4320 (high impact material – 1.75% nickel), which was very appealing to me considering the abuse that differentials see in an off-road environment. It wouldn’t be a normal weekend on the trails if you didn’t see at least one person grenade their differential. I’ll get more into the material discussion in another part of this series.
Now armed with this knowledge that USA made gears DO exist, I made the mistake of calling the usual suspects for Jeep parts to ask if they sold these gears or could get them. The responses I received varied from being told that I had incorrect information to being laughed at to classless sexism. I was discouraged to say the least. I then decided to do what I should have done from the beginning, and reach out to Bob Angliss of US Gear, directly. He was incredibly helpful in answering all of my questions, and confirmed that the gears DID exist. I simply needed to contact one of their authorized distributors. Strange Engineering, a company that services the drag racing market, was a little surprised to get a call about Jeep gears, but they were more than willing to help me get what I needed. Much to my surprise, the gears were no more expensive than the top name gear brands. Within a week or so, I was the proud owner of my American made gears, and could begin the install process.
To this day, I still don’t know why US Gear chose to make only that one gear ratio, and only for the Rubicon. My guess is they were either dipping their toes into the market, or they had an employee that had a JK Rubicon that suggested a run of 4.88 gears be made so that he (or she) could have exactly what was needed for a re-gear. I doubt it is the latter, but I like to think it went down that way. I have also heard theories that US Gear was previously a supplier of American made gears to an aftermarket axle manufacturer that offered a 100% made in the USA axle.
Today, US Gear makes ring and pinion gears for Dana 60 and Ford 9” and 10” axles (just to name a few), many of which are used in one-ton axle swaps that are becoming fairly common for Jeepers looking to run big tires and more power. Recently I saw an Instagram post from Loren Healy describing a “masterpiece” Gearworks 10” differential with US Gear’s Isotropic Super Finished (ISF) race gears, which tells me that these are being used in the off-road race market. Additionally, ever since the Ultimate Dana 44 and 60 were brought to the JK aftermarket, you can now purchase Made in the USA Spicer brand gears for both 44s and 60s (these weren't available back when I was shopping for gears in 2013). American made parts can be hard to come by, but as long as the Jeep community continues to send a demand signal that we want them, hopefully manufacturers will continue to produce them.
