Mods from China!! [** ADMIN WARNING: NO POLITICS **]

[Tredsdert]

He's a prime example of why Amazon is sometimes better than China (in recent years)...

$36 with free shipping from China, probably would have waited about 3-4 weeks to receive them. Instead of bought them from Amazon and received them 3 days later, and only paid $4 more.

____________________________________________________________


More related to this thread I bought some headlights from China to fit into these.

I wanted to get something that was fairly original looking that I haven't seen on the streets. And these definitely stood out quite a bit. I like the different colors in the headlights themselves, and the running lights/turn signals and how they were aligned and not in just the normal circular daytime light like every other aftermarket headlight on the market does.

I placed the order for these 7-in headlights on December 28th, and I received them earlier today, January 10th.

I decided to fit the headlights into the headlight mount adapter...

The only thing is, The adapter plug that came with the headlight mount adapters from Amazon came with a H4 plug on one end, and on the other end I have no idea what plug that is. It's definitely not an H13 female plug which is what I need. I'll probably poke around for prices on Amazon and pick one up there. Although if I can save money I'll just order it through AliExpress, because I don't plan on installing these anytime soon. Probably not till spring at the earliest.

Part of the reason why I bought these to begin with is because I figure with my current modification (trimming my front grill, and putting 1 in spacers on my factory headlights) to make the headlights pop out of the bumper further, a 7-in headlight will allow me to pop the headlights well past where they currently are seated. Thus giving me the bulbous bug eye look I want out of my Wrangler.

Sponsored

 

[Flip]

He's a prime example of why Amazon is sometimes better than China (in recent years)...

$36 with free shipping from China, probably would have waited about 3-4 weeks to receive them. Instead of bought them from Amazon and received them 3 days later, and only paid $4 more.

____________________________________________________________


More related to this thread I bought some headlights from China to fit into these.

I wanted to get something that was fairly original looking that I haven't seen on the streets. And these definitely stood out quite a bit. I like the different colors in the headlights themselves, and the running lights/turn signals and how they were aligned and not in just the normal circular daytime light like every other aftermarket headlight on the market does.

I placed the order for these 7-in headlights on December 28th, and I received them earlier today, January 10th.

I decided to fit the headlights into the headlight mount adapter...

The only thing is, The adapter plug that came with the headlight mount adapters from Amazon came with a H4 plug on one end, and on the other end I have no idea what plug that is. It's definitely not an H13 female plug which is what I need. I'll probably poke around for prices on Amazon and pick one up there. Although if I can save money I'll just order it through AliExpress, because I don't plan on installing these anytime soon. Probably not till spring at the earliest.

Part of the reason why I bought these to begin with is because I figure with my current modification (trimming my front grill, and putting 1 in spacers on my factory headlights) to make the headlights pop out of the bumper further, a 7-in headlight will allow me to pop the headlights well past where they currently are seated. Thus giving me the bulbous bug eye look I want out of my Wrangler.

Dude SICK!

 

[Tredsdert]

Update on packages...

I forget if I've mentioned it on here before, but through a bit of experience, I've come to find a website that you guys can use yourselves, to track even your US-based delivery companies including but not limited to, USPS, FedEx, UPS, DHL, and any other small shipping company you can think of.

https://postal.ninja

There's no login, there's no membership, and they will save up to 20 tracking numbers at one time for you too open up your web page and select the packages you have being delivered.

The number one reason that I use Postal Ninja is because they provide even more up-to-date and detailed organization of where your package has been since shipping has begun.

So if you've ever worked for a package delivery company before, you know that packages get scanned by every set of hands that touch them. The cool thing about postal ninja, is that they display each and every single scan by each and every individual who scans your package from when it's shipped out until when it is delivered to your front door. Now sometimes this means that you have 5 to 15 different scans in the same warehouse, but it also means that you know not only how long your package has been in a warehouse, but you have proof that shows it was scanned over multiple days in the same warehouse. So if they were to tell you that they never received your package, you now have proof that they did, and that they had it there for multiple days before they finally "lost it".

Prime example, the item pictured above, here's the aliexpress app data for their shipping:

They list things from the bottom up, so the newest scans are at the top. See that? January 12th right around 7:00 p.m. it was scanned by a local sorting center... Lot of good that does me!!

Well here's what postal ninja has for the exact same track number:

Postal ninja lists there order from the top down. So now, not only do I know who the local delivery company is, I have proof that they received it and a much more detailed explanation of every scan that happened on my package.

For reference, here is what I get when I go to the actual USPS search engine on their website:

USPS and most packaged delivery companies, they track these scans, and they upload them, but they give you an abbreviated version, which tells you only what they think you need to know. It also aids them because if a package is lost in the warehouse they can now say they never received it. But if you can go to them and show them that they had the package in their warehouse for 3 days before it finally vanished, it's really hard for them to deny it then.

A lot of this for me is holding the right people accountable. It's already sketchy enough ordering stuff from the other side of the planet, let alone when it gets lost and the shipper is telling me it's the local delivery companies fault, and the local delivery companies telling me they never received the package. It makes it a lot easier to know who's at fault and know who to go to to receive compensation. The shipper knows they're not at fault, so they're not going to reimburse you, but the delivery company who knows they are at fault, but thinks that you don't know that they are at fault, can easily deny it and there's not much you can do about it. But with this website and in turn app, it makes a lot easier to track your packages.

As an added note, you now know where my package is! Hopefully I get it before Monday is over, and I can get some pictures on here of the product received!

 

[Tredsdert]

TL;DR: sorry y'all, it's pretty much all intricate knowledge, along with a bit of rambling as well. I couldn't possibly sum this up in less than however large it currently is, which is to say it's pretty massive! If you don't want to read it, just don't read it.



So in the case of these 4 items from the Alibaba app, which is primarily intended for retailers to purchase items in mass quantities to sell to consumers like you and me, there's a little bit more know-how involved in tracking these packages. Many times the manufacturer will ship items purchased through the Alibaba app on a cargo ship across the ocean to the destination country (in this case, the USA), versus AliExpress who will typically ship via airplane if they don't already have it in a US-based warehouse.

So basically the shipping times between the two apps / websites is usually drastically different.

So two things circled here, first the item circled at the top. It tells you how many packages are on the way. Now I have two different items from the same manufacturer, with four pieces total, and it lists only one package. Now the safe assumption here is that because it's telling me that only one package has shipped and it's grouping both items in the same order, that all four pieces are in the same box. Now when I receive it, that could be completely incorrect and I could have gotten scammed for two of the items. At the same time they could have shipped both items neatly packaged it threw in some free grab gear which actually tends to happen quite a bit. You really don't know with Alibaba until you receive the item. It's why it's a little bit more of a crap shoot than the AliExpress app. More risky? Yes but the savings can really rack up quick, especially if you're buying for a group of people!

The second point here, the lower circled item on the left, is the expected delivery date. Now you see how it's all the way at the end of February, even though I put in this order on January 4th, while that's not a surefire way to make the assumption that it's being shipped via cargo shipping container, it is a tool you can use to figure out, and to guess whether or not it is being shipped via oceanic freighter.

So here's a look at the tracking information via the Alibaba app, it tells you same as it does in the AliExpress app, just enough to know roughly where your package is and in general where it has been. It's not super detailed, but it gives you a good rough idea of where your package is and when it was last scanned.

So in this case, the last two items at the top of the tracking information...

The second from the top: Package Released From Warehouse, International Tracking Number #####. (In most of these cases, I try and blur out my track numbers so that you guys can't track it to my door and steal my shit. Not that anybody would, but this is a publicly accessible website without membership needed to view our post, so safety first, Remington 870 second )

Most recent information: Cargo Boarded, Last Mile Carrier...

Now in this case, both of these tidbits of information are important and will aid you and figuring out exactly where your package is and why it is taking so long to get your delivery address. Now mind you, the date on this one is January 14th at 2:00 p.m. in SZ, which stands for... Anybody? Anybody? SHENZHEN, which is one of the busiest shipping container ports on the entire planet! I don't know what it's ranked, but I would imagine other first or second or at minimum third.

Now I know what you're thinking, it's shipping out of Shenzhen, it has to be on a oceanic cargo freighter, and 99.99% of the time you would be 100% correct, BUT this is China, and I don't know what the hell they're smoking over there, probably opium, but I've had packages that ship out of Shenzhen and are labeled as cargo, and show up at my door 2 weeks later because there were actually on a plane. So like I said, at the end of the day all this really is is a best guess until it hits US soil, at which point I have a FedEx tracking number, and I will be able to track it on US soil from there.

Now this being said, here is what Postal Ninja is telling me about this Alibaba order shipment... Not much. For whatever reason, when you order things from Alibaba versus AliExpress, in most cases the shipping company / manufacturer isn't going to provide much data about where your item is until it hits US soil. Now that being said if you contact the manufacturer and you tell them that you want a first class postage, which will allow you to get tracking throughout the whole process, and in a lot of cases the ability to place insurance on the order, but doing this will also cost you a buttload of extra money.

Look this way...
I can order a $200, 85 lb steel roof rack from AliExpress. I can order the exact same (now) Rhino Roof Rack that they sell on Extreme Terrain for $1600, the only difference is shipping from China now costs $281 extra because it's coming from China, And again, that's the inexpensive postage. You don't want to ask what the expensive postage is, probably more than it would cost you to order it from Extreme Terrain with free shipping if you ordered only one rack. BUT if you're a retailer, and your ordering 50 of these same roof racks, and you're spending $7,500 (after the quantity discount) You're probably going to want a little bit more insurance than just trusting these sellers / manufacturers. In this case you might want to vye for the first class postage, which may end up costing you another $6,000. But when you factor in the profit you'll make...
$7,500 for 50 roof racks + $6,000 first class shipping = $13,500 total cost... And you can sell it here in the USA for $1600 each, Even with the $13,500 initial cost, You still will have a $66,500 profit, which is plenty of money to pay a couple of warehouse workers to fill orders...
And that's only one item you're selling!

So, I'm getting a bit sidetracked...

Basically what I'm getting at here is, the manufacturers from Alibaba like to ship via oceanic cargo Freightliners, because it's much more cost effective on their end, and you can ship a whole lot more, and they ship so much already, they'd be sending out thousands of planes to match what they can ship out on one cargo freighter. So basically, when trying to figure out where your package is via an order on Alibaba, it does take a little bit of know-how. There's a little bit of guessing, a little bit of praying, but if you're lucky and all goes well, you'll get your package on average 2 months after you order it, and when that does happen, You have saved potentially thousands of dollars, or in my case, probably about $50.

And if you really wanted to apply this, once I get these lights, let's say they aren't what I want them to be, and maybe I find something on Amazon tomorrow that I like better. Well I can go look up and see how much these lights sell on Amazon, and because I'm more than likely paid less than they cost on Amazon, I can now sell them on Facebook marketplace for $10 less than they sell them on Amazon, and still make a profit.

If you want a prime example of this, those little Psyducks that I giveaway and place on people's Wranglers for free... They cost me $0.73 each, but on Amazon they go for $15 each.

So if you don't mind a little bit of waiting, to sell through a product, and you do your planning and your research properly, you can get a pallet of items on AliExpress, ship them to your house, sell them, and make a decent profit. It's actually something I planning on doing in the years to come. Buy a pallet of something really easy to sell, make a couple thousand dollars, then buy another pallet and do the same thing. Just as an extra source of income / something fun to do. Though sadly, right now we don't have the storage space to be housing a pallet of products to slowly sell.


This actually applies well if you want to order something on Alibaba, but you only need one, and you want that discount, so you and 20 of your Jeep buddies get together and you each order one, you go a little above the minimum order quantity, and you get them at an absolutely great deal, and then you just got to wait two or three months to get the product. Sadly a lot of these companies do fill to order/build to order, so when you order 50 to 10,000 items, the order acceptance, manufacture, and shipping times can be upwards of 6 months or more, especially when you're getting into the 50,000+ item range.

Seriously though, who doesn't want a $1,600 Rhino roof rack straight from the manufacturer for under $500? Is it worth the 2-month wait? That's up to you!

 

[Terrymo]

Found these made in China half doors at Walmart. I don’t know why the OEM half doors are so expensive. These work just fine

 

[Tredsdert]

This guy here arrived the other day. I don't know what they're talking about completed January 4th. I received it on my porch on the 16th.

I'll probably install it sometime this week. Maybe not today it's kind of cold out today. The only issue I'll probably have is my current driver side mirror is installed in the same area. So I'm going to have to play with that I'm guessing. I'm not sure it's going to work out well for me in that sense. I might have to move my mirror further up on the hood.

I'll make it work regardless.

Looks like this guy is about to ship out to sea.

 

[Tredsdert]

NO POLITICS, y'all best remember that. I don't want my thread deleted because y'all can't contain yourselves. You don't have to say it out loud, we all know what it is.

That being said, until I say otherwise, I'm going to change how this thread functions a little bit.

It's no longer going to be only stuff that I buy from China through either AliExpress or Alibaba, instead IT WILL BE THINGS THAT ARE MADE IN CHINA, even if I purchase them from Amazon.

Because of the recent increase in prices of things coming in from China, I can actually get stuff for the same price on Amazon that it would cost me to get it from AliExpress and Alibaba, with the bonus of extremely shortened shipping times.

Without further ado, here's a couple of 3-minute videos so you can listen to what I'm saying rather than read what I'm saying.

 

[Tredsdert]

SAY A PRAYER WITH ME!!

In the ideal situation I don't have to pay a 20% tax, but realistically I'm expecting to have to.

 

[Tredsdert]

How cool is this, it made it through customs without any extra taxes needing to be paid. Thank God for that!!

Here's everything all at once...

These amber ones are going to be going in the lower position on the cowl. I'm going to use them as the wide beam amber's the most outward focus.

And then the second guy here is going to also be outward focused, positioned on the upper mounting point of the cowls, but it'll be a little more inward then the wide beam amber floods.

I drew a little diagram for y'all to see the planned positioning of all of the lights on my Wrangler once I have these installed.

I'd like to see a deer jump out on me now! I'll see that son of a gun from a mile away!

 

[Apexcars]

So here's an item that I've been wanting to order for a minute. It's not made for full size vehicles, it's made for RC vehicles. However it is a fully functioning RC light bar. The reviews on it are pretty solid overall.
I feel this would be a very fun and stupid modification to do. My intention is to install it on my front bumper. I think it would be a really funny stupid mod that might turn some heads, which is totally right up my alley.

I haven't done any research into better prices for this product, so I will be searching for either free shipping, or lower overall cost without sacrificing quality or quality reviews.

Another thing I've been interested in putting some time into lately is getting a better quality more well hidden safe inside of my JLUD. The center console is great and all, but everybody knows about it and it's not very secure. You could break that thing open with brute force if you wanted to. I'd like to get something hidden maybe underneath my front passenger seat or somewhere beneath the dash. So I'll be looking for a locking storage compartment item as well.

I'll let you know what I find...

I don’t know why you think it would get attention to run small weak light bars on your bumper. There are hundreds of places that sell small lights for cars, trucks, Jeeps, UTVs and ATVs already and they are designed to run on 12 volt. You could literally just mount some rock lights on your bumper if you wanted.

 

[Tredsdert]

I don’t know why you think it would get attention to run small weak light bars on your bumper. There are hundreds of places that sell small lights for cars, trucks, Jeeps, UTVs and ATVs already and they are designed to run on 12 volt. You could literally just mount some rock lights on your bumper if you wanted.

Clearly you don't know me yet!

When I get home I'll take a picture of the light bar and post it here for you to see why it is so special!

 

[Apexcars]

I know it’s going to be unique. Interested to see the pics.

 

[Tredsdert]

I know it’s going to be unique. Interested to see the pics.

It's not just a...

...small weak light bar...

It's a small weak 12v RC car light bar.

...which I plan on installing on my life-sized Jeep Wrangler!


Not to hop on the fad train, but you could probably title it "My Wittle Wight Bar".

 

[Heimkehr]

Well, since the thread's scope has expanded to include Amazon-sourced ChiCom baubles, I just installed this small tray under the Jeep's front passenger seat. Offspring's Honda has one in the same position, from the factory. Its convenience has spoiled us, in terms of having a place for odds & ends like small tissue packs and such.

 

[autotragic]

TL;DR: sorry y'all, it's pretty much all intricate knowledge, along with a bit of rambling as well. I couldn't possibly sum this up in less than however large it currently is, which is to say it's pretty massive! If you don't want to read it, just don't read it.



So in the case of these 4 items from the Alibaba app, which is primarily intended for retailers to purchase items in mass quantities to sell to consumers like you and me, there's a little bit more know-how involved in tracking these packages. Many times the manufacturer will ship items purchased through the Alibaba app on a cargo ship across the ocean to the destination country (in this case, the USA), versus AliExpress who will typically ship via airplane if they don't already have it in a US-based warehouse.

So basically the shipping times between the two apps / websites is usually drastically different.

So two things circled here, first the item circled at the top. It tells you how many packages are on the way. Now I have two different items from the same manufacturer, with four pieces total, and it lists only one package. Now the safe assumption here is that because it's telling me that only one package has shipped and it's grouping both items in the same order, that all four pieces are in the same box. Now when I receive it, that could be completely incorrect and I could have gotten scammed for two of the items. At the same time they could have shipped both items neatly packaged it threw in some free grab gear which actually tends to happen quite a bit. You really don't know with Alibaba until you receive the item. It's why it's a little bit more of a crap shoot than the AliExpress app. More risky? Yes but the savings can really rack up quick, especially if you're buying for a group of people!

The second point here, the lower circled item on the left, is the expected delivery date. Now you see how it's all the way at the end of February, even though I put in this order on January 4th, while that's not a surefire way to make the assumption that it's being shipped via cargo shipping container, it is a tool you can use to figure out, and to guess whether or not it is being shipped via oceanic freighter.

So here's a look at the tracking information via the Alibaba app, it tells you same as it does in the AliExpress app, just enough to know roughly where your package is and in general where it has been. It's not super detailed, but it gives you a good rough idea of where your package is and when it was last scanned.

So in this case, the last two items at the top of the tracking information...

The second from the top: Package Released From Warehouse, International Tracking Number #####. (In most of these cases, I try and blur out my track numbers so that you guys can't track it to my door and steal my shit. Not that anybody would, but this is a publicly accessible website without membership needed to view our post, so safety first, Remington 870 second )

Most recent information: Cargo Boarded, Last Mile Carrier...

Now in this case, both of these tidbits of information are important and will aid you and figuring out exactly where your package is and why it is taking so long to get your delivery address. Now mind you, the date on this one is January 14th at 2:00 p.m. in SZ, which stands for... Anybody? Anybody? SHENZHEN, which is one of the busiest shipping container ports on the entire planet! I don't know what it's ranked, but I would imagine other first or second or at minimum third.

Now I know what you're thinking, it's shipping out of Shenzhen, it has to be on a oceanic cargo freighter, and 99.99% of the time you would be 100% correct, BUT this is China, and I don't know what the hell they're smoking over there, probably opium, but I've had packages that ship out of Shenzhen and are labeled as cargo, and show up at my door 2 weeks later because there were actually on a plane. So like I said, at the end of the day all this really is is a best guess until it hits US soil, at which point I have a FedEx tracking number, and I will be able to track it on US soil from there.

Now this being said, here is what Postal Ninja is telling me about this Alibaba order shipment... Not much. For whatever reason, when you order things from Alibaba versus AliExpress, in most cases the shipping company / manufacturer isn't going to provide much data about where your item is until it hits US soil. Now that being said if you contact the manufacturer and you tell them that you want a first class postage, which will allow you to get tracking throughout the whole process, and in a lot of cases the ability to place insurance on the order, but doing this will also cost you a buttload of extra money.

Look this way...
I can order a $200, 85 lb steel roof rack from AliExpress. I can order the exact same (now) Rhino Roof Rack that they sell on Extreme Terrain for $1600, the only difference is shipping from China now costs $281 extra because it's coming from China, And again, that's the inexpensive postage. You don't want to ask what the expensive postage is, probably more than it would cost you to order it from Extreme Terrain with free shipping if you ordered only one rack. BUT if you're a retailer, and your ordering 50 of these same roof racks, and you're spending $7,500 (after the quantity discount) You're probably going to want a little bit more insurance than just trusting these sellers / manufacturers. In this case you might want to vye for the first class postage, which may end up costing you another $6,000. But when you factor in the profit you'll make...
$7,500 for 50 roof racks + $6,000 first class shipping = $13,500 total cost... And you can sell it here in the USA for $1600 each, Even with the $13,500 initial cost, You still will have a $66,500 profit, which is plenty of money to pay a couple of warehouse workers to fill orders...
And that's only one item you're selling!

So, I'm getting a bit sidetracked...

Basically what I'm getting at here is, the manufacturers from Alibaba like to ship via oceanic cargo Freightliners, because it's much more cost effective on their end, and you can ship a whole lot more, and they ship so much already, they'd be sending out thousands of planes to match what they can ship out on one cargo freighter. So basically, when trying to figure out where your package is via an order on Alibaba, it does take a little bit of know-how. There's a little bit of guessing, a little bit of praying, but if you're lucky and all goes well, you'll get your package on average 2 months after you order it, and when that does happen, You have saved potentially thousands of dollars, or in my case, probably about $50.

And if you really wanted to apply this, once I get these lights, let's say they aren't what I want them to be, and maybe I find something on Amazon tomorrow that I like better. Well I can go look up and see how much these lights sell on Amazon, and because I'm more than likely paid less than they cost on Amazon, I can now sell them on Facebook marketplace for $10 less than they sell them on Amazon, and still make a profit.

If you want a prime example of this, those little Psyducks that I giveaway and place on people's Wranglers for free... They cost me $0.73 each, but on Amazon they go for $15 each.

So if you don't mind a little bit of waiting, to sell through a product, and you do your planning and your research properly, you can get a pallet of items on AliExpress, ship them to your house, sell them, and make a decent profit. It's actually something I planning on doing in the years to come. Buy a pallet of something really easy to sell, make a couple thousand dollars, then buy another pallet and do the same thing. Just as an extra source of income / something fun to do. Though sadly, right now we don't have the storage space to be housing a pallet of products to slowly sell.


This actually applies well if you want to order something on Alibaba, but you only need one, and you want that discount, so you and 20 of your Jeep buddies get together and you each order one, you go a little above the minimum order quantity, and you get them at an absolutely great deal, and then you just got to wait two or three months to get the product. Sadly a lot of these companies do fill to order/build to order, so when you order 50 to 10,000 items, the order acceptance, manufacture, and shipping times can be upwards of 6 months or more, especially when you're getting into the 50,000+ item range.

Seriously though, who doesn't want a $1,600 Rhino roof rack straight from the manufacturer for under $500? Is it worth the 2-month wait? That's up to you!

Thanks for the tip on postal Ninja, I'm currently awaiting a package from Germany via DHL and kind of curious how it's actually going to move through the system.

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