Hunter Original 2001 or 2002 production in Taiwan..

[rhaps0dy]

I guess I'm having a bit of an issue determining when hunter officially ended all US "manufacture" or "Assembly" of the hunter original in the states.  Did it start in 2001 or 2002?    I've seen some hunter originals, packaged from 2001 that mentioned "made in taiwan" on the box, but they appear to be almost the same as the american made versions (and basically have the same packaging).    Was there a period when the originals were made abroad and basically the same as the american made version?  Maybe hunter changed the original's design starting in 2002 or a bit later?  Or was there a period when hunter was using up all the old stock they had --- say 2001 before officially starting all hunter original production in Taiwan in 2002. 


Any thoughts?

[Cole D]

To my knowledge all of the Taiwan Originals were made the same with the new design castings rotors, and never with the old dies, winding machines, etc. What probably happened was there was an overlap in parts during the change and possibly American made motors were going into new boxes labeled for Taiwan. As with a lot of things there is a bit of leftover parts from year to year that packaging doesn't always convey.

Also, some parts of American made Originals were imported as well, in case you weren't aware. I do recall of castings being shipped from Orient origin and assembled in America even in the early 1980s. Hopefully some others can clarify and expand on this, as I'm just going from memory here. Again the search will bring a lot of old threads full of good info.

[fancollector12]

2002 was the first year for Taiwanese Original production, 2001 was the last year for Memphis, TN production.