Counterfeit Faria Gauges

[Troll]

In the September, 2007 edition of Popular Science on page 77 there is the following about counterfeit parts from China.
“The Thomas G. Faria Corporation, an American company that builds dash-board gauges for boats and military Humvees, discovered an entire plant in China dedicated to cloning its product, even though it had never done any manufacturing overseas, or even outside of Connecticut, where it is based. The clones were found all over the world, and although they worked poorly, they looked the part. ‘These clones bear our name and address,’ David Blackburn, the company’s CEO, told the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission. ‘The label. . .contains our catalog part number and the initials of a calibrator, as well as the final tester.’”
I have been told that most, if not all, Triumphs come with Faria gauges from the factory. My factory installed gas guage quit working in its second year. I purchased a new one from my dealer and discovered that Faria gauges came with a lifetime warranty. I sent the defective gauge to Faria and after several months they sent me a replacement. I just wonder if Triumph got any counterfeit gauges or if my purchased replacement was a counterfeit.
Perhaps this is the reason some people are reporting problems with their gauges.

[NCangler]

I checked with Triumph and they purchase directly from Faria so the factory Faria gauges are the real thing.

[AGKPA95]

I went throught 2 tachs and 1 speedometer before I gave up on Faria went to a Merc guages.

[Mud Runner]

I've had a lot of guages go bad on other make boats that I serviced and they were all Faria. Yes, they come with a lifetime warranty but you either lose use of the boat waiting for the replacement or run around with a hole in the dash. These are rental boats that are a year old. So far the triumphs are doing OK.

[Troll]

If you are thinking of replacing your Faria gauges with a different brand, beware that different brands of gauges require different size cut outs on the dashboard mount. The gas gauge from Faira requires a 2 1/16" opening, while some other brands require a 2 1/8" hole. The same difference may be true for the speedometer and tachometer. Read the instructions and measure before you buy.

The dashboard on my 2002 Bass 170 is made of relatively hard aluminum and is about 1/8 in thick. It would take a while to file the opening to a bigger size and create an even bigger problem if the hole was too big.