My Stand On has a 23hp RATO V twin that shares a lot of features with a B&S Vanguard. RATO Also builds a 420cc Single that other than the Recoil, looks a lot like the B&S XR.
I know companies in China like to imitate better known brands and pass them off as authentic. Seems to be a common thing on Amazon.. NGK spark plugs are one thing that I had an issue with. The complaints and pics I see, make me wonder if other companies are making cheap copies? Now at 12 hours, not a single loose bolt found. In fact, all nuts and bolts seem to be torqued and have a paint line across them to indicate if they have moved any. Also, the bolts attaching the house swing motor (made by Eaton), has red loctite on them, as do the engine mounting bolts.
The B&S and the Honda clones are very similar. Note that even Honda, like Briggs, has at least one factory in China for these small engines. Rato marks their engines and it regarded as one of the better Chonda makers. They are one of the suppliers of Predators from HF. Note that HF has at least two makers of the 420 thumpers, one with a hemi head, one without. You can spend hours on the internet reading about these Chonda clones.
That is a feature of poor quality control, coupled with the use of grease zerks that are not in the ends of the pins. In this location, pin-zerks would be harder to service so not ideal either. On my own machine, one of the blade cylinder zerks did not take grease. The easiest solution is to just unscrew the zerk and drill thru the bearing sleeve. There probably IS a hole in the bearing insert, but it rotated when it was pressed in. Or the assembler was supposed to drill a hole.
Thanks for the answer. I didn't want to drill holes without checking in here first. i found a minor issue with the choke on the Briggs engine. I noticed it cranked longer than it should when cold. with the choke cable pulled out as far as possible, I checked the little choke knob on the engine. it moved another quarter inch to the FULL choke position when I pushed it with my finger. The engine starts much quicker when you do this. The problem is with the bracket they used to attach the cable to the engine. It is not straight like it should be. I think there is enough room in the bracket for another hole to be drilled and this should solve the problem. I think that many of these machines with the Briggs will have this same issue. I hope this helps someone.
They have issues but they are worth 3k I buy one for 3k out the door