I'm not sure where Yukon produces these, although from my experience unless it says "Made in USA", it is usually made elsewhere. I agree, after seeing things in person I wouldn't have worried about removing some material, but for some reason the shop was against it or seemed to think it would be a bigger issue than they wanted to deal with. I am sure the stock piece will be just fine for my application, as I imagine it would be pretty hard for me to hurt it as this is going in a street car with 215's in the back :-)