DG Rider
Member: Triple Clutch Club
Lifetime Member
Well...once again, i have returned to the wrenching field. This time prepping used cars for a dealer up the road. Good tools are expensive...or are they? Either way, I've never had nearly enough.
Among my tools was a 10 year old set of Pittsburg (AKA-Harbor Freight) 1/2 impact sockets, of which 3 were broken. After years of meaning to, i finally hit the local store (first time in a HF in at least 2 years) to exchange them with the closest thing they now have, which they did. No questions asked.
The replacements were clearly several steps above the old ones, with big, beefy sides and sizes clearly marked. The only thing missing was the old tin case, which was of questionable use anyway.
While there, i was checking out the new tool carts they have. Again, I was surprised. Smooth, slide latch draw pulls, comes with liners installed and a folding tray, top supported with struts, and the locks are now barrel style. Felt like a very high quality piece. $209 for it....and really, it can be had in the $180 range with one of the many coupons they send out. I'd guess the Snap-on version of this is probably $800 or something?
In fact...many things i looked at were much improved over previous HF offerings. Researching led me to a Youtube channel i will be posting in a second, with Reviews on HF vs Whatever, with surprising results. So much so that at first i thought it was a HF "plant" for propaganda, but after further investigation, it seems legit, with several reviews with no HF stuff included.
Of course, what can't be tested in these videos is durability. But when you can buy SIX HF breaker bars for the price of the next cheapest competitor...thats hard to argue with. And that's assuming it fails...
HF stuff has always had a reputation, yet I've found that it's usually the young guys right out of tech school with a $3000 scan tool and no $1 spark plug gapper (True Story!) that smirk the hardest. Most of the veteran wrenches I've known use whatever works (Hard to screw up a making a hammer, if you think about it), and that includes HF. That last shop foreman i had worked out of a double decker Husky box that cost less than the smallest Snap-On tool cart.
Remember the first Hyundai? Hyundai would rather you not. They were cheap-ass econo boxes powered by Mitsubishi engines that seem as though they couldn't have come from the same company that now sells some good stuff. They changed their image.
Might Harbor Freight one day be remembered as the company that "used" to make junky tools?
Among my tools was a 10 year old set of Pittsburg (AKA-Harbor Freight) 1/2 impact sockets, of which 3 were broken. After years of meaning to, i finally hit the local store (first time in a HF in at least 2 years) to exchange them with the closest thing they now have, which they did. No questions asked.
The replacements were clearly several steps above the old ones, with big, beefy sides and sizes clearly marked. The only thing missing was the old tin case, which was of questionable use anyway.
While there, i was checking out the new tool carts they have. Again, I was surprised. Smooth, slide latch draw pulls, comes with liners installed and a folding tray, top supported with struts, and the locks are now barrel style. Felt like a very high quality piece. $209 for it....and really, it can be had in the $180 range with one of the many coupons they send out. I'd guess the Snap-on version of this is probably $800 or something?
In fact...many things i looked at were much improved over previous HF offerings. Researching led me to a Youtube channel i will be posting in a second, with Reviews on HF vs Whatever, with surprising results. So much so that at first i thought it was a HF "plant" for propaganda, but after further investigation, it seems legit, with several reviews with no HF stuff included.
Of course, what can't be tested in these videos is durability. But when you can buy SIX HF breaker bars for the price of the next cheapest competitor...thats hard to argue with. And that's assuming it fails...
HF stuff has always had a reputation, yet I've found that it's usually the young guys right out of tech school with a $3000 scan tool and no $1 spark plug gapper (True Story!) that smirk the hardest. Most of the veteran wrenches I've known use whatever works (Hard to screw up a making a hammer, if you think about it), and that includes HF. That last shop foreman i had worked out of a double decker Husky box that cost less than the smallest Snap-On tool cart.
Remember the first Hyundai? Hyundai would rather you not. They were cheap-ass econo boxes powered by Mitsubishi engines that seem as though they couldn't have come from the same company that now sells some good stuff. They changed their image.
Might Harbor Freight one day be remembered as the company that "used" to make junky tools?
