Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[hutchman]

deleted ... duplicate

 

[lostcreekranch]

Got me some snatch!

View attachment 481037

Yep, you said that on 9/7 and were ignored. We continue to do so. Still not funny!

Out!

 

[hutchman]

Yep, you said that on 9/7 and were ignored. We continue to do so. Still not funny!

Out!

Man, I'm really having "short circuit" these days ... I don't even remember posting it. Sorry.

 

[hutchman]

I already had two of the HF hydraulic kits, the 10 ton kit and the "puller" kit.

I needed to get in a tight space and needed a small diameter ram so I ended up just getting the 4 ton kit so now I have all three. Like collecting McDonald's cups!

Caught it on sale plus put a 20% coupon on it. Several days later realized Northern had a sale on the same kit for $10 cheaper!

 

[flyerdan]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the pullback ram (upper left in pic) is an add-on to the kit and requires the pump? I've thought that would be a good thing to have to round out the functionality of the set.

 

[IslandTractor]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the pullback ram (upper left in pic) is an add-on to the kit and requires the pump? I've thought that would be a good thing to have to round out the functionality of the set.

Actually, you can buy just the 10 ton set and then add the pullback ram and short rams (4 or 10 ton) which operate off the same ten ton pump.

 

[hutchman]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the pullback ram (upper left in pic) is an add-on to the kit and requires the pump? I've thought that would be a good thing to have to round out the functionality of the set.

They sell one of the puller rams by itself.

5 Ton Pull-Back Ram

The puller kit come with some neat stuff ... the ram mentioned above but also a smaller diameter 2 ton puller and some other neat pusher cylinders that have come in handy recently:

7 Piece Auto Body/Frame Repair Kit

... but it doesn't come with a pump.

... but like Trump says, the system is rigged. The puller kit comes with some of the smaller 4 ton cylinders but none of the extensions or ends for the small cylinders ... you have to buy the 4 ton kit to get those ... which I just did.

What I don't like about the 5 ton puller ram is the hooks are solid and won't grip chain links like the smaller puller ram will. The hooks on the smaller ram swivel and you can pull a pin and replace the hooks easily so they match the links of your chain. I wish the bigger puller ram were constructed the same way.

I think Northern has a better selection of individual rams. At least they do on their web site ... I've not paid attention to see if these individual rams are available in store or online only ... I hate when stores don't make that clear or obvious. I can't count how many times I've seen something on Lowes, Home Depot or Walmart etc. web site and go to the store looking for the same thing only to learn it's an online only deal.

If you are in need of any of these kits at the moment, look at Northern because when I looked a few days ago they were beating the HF sale price + 20% coupon price!

I discovered it's kind of nice to have two pumps ... that way you can push two directions or at two different points at once and that was worth it to me. I usually have limited time and often because of that can't coordinate help and end up having to do stuff myself and thank God for these hydraulic kits. They are life savers when you need them!

 

[hutchman]

I put basically a new front end on my F150 last fall ... new upper and lower ball joints and to get to the lowers you have to take out the axle which is fun on a 4WD. The stabilizer bars for the sway bar link have to come out. They unbolt but don't come apart very easily due to rust so you have to take an angle grinder with cutting wheel and cut them off.

Replacing the link ... I don't care how big a boy you are ... you can't mash down to compress the bushing enough to get the nut started. Puller hydraulic kit to the rescue! This worked slick! I was able to push down with the small ram in the puller kit and compress these new bushings enough to get the nut started by myself. Now a real mechanic probably has another trick to do this but I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer so this is the solution I devised:

View attachment 481215

 

[hutchman]

I put basically a new front end on my F150 last fall ... new upper and lower ball joints and to get to the lowers you have to take out the axle which is fun on a 4WD. The stabilizer bars for the sway bar link have to come out. They unbolt but don't come apart very easily due to rust so you have to take an angle grinder with cutting wheel and cut them off.

Replacing the link ... I don't care how big a boy you are ... you can't mash down to compress the bushing enough to get the nut started. Puller hydraulic kit to the rescue! This worked slick! I was able to push down with the small ram in the puller kit and compress these new bushings enough to get the nut started by myself. Now a real mechanic probably has another trick to do this but I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer so this is the solution I devised:

View attachment 481215

Don't know why my pic attachments didn't work so will try again:

 

[California]

View attachment 481655

Man that looks suicidal if it were to slip free under pressure while you are working under there..