Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[tjkubota93]

I got two new 3 1/2" "Roadshock" LED lights tonight. Hooked them to a power supply and they are nice. 1050 lumens. They come with a waterproof plug, they have a heavy diecast aluminum housing, stainless steel hardware and have Cree LEDs. They look like a good choice for fog lamps but not for high-beam driving lights. $29. each.

Roadshock, Hercules, Maddox, etc. Chicago electric, Pittsburgh.

I want to see a picture of the guy who comes up with all these goofball names.

 

[Ford850]

Roadshock, Hercules, Maddox, etc. Chicago electric, Pittsburgh.

I want to see a picture of the guy who comes up with all these goofball names.

Eric Smidt, Chairman and CEO of HF. Net worth $3.1 Billion. Smiling all the way to the bank, thanks to most of us.
His story is a good one though, and I thought I'd add it here, pulled from Wiki:
"Eric L. Smidt was born in Los Angeles, California in 1960 to Allan Smidt and Dorthy Smidt. His mother had multiple sclerosis and his father, overwhelmed, sent him to an orphanage when he was nine. Four years later he went to live with an aunt in Tennessee, returning home after two years but moving into his own apartment on his 16th birthday. He graduated from Grant High School in Van Nuys, a public school in Los Angeles. In 1977, as a teenager, Smidt started Harbor Freight Tools with his father in a small building in North Hollywood, California. Originally known as Harbor Freight & Salvage Co., the company began as a mail-order tool business. Eric introduced the company's defining innovation of cutting out the middleman and began to obtain tools directly from the factories to the customer.

In 1985, Smidt was named president of the company at the age of 25; he served under that title until 1999 when he became CEO.[4] In 2001, Smidt was listed as one of Ernst & Young's Entrepreneurs of the year"

 

[tjkubota93]

Eric Smidt, Chairman and CEO of HF. Net worth $3.1 Billion. Smiling all the way to the bank, thanks to most of us.
His story is a good one though, and I thought I'd add it here, pulled from Wiki:
"Eric L. Smidt was born in Los Angeles, California in 1960 to Allan Smidt and Dorthy Smidt. His mother had multiple sclerosis and his father, overwhelmed, sent him to an orphanage when he was nine. Four years later he went to live with an aunt in Tennessee, returning home after two years but moving into his own apartment on his 16th birthday. He graduated from Grant High School in Van Nuys, a public school in Los Angeles. In 1977, as a teenager, Smidt started Harbor Freight Tools with his father in a small building in North Hollywood, California. Originally known as Harbor Freight & Salvage Co., the company began as a mail-order tool business. Eric introduced the company's defining innovation of cutting out the middleman and began to obtain tools directly from the factories to the customer.

In 1985, Smidt was named president of the company at the age of 25; he served under that title until 1999 when he became CEO.[4] In 2001, Smidt was listed as one of Ernst & Young's Entrepreneurs of the year"

Does he come up with the names or does he "have "a guy" for that"?

 

[Ford850]

Does he come up with the names or does he "have "a guy" for that"?

The job of "Name that Tool" is probably outsourced too.

 

[California]

I think in HQ there's a whole floor of MBA's fine tuning the product manufacturing contracts, the 'standard' (occasional!) prices, what's chosen for the 'special' sales, the coupons, ITC Specials etc etc into one smooth running money machine. Oh and not visible to the public - they continually fine tune the borrowings that capitalize the enterprise. That's maybe the most critical role.

Smidt takes out the profits into his personal, separate fortune at every opportunity so the corporation is actually thinly capitalized.

OPM!! Leveraging, running on Other Peoples Money, is the key modern fortunes. Smidt is risking nothing, it's not his money at risk as the corporation grows.

As I noted above, I did a little Due Diligence to see about buying HF stock when I saw they were aiming to replace Craftsman. No way. Smidt owns 100% personally.

 

[sixdogs]

It's long ago but I remember when they were Harbor Freight and Salvage Company. Before the mail order, a guy used to show up in town with loads of tools for public sales. Not sure if he was the company or just bought from them but I still have some of those tools. Harbor Freight is an American icon and the guy that started and runs it a real entrepreneur. Say what you want but he did it and none of us did.

 

[KubotainNH]

I created a little video this evening while I was playing around. All filmed, edited and produced from my Galaxy Note 9. It's amazing what these computer phones can do!

Very cool, thanks for that. If I needed a set at this point I would grab one of those.

I got two new 3 1/2" "Roadshock" LED lights tonight. Hooked them to a power supply and they are nice. 1050 lumens. They come with a waterproof plug, they have a heavy diecast aluminum housing, stainless steel hardware and have Cree LEDs. They look like a good choice for fog lamps but not for high-beam driving lights. $29. each.

How do you think those would work on a tractor to light the way when cleaning up snow at night? I also need lights for the back of my plow truck so I can see better.

 

[Threepoint]

Eric Smidt's journey is a real "rags to riches" American success story. One of the few times we can truly say "Made in the USA" in the same sentence as Harbor Freight Tools.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Very cool, thanks for that. If I needed a set at this point I would grab one of those.



How do you think those would work on a tractor to light the way when cleaning up snow at night? I also need lights for the back of my plow truck so I can see better.

If you want good reliable and yet shockingly inexpensive LED lights for your tractor, go on Amazon and get NiLight. I installed them on my Wrangler in early 2014, they are still in use today.

Buy the spots though, not the flood. The spots are not truly spot lights in the sense of say KC Daylighter lights or other higher quality reflectors, they do somewhat concentrate the beam of light while still giving plenty of dispersion for peripheral lighting.

I run 6 of these 18W cubes on my Kubota.
Nilight 2PCS 18W 1260lm Spot Driving Fog Light Off Road Led Lights Bar Mounting Bracket for SUV Boat 4" Jeep Lamp,2 years Warranty https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G620ZVU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_4qW.BbJD7HXJV

On my Jeep I have these 36 mini bars that are essentially double wide cubes..
Nilight Led Light Bar 2PCS 36w 6.5Inch Flood Led Off Road Lights Super Bright Driving Fog Light Boat Lights Driving Lights Led Work Light SUV Jeep Lamp,2 Years Warranty https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IZ9VAOI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_6sW.BbM2W3DP9

 

[KubotainNH]

If you want good reliable and yet shockingly inexpensive LED lights for your tractor, go on Amazon and get NiLight. I installed them on my Wrangler in early 2014, they are still in use today.

Buy the spots though, not the flood. The spots are not truly spot lights in the sense of say KC Daylighter lights or other higher quality reflectors, they do somewhat concentrate the beam of light while still giving plenty of dispersion for peripheral lighting.

I run 6 of these 18W cubes on my Kubota.
Nilight 2PCS 18W 1260lm Spot Driving Fog Light Off Road Led Lights Bar Mounting Bracket for SUV Boat 4" Jeep Lamp,2 years Warranty https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G620ZVU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_4qW.BbJD7HXJV

On my Jeep I have these 36 mini bars that are essentially double wide cubes..
Nilight Led Light Bar 2PCS 36w 6.5Inch Flood Led Off Road Lights Super Bright Driving Fog Light Boat Lights Driving Lights Led Work Light SUV Jeep Lamp,2 Years Warranty https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IZ9VAOI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_6sW.BbM2W3DP9

Nice, thanks for the info and how do you beat that price?