Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[sixdogs]

OK, I have another winner I entirely forgot about. It's their 1/2" D rings that you bolt to the sides of a trailer or whatever to tie things down. They are thick, strong and bolt on easily. I put six on my smaller double axle trailer and have hauled everything with them. They are on "sale" for $5.49 right now and you can get 20% off with a coupon if that works for you. Definitely good quality.



1/2 in. Forged Cargo D-Ring Anchor

 

[newbury]

AIR COMPRESSOR<snip>
PS have been a Sears purchaser for 50+- years and have watched them go down hill but am finally giving up. They are dead. Put a fork in them.

Sear, Walmart, Kmart, Target, Amazon etc. are just a middleman for going to the cheapest producer. Harbor freight started that way.

 

[Wa11banger]

Professor Marvel The 60 gallon air compressor at HF is plenty good. I wouldn't hesitate to buy one. Matter of fact after doing much the same comparisons as you did and pulled that trigger over 3 years ago. I had previously had for near 20 years a NAPA 60 gallon air compressor.. It finally died and I do not remember the name of the actual manufacturer. All I know is that to replace it 3 years ago was the same price as a small car. The compressor part is what went bad and it also was going to cost more to rebuild it than to replace it with the HF unit.

Short story.. I cut the motor and compressor mount off my old NAPA compressor, bought the HF unit, plumbed them together and have run the **** out of it since from day 1. I now have a 175PSI capable 120 gallon air compressor that runs whatever in the **** I want it to

Quite commonly that is all the pneumatic body tools, air ratchet, and HF blasting cabinet. I would not be afraid of that air compressor unless you have no help and a bad back.. It is quite heavy.

I love saying.. You waste your money your way and I will waste my money my way.. I quite often have more beer money then those that take the other path
I don't use any of the HF tools for a living. HF does have some bad tools.. 95% of them do what any homeowner needs them too. Plenty of trunk slammers that made it big got their start on these tools as well. Unfortunately most of them forgot.

 

[Parkanzky]

I recently needed to help a friend recover a Honda Accord with a lunched motor from the repair shop. I don't have a winch on my tilt deck trailer, so I bought one of these:

8 lb. Cable Winch Puller

I was very impressed at what it could do for $25 (after the 20% off). I didn't use the snatch block (to increase the length of each pull) and it very easily pulled the car up onto the trailer. The only caveat is that you have to be really careful about how it winds up because if it gets off the edge of the spool it will bind and not allow you to release the cable.

I bet I find more uses for it.

 

[Wa11banger]

Parkanzky,

Ditto on the cable winch puller.. I had completely forgot about that one. Used it to pull a 40'HC container sideways 5ish feet on the ground(front then back etc). worked a treat and we have since used it as a middle man for two stump pull operations where I was the only person there. I think we paid the 30ish dollars for it but well worth it compared to how much it would have cost for any other one time use (what we were thinking at the moment of purchase) device or equipment rental at that time.

 

[bcp]

I had one of the HF 8000lb pullers, but don't know the number now. It came apart with about a 500 pound load. If the number in the related posts link is the item number, it was #543.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...-another-tractor-post3979643.html#post3979643


Someone else had the same problem but described it better.
Harbor Freight 8, lb Cable puller, ratcheting winch: Thumbs Down!! | Hearth.com Forums Home

Bruce

 

[newbury]

I recently needed to help a friend recover a Honda Accord with a lunched motor from the repair shop. I don't have a winch on my tilt deck trailer, so I bought one of these:

8 lb. Cable Winch Puller

I was very impressed at what it could do for $25 (after the 20% off). I didn't use the snatch block (to increase the length of each pull) and it very easily pulled the car up onto the trailer. The only caveat is that you have to be really careful about how it winds up because if it gets off the edge of the spool it will bind and not allow you to release the cable.

I bet I find more uses for it.

I've several of those. Had one "get off the edge" and got totally bound up. But they are cheap enough to spread the around. I also bought one "beast" years ago, A Wyeth-Scott "More Power Puller". Compared to the cheap HF it's a world of difference, but like I said it's a beast and only gets hauled out for serious jobs.

And probably pulls a lot more than your 8lb puller

/edit - I just looked up the WS, GAD it's expensive!! I couldn't afford one now!

 

[Wa11banger]

/edit - I just looked up the WS, GAD it's expensive!! I couldn't afford one now!

And now we know why HF exists.. For that once in a while one time use, item that will get the job done and doesn't break the bank for something that hangs on the back wall for 99% of its life

 

[Professor Marvel]

Professor Marvel The 60 gallon air compressor at HF is plenty good. I wouldn't hesitate to buy one. Matter of fact after doing much the same comparisons as you did and pulled that trigger over 3 years ago. I had previously had for near 20 years a NAPA 60 gallon air compressor.. It finally died and I do not remember the name of the actual manufacturer. All I know is that to replace it 3 years ago was the same price as a small car. The compressor part is what went bad and it also was going to cost more to rebuild it than to replace it with the HF unit.

Short story.. I cut the motor and compressor mount off my old NAPA compressor, bought the HF unit, plumbed them together and have run the **** out of it since from day 1. I now have a 175PSI capable 120 gallon air compressor that runs whatever in the **** I want it to

Quite commonly that is all the pneumatic body tools, air ratchet, and HF blasting cabinet. I would not be afraid of that air compressor unless you have no help and a bad back.. It is quite heavy.

I love saying.. You waste your money your way and I will waste my money my way.. I quite often have more beer money then those that take the other path
I don't use any of the HF tools for a living. HF does have some bad tools.. 95% of them do what any homeowner needs them too. Plenty of trunk slammers that made it big got their start on these tools as well. Unfortunately most of them forgot.

thank you Rick I will go ahead and pick one up and take my chances. I appreciate your response

 

[newbury]

And now we know why HF exists.. For that once in a while one time use, item that will get the job done and doesn't break the bank for something that hangs on the back wall for 99% of its life

I dare say most of my tools, other than my pocket knife, spend WAY more than 99% of their life stored. Since about 87.5 hours of use would be 1% of a year.