Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[5030]

I have 6 pair already. 4 Felco's and 2 HF's.

 

[paulsharvey]

Does anyone use the air bottle jacks, either HF or Amazon, Vevor, or other cheap ones? Not something I have to have, but if people have a good experience with them, I might give it a shot. Heaviest vehicle is a 1500HD, at about 6000 lbs. My concern I dont have a concrete work surface, so, some of the very small base bottle Jack's get pretty sketchy.

 

[CADplans]

We live in a landfill society today... I do the same. Like our cars. I run them until the body rots away. Mechanically good however. Bondo isn't my forte'

My daughter's FIL is cleaning out FOUR storage units this week, some of them have been filled 20 years,,

The guy is having a hard time parting with the stuff,, his son is there pushing the disposal of the stuff.
Those four storage units are costing the equivalent of a house payment,, for nothing.

Hopefully, 95% of the stuff will go,
I heard that there are FIVE living room sofa and chair sets being stored,,, WHY!!??

 

[5030]

AWD suv's are death traps on snowy or icy roads.

 

[John_Mc]

AWD suv's are death traps on snowy or icy roads.

Huh?

The death trap has nothing to do with the vehicle. It has everything to do with the idiot behind the wheel who thinks that an AWD SUV makes him/her invincible. (and put on some REAL snow tires for the winter. Those "All-Season" tires... just ain't, at least not if you live in an area with real winters.)

 

[5030]

Maybe I should have been more explicit. The idiot behind the wheel keeps the bump shops busy in the winter. They go good on bad road, they don't stop for beans.

 

[John_Mc]

Maybe I should have been more explicit. The idiot behind the wheel keeps the bump shops busy in the winter. They go good on bad road, they don't stop for beans.

They stop the same as any other vehicle on the road. They all have 4 wheel brakes. You need good tires and good sense. I suspect that part of the issue is that with 4WD the drive may not be aware of just how bad the roads are until they actually hit the brakes. That's the wrong time to find out you are going twice as fast as conditions allow.

Not sure how we got on this side-topic, in a thread about HF tools, but I'll leave it at that.

 

[Rock Crawler]

The Chief 4" stroke air hammer is a good to go tool. I spent 6 hours heating, soaking and beating on a lower strut bolt that was rusted into place (18 years old) with a standard I.R. air hammer. The next morning I ran to HF and got the big boy 4" stroke hammer. I started by trying again with my I.R. to see of overnight the gods of mechanics may have loosened it. Not a chance. Then I opened up and oiled up the Chief 4" long throw hammer and in 3 minutes had the bolt out. Nice. She slams like a screen door in a hurricane.

 

[5030]

I do use my HF tools on brake jobs among other stuff...

 

[Cycledude]

Does anyone use the air bottle jacks, either HF or Amazon, Vevor, or other cheap ones? Not something I have to have, but if people have a good experience with them, I might give it a shot. Heaviest vehicle is a 1500HD, at about 6000 lbs. My concern I dont have a concrete work surface, so, some of the very small base bottle Jack's get pretty sketchy.

I’ve owned a 12 ton bottle jack from Harbor Freight for about 5 years, it’s been trouble free but I don’t use it a lot. It’s very handy not having to crawl under stuff to pump the jack.
Also used a 20 ton at a shop I used to work at and it was also trouble free.

 

[jjeff]

I currently own and occasionally use the air over hydraulic 8 ton long arm jack on my 2 ton picker also use the 20ton air over hydraulic jack on my press. Both have been trouble free. Both are HF brand and were upgraded replacement jacks for what came with them originally.

 

[California]

Bah. HF mailorder isn't up to the quality of store-bought, where you can inspect before checkout.

I ordered three of the 99 cent scissors and a bunch of other stuff on April 1 with "5-7 day shipping". Arrived today the 14th. Claimed shipped by FedEx, but FedEx never heard of the tracking number I was given. No evidence of FedEx on the carton when it arrived.

Then two of the scissors in Gordon orange blister packs were obvious returns, the blisters were cut open. Tried to cut a paper napkin and neither would cut, they just mashed the paper. Third scissor was in older white/red HF sealed blister pack. That one cut fine. For comparison my old slightly rusty one cut the paper napkin perfectly, too.

So I was shipped someone else's Gordon customer return scissors and they're useless.

The other items in the order were as expected, no problems. Well, aside from waiting that second week without a tracking number.

Caveat emptor, buyer beware. No more HF mailorder for me.

 

[crazyal]

Anyone have the 3/4" Icon breaker bar? I'm rebuilding a backhoe boom cylinder and there's a 1 1/4" bolt that has to be removed. I have (had) a Pittsburgh 18" pipe wrench I tried to use and it couldn't budge it. I tried to put a cheater on it and the handle bent. I have a Snap On 1 7/8" socket but I've only used it with a 1/2" breaker. It's a grade 8 bolt so they really didn't want it to break. A quick look shows the torque rating is over 1800 ft/pounds. To break it free I'm pretty sure that I'm going to need to use a pipe to gain leverage. The other option is to bring it to the local hydraulic shop and let them have at it vs spending $100 on the Icon.

 

[bigtiller]

Buy it and you will always have it to use.
And if you never use it again, hang it on the wall. Tools like this make good wall-art, almost as good as antique tools.

 

[AWSubie]

Anyone have the 3/4" Icon breaker bar? I'm rebuilding a backhoe boom cylinder and there's a 1 1/4" bolt that has to be removed. I have (had) a Pittsburgh 18" pipe wrench I tried to use and it couldn't budge it. I tried to put a cheater on it and the handle bent. I have a Snap On 1 7/8" socket but I've only used it with a 1/2" breaker. It's a grade 8 bolt so they really didn't want it to break. A quick look shows the torque rating is over 1800 ft/pounds. To break it free I'm pretty sure that I'm going to need to use a pipe to gain leverage. The other option is to bring it to the local hydraulic shop and let them have at it vs spending $100 on the Icon.

Search amazon or eBay for a torque multiplier. They are priced around $65 and are well worth the price. They are intended for semi trailer lug nuts but I have used mine for heavy equipment. U just need to be creative about rigging a reaction point for the tool. They can handle 3500 foot pounds.

 

[4570Man]

Take the cylinder rod by truck tire shop. They should have an impact capable of busting it loose.

 

[flyerdan]

If you have an air hammer you can blunt one of the chisels or weld a little chunk of angle on one and use it right on the 1/2" breaker bar near the socket to give it a blast while you're leaning on it. That often works for me when my impact doesn't have the oomph.

 

[1Mech]

We have a pretty fair amount of HF stuff. For us, the $ value is very good.
As others have said, you get what you pay for, and for us, HF quality is often fine.

We have lots of hand tools (hate having rusty hunks of junk in the bottom of the wifes mowing truck box that say "craftsman" or "snap-on" on them.

At one point, I was buying the dang claw hammers in bulk I think and just leaving a couple in every room we worked in.

Big stuff, I have the 14" chainsaw type concrete saw, the concrete mixer, the vibe compactor etc. etc. We could not afford to have bought the "good" brands, and we can buy and have them around cheaper then rent.

I think most the folks that have problems, and get aggravated tend to think they will be as good as the name brand stuff. I expect the stuff too work (and they have been great at replacing or refunding with zero hassle when it did not) but I do not expect it to be as nice as a name brand tool.

You ever notice when you have a bunch of hammers, or whatever and leave them scattered around so you don't need to bring one along, eventually, they are all in the same room or area!
I bought a multi amp battery charger there, but would not buy it again if it fails completely. Also bought quite a few pipe clamps and strap clamps when I was building cabinets for our kitchen remodel, they worked well.
Got tired of finding a flat tire on the wheel barrow, so I bought a never flat tire, holding up well, just wish it was a larger diameter.

 

[John_Mc]

I just can’t bring myself to trust the HF battery chargers. The charge and float voltages on the two I measured were not where they should be. (One too high, the other too low.) That was years ago, maybe they’ve improved by now, but I’d rather not chance it.

As far as leaving hammers around: when I do that it’s usually not on purpose, I end up not being able to remember where I left any of them.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I just can’t bring myself to trust the HF battery chargers. The charge and float voltages on the two I measured were not where they should be. (One too high, the other too low.) That was years ago, maybe they’ve improved by now, but I’d rather not chance it.

As far as leaving hammers around: when I do that it’s usually not on purpose, I end up not being able to remember where I left any of them.

That's my problem too. As far as HF stuff goes - Expect the worst and you will never be disappointed. All junk, but a lot of times junk is good enough.

gg