HF tools that suck

[JRobyn]

4x8 HD Trailer "kit" - 6 or 7
"matching" steel side kit - 2 or 3

After several weeks of tinkering, I finally have my HF trailer together. I was thinking it would take one evening or two to assemble - HAH! This is the heavy duty 4x8 one rated for 1700lbs. It was mostly OK, but they included 2 right side rear frame rails in the box and NO left side rear frame rails. HF Customer service said they could ship me one but it would probably take several weeks. Local store broke open another kit and exchanged rails.

The axle had a weld burr right where the wheel seal should run. Good thing I felt it, or the seal would be toast. Hopefully my file/sand job is good enough that the seal won't leak too much.

The bracket for the tongue-to-frame pin where the trailer will tilt was welded crooked so the pin had to be hammered in - a little rat-tailing fixed that.

The wiring harness supplied was 10" too short to make it to the far taillight.

The steel side kit was a disaster - it is intended to fit flat on the trailer frame, with the plywood flooring over/inside it's edge lip - except the frame has bolt heads protruding! No problem, a hole saw made cutouts for the bolt heads. The tailgate is intended to be removable, except that's kinda hard to do if it fits UNDER the plywood - so the floor had to be notched to fit the tailgate. Once the floor is notched out, the rear frame crossmember no longer supports the floor - so weld a 1-1/2x1-1/2 angle iron to the crossmember, grind, sand, attempt to paint to match. The instructions are quite clear that the bolts provided are to go through the floor (3/4" ply), then through the side kit (maybe 18 ga sheet), then through the trailer frame (maybe 1/8") - the bolts included are *16mm* long!! The sides are made in two halves, piano-hinged together, and the edges for the hinges to mount to protrude into the inside of the trailer, so the plywood again had to be notched to fit (there goes the full 48" width of the trailer). the pre-drilled holes to attach the front to the sides were off by about 1/2" so now there's fender washers inside to cover the big elongated holes. Now after one week outside, it's got rust spots all over where the factory (lead?) paint is missing/chipped/scraped. There is no provision to close the corrugated ribs in the front/sides against rain intrusion - I'll have to cut/form some blocks to fit in and then caulk. The parts list shows a custom-fitted, bungee-edged tarp, the photos on the box show the tarp, the instructions detail how to install the tarp - no tarp included. All HF customer service will say is "it's not supposed to include the tarp, that's $7.99 extra".

%$#*@&^

- Jay

- Jay

[Builder]

man....that's brutal.

[Bedlam]

Sure is. sounds like more work than making my own.

[CurlyDave]

I saw a remote control airplain that I figured my dad might enjoy. It was garbage.

Ah, too bad.

I have been eying that little airplane with the idea of putting an infra-red camera in it with a link to a monitor.

Imagine what one of these would do for your success rate in hunting season. Half an hour flying the little airplane and you could have every deer for miles marked on your map...

[Dargo]

I've been a slow learner on buying some of their junk, but one that I feel is worth commenting on is their spring compressor for taking coil springs off your vehicle. I priced a pair from Snap On first, which was my problem. Since I don't plan on taking off coil springs for a living, I figured that Snap On was nuts and bought a set from Horrible Freight. I mean, c'mon on, how complicated can they be? It's a darn piece of all thread with a couple of sliding hooks on them with a nut on the outside of each hook.

I was changing a busted CV joint on my pickup and the book said to remove the coil spring. I slipped one of the compressors on opposites of the coil spring and started cranking on the nuts. With the pickup jacked up it wasn't going to take all that much to compress the spring enough to clear it's cradle. So, before long I had the spring compressed just enough to tilt it out of it's cradle and remove it from the truck. Great I figured, that was easy enough and I'd saved myself a couple hundred bucks on the tool.

About the time I got the compressed spring out, and basically had it in my lap while sitting on the barn floor, the spring compressors broke! Fortunately for me, the spring missed my important parts by about an inch and just grazed the inside of my right thigh on the way to putting a nice chip in the concrete floor. Possibly even luckier, the spring missed the underside of my chin when it shot upwards towards it's trip to putting a hole in my ceiling. However, it was close enough that it did hit the bill of my ball cap and popped the cap right off my head! On the way down the spring hit the top of my bed rail denting it and then bounced off to one side and killed my DeWalt radio I had on the shelf.

Talk about getting really lucky!! An inch either way and, literally, I could have been killed.

I have since discovered that HF's spring compressors just use standard all thread and not the more expensive (and required) hardened all thread. What junk! Besides being junk, how dangerous!! Needless to say, I wasn't much in the mood for a HF replacement. I ended up renting a quality spring compressor and did the job no problem.

Oh yeah, I had 3 of the HF 14" cut-off wheels that are made in Russia explode on me. Like the spring compressor, I don't care if they're free, they aren't worth using. It's these things that are flat dangerous that concern me more than the simple junk wrenches that break on the first use or many of their other hand tools that self destruct on the first use.

[Bedlam]

Wow glad your 'privates' and non privates are fine. I was wondering what part broke? so I can beware of that. I have a set of these, and didn't quite trust them , even if they were the more expensive ones. But the set I have has done a few strut changes, It will be interesting to see if others have had the same experiences thanks

[jjmarotz]

In keeping with the "suck" category, here's one for ya
1/2" ratchet extentions -0

Broke one putting the "mustard" to a 5/8" bolt and snapped the end off, putting me to the concrete with major hip and knee pain for 5 days. Have since gotten rid of all those in favor of name brand.

[Bedlam]

Omg. I wonder how many injury's or stresses these tools do. I'm sure there are no statistics.

[Ford850]

Ratchet Bar Clamps = 1
My 9 year old son was saving his money for some clamps for woodworking. He had purchased several Bessy clamps in the past, but those are expensive. He saw the HF ad for a set of clamps for 75% off or something along those lines. Figuring he could buy 4 clamps for less than one Bessy clamp, he wanted to try the HF set. So he buys them with his own money. He proudly showed them off to Grandma and Grandpa telling them what a great deal they were. First time using them, the large clamp splits in half. Mind you, this is caused by the hand clamping pressure of a 9 year old boy. He stood there holding it, one piece in each hand, tears streaming down his face. We exchanged them for a new set, but they are all but worthless since he is afraid to use them or else they might break too.
Not all things made in China are junk, but to this 9 year old they are now. He looks at the label of everything he buys to see where it is made. He is saving his money for more of the Bessy clamps, made in Germany.

[Bedlam]

I bought a 'cheap' set of the strap wrenches, and assumed id use them for light duty. they couldn't handle that. so they went in the dump.They are something that its hard to use the parts for to make something new.So to the dump they went.