Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[KennyG]

I figured out a long time ago that Europe and Asia didn't agree on odd vs even metric wrenches. A lot of wrench sets jump from 17 to 19 but I have 18s on tractors and cars.

I'm comfortable with metric and US for measurements and temperature. Both have strengths and weaknesses and manufacturers will use whatever works best. Doesn't Europe still use 3/8 drive ratchets?

 

[Renze]

Doesn't Europe still use 3/8 drive ratchets?

Yes. That works, as long as we dont start throwing 12 or 13mm drive ratchets in the mix, next to the 12.7mm half inch wrench.
We also measure pipe, for example 48.3x3.2mm, that comes from Imperial, though i have no idea how many inches that is, because neither ID nor OD translates to a solid Inch fraction.

Precision tube comes in rounded mm sizes, way handier when it is exactly what you order, instead of in inches, but thin walled versions actually have a bigger internal diameter than the amount of thumbs (inches) the old timers called them.

 

[Renze]

Hey Renze, do those evil 12 mm heads and nuts exist in Europe?

My metric tool sets from there have 12 mm wrenches and sockets, but here a metric set didn't use to include that size. And I don't recall ever needing them over there.

Automobile manufacturers, applying "lean six sigma" sh it, meaning they only give the worker on the assembly line the only tool they need for their single task, would probably use flanged head nuts and bolts, with a smaller head as per standard.

Thats why i hate working on cars, i always end up crawling under the car with a fistfull of wrenches when an M10 is just supposed to be 17mm.

Farm or construction equipment is easier, no weird standard flanged nuts, just plain old DIN fasteners with a washer if required.

Deutz started using Torx headbolts on the BFM2011 engines. Thats why they are supposed to go in automobiles, not in heavy equipment if you ask me.

 

[Renze]

Pretty much anything Korean or Japanese made will use 12 mm for a M8 bolt, which "normally" uses a 13 mm. They also use 14 mm wrench for a M10 bolt which normally uses a 17 mm wrench.

Thats the standard for flanged bolts. I usually replace them with regular bolts and a washer because i hate them.

I use DIN 931 (shafted bolts), 933 (fully threaded bolts) 934 nuts and 125A washers, thats what even the home improvement markets sell, so automobile manufacturers should stick to it as well.
This winter i want to build a prototype, maybe next year start as an equipment manufacturer. Guess what bolts you will find on my machines ?

 

[Renze]

Yeah they could change to what ever standard and I would still need every type to work on the old stuff. Good machines are around a long time.

We dont have that problem anymore, because the British stopped using it in the 60s.... and they werent exactly building good stuff, its just that MGs and Landrovers get romanticized so much that some folks will do anything to keep them around: even buying an imperial socket set

I mean, the longer the US postpones the inevitable, the longer you will have the problem of requiring double tool sets.

 

[Renze]

I still need both kinds for the stuff I'm working on. Heck, even the Unimogs are part SAE fasteners.

Not simple fasteners. Grease zerks and oil tube connections are quite common in SAE (actually British) in Europe.

At the wheel loader factory i worked, we tapped M10x1 and put a G1/8" grease line connector in it. The gas thread being conical and the M10 not, meant that the thread would seal at any position you would turn the elbow to, without breaking it.

Oh, and the G1/8" conical grease fitting still has a metric wrench size.. Standards do have a purpose.

 

[Captain Dirty]

I mean, the longer the US postpones the inevitable, the longer you will have the problem of requiring double tool sets.

All this metrification reminds me of a prescient aside Kurt Vonnegut, writing in the 1960's, made in his dystopian science fiction short story, Welcome to the Monkey House. In the story, one of the ways the nanny state addresses overpopulation is through the establishment of "Ethical Suicide Parlors" where the lethal dose is administered by "Hostesses". The Hostesses, among other things, are voluptuous virgins, "all over 5'10" tall." Vonnegut editorializes "Although many things had changed in the intervening centuries, America had yet to adopt the metric system."

 

[Renze]

"all over 5'10" tall."

America had yet to adopt the metric system."

I guess he was right then, or he would have said 175cm and 4mm

 

[Too many Kubotas]

Thats why i hate working on cars, i always end up crawling under the car with a fistfull of wrenches when an M10 is just supposed to be 17mm.

And I've stopped using my (bad) judgement, grabbing a 13 mm after glancing at a fastener...only to find out it's a 12. Or a 17 that turns out to be an 18.

Not simple fasteners. Grease zerks and oil tube connections are quite common in SAE in Europe.

Oh yes, simple fasteners, too. Don't overlook the Case 580 backhoe and Schmidt loader that were added over here, plus all the external hydraulic stuff and anything electrical that the military added.

 

[Renze]

Oh yes, simple fasteners, too. Don't overlook the Case 580 backhoe and Schmidt loader that were added over here, plus all the external hydraulic stuff and anything electrical that the military added.

Thats cheating... putting an American backhoe on a German Unimog and then complaining that the fastener standards are all over the place

Schaeff, Atlas and a host of others offered metric backhoes on Unimogs