Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[Rock Crawler]

Agreed. But still having a hard time swallowing US General. A Chinese brand. Gotta love Marketing!

I know... The irony of that name

I also bought the China General toolbox set for nearly a couple grand, I'm extremely happy and honestly I love the toolbox set. I don't think you could possibly do better that these without tripling your money.

 

[PILOON]

Piloon, Princess Auto seems like it would be another option.

Yes I do follow them as well.
Most often shipping kills any good deal as the closest store is Ottawa.
Princess has almost 10 stores in Ontario but none in Quebec.

Merchants have it tough here as they must provide all instructions in French and also their company name must be French.
Language police (yes I kid U not) can fine and even close down a business. All signage must be French as well, or at least it must overwhelm the English.

LOL, you think the translations of Chinese to English is funny, imagine how they'd slaughter the French version.

 

[lennyzx11]

exactly. I am not ready to bet my life on a HF meter.

The hot not hot check is ingrained into everyone that works with electricity to prevent this.
Whether meter, test light, contact tester, etc. this is a good habit to get into for checking electricity on a circuit you are going to work on and touch.

1. Check something that you KNOW is hot and same voltage as the circuit you want to work on.
This means meter works and you’ve set it properly.

2. Check the suspected circuit for no electricity.

3. Go back and check the KNOWN Hot circuit to make sure it still works.
This means you didn’t blow a fuse in the meter or smoke it by connecting it to a energized circuit out of its range by mistake killing it which would give you a wrong reading.

 

[Threepoint]

Yes I do follow them as well.
Most often shipping kills any good deal as the closest store is Ottawa.
Princess has almost 10 stores in Ontario but none in Quebec.

Merchants have it tough here as they must provide all instructions in French and also their company name must be French.
Language police (yes I kid U not) can fine and even close down a business. All signage must be French as well, or at least it must overwhelm the English.

LOL, you think the translations of Chinese to English is funny, imagine how they'd slaughter the French version.

Ha! When I was in eighth grade, I had to choose one of four languages to study as a second language: German, Spanish, French or Latin. My teachers and advisors urged Spanish. I went with French, studied it for four years, and now kick myself for never learning Spanish! Quebec may be the one place in North America where that decision might have paid off for me! :laughing:

 

[kenmac]

Yes I do follow them as well.
Most often shipping kills any good deal as the closest store is Ottawa.

I have been buying from HF for a long time. I can remember when they only had catalog sales in my area.
They use to have free shipping for orders over $50.00 and no sales tax. I use to order many things from them

One of the first items I bought was a Ryobi chop saw.
I had never heard of the brand and thought I would give it a try .

Unlike the green Ryobi you buy now, It's blue and still works great !

 

[kenmac]

700 FP might be a bit of a stretch but it’s pretty stout. It’ll easily take lug nuts loose. I’ve pulled the steering box and leaf springs off a 2 ton truck with it which was all 30mm bolts.

I believe 700 ? is what they claim. What ever it is, it's strong. I have never had a nut,or bolt it wouldn't remove.
I bought it about 10 yrs ago ? and use it all the time.
As I have stated, you have to be careful as it will break wheel studs on a car off !

When I rotate my wheels I have to be careful with it. If not, it will put the lug nuts on waaaaay too tight

 

[kenmac]

I bought a HF tool box used. The sheet metal construction is pretty heavy duty and the drawer slides are pretty smooth. Overall I’d rate it as a first class product. I think HF has really stepped up their game at least with tools.

I bought this exact tool box last yr. I have an old craftsman and this HF tool box is built better than the old craftsman box

 

[LouNY]

I believe 700 ? is what they claim. What ever it is, it's strong. I have never had a nut,or bolt it wouldn't remove.
I bought it about 10 yrs ago ? and use it all the time.
As I have stated, you have to be careful as it will break wheel studs on a car off !

When I rotate my wheels I have to be careful with it. If not, it will put the lug nuts on waaaaay too tight

I use either a pneumatic or my cordless impact to rotate or change tires,
which happens often as I swap from summer to winter tires and my sander truck has chains mounted
to the summer tires, jack it up yank the snows off throw the chained up ones on and ready to go.
I purchased a set of the torque sticks several years ago to prevent over tightening nuts.
I checked the actual torque using them when I got them, probably should do it again, as it's been awhile.

 

[kenmac]

I now run the lug nuts up some and finish out with my click style torque wrench


Harbor Freight Professional Torque Sticks Review - YouTube

 

[Rock Crawler]

I have been buying from HF for a long time. I can remember when they only had catalog sales in my area.
They use to have free shipping for orders over $50.00 and no sales tax. I use to order many things from them

One of the first items I bought was a Ryobi chop saw.
I had never heard of the brand and thought I would give it a try .

Unlike the green Ryobi you buy now, It's blue and still works great !

My father has a blue plastic Ryobi hammer drill that is around a 1980 vintage. It's an arm breaker and will likely outlast all of us. It's a beast. It's still stored in the steel box it came in.