I keep breaking 1/2 ratchets on my lug nuts.

[Kubota Dave]

A good 1/2" ratchet should easily handle 90 - 140 ft-lb. of torque, the specified range for most lug nuts, but that's not your problem. With a 6 foot lever on the damn thing, you're very likely exeeding those numbers, several times over.

If you really need so much torque (600 ft-lb?) that you're putting 6 feet of pipe on the handle, then yes... a 1/2" ratchet is not the right tool. But what lug nuts are you facing that require this sort of torque?

They are 24mm and that is how tight the dealer had them, i'll get a breaker bar! i was always under the impression that the larger ratchets could handle more but breaker bars are cheap.

 

[Kubota Dave]

I sometimes use a short cheater bar, not necessarily to exceed the torque but to make it easier on this old man's arm.

After you have twisted enough bolts, you know how far to push the tool, and the bolt.
Ratchet is not to break loose hard bolts. It's to make removable easier after using the breaker bar.

I learned from breaking more than my share of ratchets.

You are right it's just the only tool i have at the moment. I ended up trying the impact and it could not get them loose. Just need a bigger one

 

[WinterDeere]

They are 24mm and that is how tight the dealer had them, i'll get a breaker bar! i was always under the impression that the larger ratchets could handle more but breaker bars are cheap.

I looked into this years ago, and the break-out force on most of the better 1/2" ratchets seemed to be around 500 ft-lb. I don't know what 1/2" breaker bars are rated to handle, but spent much of my late teens and early 20's bouncing and jumping on the end of a 4' pipe extension slipped over the handle of mine, and it never broke (back then... it has since).

I will say that I've seen Craftsman ratchets break more than all other brands combined. But then again, back when I was spending all my free hours wrenching on cars (1990's), Craftsman also sold more ratchets than probably all other brands combined. I've also seen a few broken Snap-On ratchets, but oddly, never a broken vintage Proto.

The vintage Proto ratchets make a good hammer too, they're a bit large in the hand by today's standards. But if you're in the habit of breaking ratchets, and don't mind their larger head size, that may be the brand for you. I don't know if their new stuff is any good, they're owned by Stanley now, but their original 1960's hardware made out of their Los Angeles plant was bullet-proof.

The only Craftsman ratchets I own today are two ratcheting clicker-type torque wrenches. They don't get used hard, so they haven't failed. All of the other Craftsman ratchets I have ever owned broke, and were tossed in the garbage.

I've never used, probably never even seen, a Harbor Freight ratchet. But you also couldn't pay me to use one. I'm not that cheap, and I like the skin to remain on my knuckles as much as possible.

 

[Notforhire]

Back in 1968 I was taking apart the differential in my 1954 Chevy PU truck. All my Dad had was a 3/8 drive SnapOn ratchet circa 1952. After putting on a four foot cheater I stepped on the pipe hard and the bolt broke free.
Not that I recommend this procedure, but it did work for all four bolts. I'm still using that same ratchet today. It has never been rebuilt.
All tools are not created equal.

 

[mllud]

)

harbor freight and craftsman have broken on me getting lug nuts loose. I am rough with them using a 6 ft pipe.

I do have a impact driver maybe that will work better.

Those Lugnuts may have been overtghtened with an impact therefore breaking ratchet.
I have had Lugnuts extremely over tightened at the tire shop. Some of those guys use the impact without ever checking torque. They also often too lazy to hand start Lugnuts, they jam the Nut in the socket shoot them on and cross thread studs making life very difficult for you down the road.
I try to always use six-point sockets on Lugnuts.
Sometimes the blue tool can save your butt with heating up overtightened nuts. ( gas welder

 

[masscity]

Around 1982 I was living in Menlo Park, CA with my young cousin and a couple of brothers from the same town in the UP of Michigan. One of the brothers showed up with and old Mustang, missing wheel covers.

He asked me if he could use my socket set (3/8" SK). Later on I went outside to see what he was up to. He had a 3 foot pipe on my ratchet taking off his rusted lug nuts. He got them all off, but cracked my socket. Ratchet was fine until the late 90's.

After I moved back to the UP I had a SK guy replace my ratchet.

 

[Hay Dude]

harbor freight and craftsman have broken on me getting lug nuts loose. I am rough with them using a 6 ft pipe.

I do have a impact driver maybe that will work better.

I bought 3/4” and 1” sets for that. But even with those, you need to be using a breaker bar.

 

[Farmer495]

Good cordless impact or pneumatic impact saves a lot of work.

Nice spinning out 3/4" bolts with no effort. If the impact won't move them, the 3/4 drive breaker bar and cheater piper comes out.

 

[WinterDeere]

A good 1/2" or larger electric impact is one tool I've just never broken down and bought. I have a good pneumatic one, and it gets enough use the grips have fallen off and it looks like it's been thru a war... but it keeps ticking. The air hose might seem like a "drag" to most, but so is a battery, and that hose is how I retrieve the damn thing from under a vehicle after I've crawled out!

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I broke two crapsman half inch breaker bars getting the nuts loose on my loader tractor, used a Proto half inch to get the job done.

I turned them in to Sears and got two more new crapsmans in trade, twisting them off next time I was working on those same nuts. SO, I bought a new Proto 3/4 drive socket the right size and have used my 3/4" breaker bar with that socket ever since, with NO breakage.

BTW, using the 3/4" breaker bar with a reducer to 1/2", just twisted off the half inch end of the reducer (two of them) and NO ONE would warr. them!

SR