What brand ratching combo wrench do you like?

[Snap50]

I have a few Craftsmen ratcheting combination wrenches and they seem fine, but I need to supplement with metrics.
What brands do you like for dependability and functionality?

 

[billymade]

Umm, @ 50% off the Gearwrenches when on sale @ Sears are hard to beat!

 

[tonydanzah]

gearwrench, but kabo is also nice

 

[Mickey O]

Armstrong.





...

 

[ATTappman]

Gearwrench, especially the XL series.

 

[TJ1200c]

I have gearwrench and have had good luck with using them.

 

[Stephenw]

I have the Craftsman brand set in standard and metric. They are made in the U.S.A.

 

[Snap50]

Made in the USA is a priority.
Nothing frosts me more than when the nearby city always goes out of state to hire for developement, even when there are locals interested in the work!
Support your fellow citizen!

 

[ATTappman]

Made in the USA is a priority.
Nothing frosts me more than when the nearby city always goes out of state to hire for developement, even when there are locals interested in the work!
Support your fellow citizen!

Well if there are any fellow citizens interested in making Gearwrench-quality ratcheting wrenches here in the US and selling them for the same or a lower price as Gearwrench, they'll probably get supported.

 

[The Muffin Man]

I've been impressed with the ratcheting wrenches sold by Blackhawk, Stanley, and SK (can't recall the company that manufactures the wrenches for the several brands listed above. Possibly Hi-Five?)

The beams are slightly thicker than GearWrench's design which I find more comfortable. The Chrome finish is also superb on these wrenches; one of the best that I have seen.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g97/JGhaffoor/IMG_1986.jpg


EDIT: The wrenches are made by Reverse Gear, a division of Hi-Five.

 

[tonydanzah]

if they have a brass screw flush mount in the head, its kabo

 

[Snap50]

Thanks for the opinions guys.

As you might have figured, and no offensive to people driven by economical driven choices, I've arrived at the age that country of origin and quality are important. I've lived long enough to regret too many imported purchases. Buy the best and only cry once.

 

[Mickey O]

Made in the USA is a priority.
Nothing frosts me more than when the nearby city always goes out of state to hire for developement, even when there are locals interested in the work!
Support your fellow citizen!

That's an excellent priority, some will eventually get it when they are applying for unemployment.

 

[petty4243]

I personaly like my blue points.... have had many failures of the 15mm and 13mm gearwrench ones but never broken a blue point and use the hell out of them

 

[Paullew]

I have the Snap on ones and they are awesome. For some reason they cost about the same as the regular combination wrenches. I believe the 10-19 set retails for 280. Worth every penny. Also have a ton of gearwrench brand. Good bang for the buck. But I have broken a few. The Blue points are decent, made overseas. Still prefer Snap on, smoothest ratcheting action by far.

 

[JSBriggs]

I like the quality/price/feel of the Gearwrench ones, but all of the ones that I have seen have a 'cap stop' or some such on the head. That dramatically reduces its usefulness.

I have a set of Crescent brand ones, but the switch lever is on the sides of the shank and I find it gets bumped too easily while in use.

-Jeff

 

[jeepnut24]

Im trying to decide which set to get that is reasonably priced. COO isn't important, but quality is.

 

[BB26]

Snap 50: You don't have a ton of choices, but here they are...

Craftsman (except the China made elbow and open end ratcheting styles that were just released) -- I have every US made set they sell and have been pretty darn happy with all of them. The flat and reversible ratcheting sets are my favorites. The locking flex models are decent, but the heads are a bit bulkier than other brands. The reversible cross force wrenches are pretty nice too, but don't fit as well as other styles in cramped engine bays.

Armstrong -- All are US made. Very nice wrenches; they make stubby, flat, reversible and double box configurations. Pricier than C-Man, but you may find a deal if you watch e-bay. I love the double box style with one end that is ratcheting to speed off fasteners and the other that is fixed for final tightening/initial loosening.

Matco -- Some of the older styles are US made. They are essentially the same as the Armstrongs but with a Matco stamp. Beware though, many of their newer styles are imported.

SO -- Very nice, but also very expensive, even used on e-bay. Also, they are supposedly made in the USA, but they are not stamped accordingly.

Good luck!

 

[norry]

SO -- Very nice, but also very expensive, even used on e-bay. Also, they are supposedly made in the USA, but they are not stamped accordingly.

There's also Blue-Point, which is Taiwanese. Apart from COO and finish (the SO ones are indeed nicer), the other difference is that the SO ones are flank drive plus, meaning that both the open end and the ratcheting end are flank drive.

Snapon.com does show them as being US-made and correctly lists the Blue-Point set as being made in Taiwan, so perhaps the lack of COO marking on the wrench is part of the shift discussed in a few other threads, where Snappy is starting to see if anyone notices.

 

[skeletonizer]

I have the Craftsman metrics with the low profile sockets as well. I like them, the chrome is very good for the price.

It hasn't been all good though, a couple of them were broached off center slightly and the 10mm is locked up tight and I don't recall ever even using it yet.

The few times I used the other sizes they worked great. They sure are pretty and it has those three letters that I like to see U S A.

I will be taking the 10mm in for an exchange soon.

 

[Thedroid]

I had the Blackhawks at the last job and loved them. I bought the Bluepoints for my current job and was pissed when I opened them and saw Taiwan, but they've been working great for 2 yrs now.

 

[Thedroid]

I checked out the Gearwrench at Sears before buying the Bluepoints, and was disappointed in the feel of the reversing lever. I went through all of there sets, and they just didn't shift smoothly.

 

[Kev442]

I started out several years back with the Channel lock 4 packs (Gear wrench rebadge, methinks) to see if I liked these type of wrenches. Yes, I do! I bought the Kobalt's last winter and I like the length and thickness, but the ratcheting action totally *****. I'm going to try the red lube on them and see what happens. In the meantime, I bought the Gearwrenches this Christmas as a present to myself. I just tried them tonight (DON'T READ ON IF YOU ARE AGAINST TOOL ABUSE!) on a rear trailing arm on a rusty 17 year old car. The only way to get at the trailing arm bolt is with a wrench, so I put the 15mm and 18mm ratchet ends on the bolt after the Kroil was applied and whaled on it with a hammer. Yes, the very first use taking them out of the package was a whack a thon!
Worked well.
I do think the shafts are too thin, I can see why the x beams are popular, not so hard on the fingers when yanking hard.

 

[Snap50]

What is "flank drive"? Is that a Snap-On feature?

 

[Snap50]

Well if there are any fellow citizens interested in making Gearwrench-quality ratcheting wrenches here in the US and selling them for the same or a lower price as Gearwrench, they'll probably get supported.

One can always hope.

 

[jrsndman]

What is "flank drive"?

See this thread, especially post #2. wilbilt did a better job of explaining it than me.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5798&referrerid=43226

 

[Snap50]

Got it. I've seen it now that it's explained.

 

[GDA]

Gearwrench flex head combos. Not really a fan of the reversing ones with a lever as they seem to be much larger and wider and then you run into clearance issues which limits the use in tight spaces.

I seem to want to use them more in limited access areas where I can't swing a normal wrench very far and these speed up the process.

 

[Mike83]

I have one Matco 13mm reversible ratcheting combo. It is the same length as a Craftsman pro 13mm, so a bit longer than the Craftsman and Gearwrench ratcheting combos. It is a really nice wrench and made in the USA. Not cheap though.

 

[a390st]

Snap 50: You don't have a ton of choices, but here they are...

Craftsman (except the China made elbow and open end ratcheting styles that were just released) -- I have every US made set they sell and have been pretty darn happy with all of them. The flat and reversible ratcheting sets are my favorites. The locking flex models are decent, but the heads are a bit bulkier than other brands. The reversible cross force wrenches are pretty nice too, but don't fit as well as other styles in cramped engine bays.

Armstrong -- All are US made. Very nice wrenches; they make stubby, flat, reversible and double box configurations. Pricier than C-Man, but you may find a deal if you watch e-bay. I love the double box style with one end that is ratcheting to speed off fasteners and the other that is fixed for final tightening/initial loosening.

Matco -- Some of the older styles are US made. They are essentially the same as the Armstrongs but with a Matco stamp. Beware though, many of their newer styles are imported.

SO -- Very nice, but also very expensive, even used on e-bay. Also, they are supposedly made in the USA, but they are not stamped accordingly.

Good luck!

Man, you stole my story. Armstrong, CMan, and older Matco Pro Swing are my favorites. The SO's are so expensive.

 

[mkdive]

XL sets of Metric and SAE gearwrench!

 

[slacktide]

Let me point out a difference between the Craftsman and Gearwrench reversing models that can either be a help or a hindrance... The Gearwrench model has a flange on the drive which only allows a nut to be inserted from one side. This can help when trying to get a nut started in a hard to reach place, it holds the nut captive and allows you to apply some pressure without the nut pushing through the open end. However, I've had times when it would have been nice to be able to flip the wrench over backwards to avoid an obstacle. Overall, I prefer the Craftsman design.

 

[autoace]

Im trying to decide which set to get that is reasonably priced. COO isn't important, but quality is.

GearWrench holds the corner of the market, with the most selection of wrench types, and as far as I can see, the best quality. Most all ratcheting wrenches are Asian, and the ones that are not, don't offer anything close to GearWrench selection. Any way you look at it, a large well rounded ratcheting wrench collection won't be all USA.

GearWrench warranty is very easy, at least alot of vendors.......I have yet to break a GW tool, but Danaher is a big company, they will most certainly always be here, after other companies fold.

 

[Fedwrench]

A word about the hated (at least by me) Gearwrench Capstop feature. Capstop is a dismal feature placed in the boxed end of SOME Gearwrench REVERSIBLE (only) combination wrenches sold at Sears, Lowes, and other non professional stores to prevent the wrench from slipping past a nut on a long thread shaft. As you can see from the picture of the two 12mm wrenches below, the one on the left has a thin washer above the teeth of the boxed end. This is the dreaded Capstop feature. While it prevents the wrench from sliding past a nut, it also prevents you from using a reverse grip on the wrench or any adapter. NOT all Gearwrench reversible wrenches have the Capstop feature. If you buy from a professional tool outlet like tooltopia, thetoolwarehouse, etc you won't see Capstop. Of course, you won't get the super cheap price that Sears used to have either but, it's worth paying more not to have Capstop. Capstop isn't found on any other style of Gearwrench model except the reversible combination wrenches sold at do it yourself type stores. If your priority is a US made set, your best option for the money is the Craftsman Full polished reversible and falt panel sets. You'll be limited on some sizes but, it's the best bang for your US dollars. However, Gearwrench to me at least is the best overall choice for size selection, quality,ease of warranty , and service life but, they're not US made.

 

[Snap50]

For those who like the Armstrong, their catalog doesn't seem to show the size stamping as very easy to read (on the metrics). Are the numbers small, not thicklined?
Hard to read?

Also, I've been told by a warehouser that both Armstrong and Craftsman are manufactured in the same plant. That being said, is there a preference one way or the other?
For arguments sake, say that they can cost the same, so preference would be solely on functionality and quality.

 

[quattrojon]

Armstrong.





...

I really like their double box ratchet wrenches. U.S made "From forge to finish"

 

[skeletonizer]

For those who like the Armstrong, their catalog doesn't seem to show the size stamping as very easy to read (on the metrics). Are the numbers small, not thicklined?
Hard to read?

Also, I've been told by a warehouser that both Armstrong and Craftsman are manufactured in the same plant. That being said, is there a preference one way or the other?

For me the preferred of the two is Craftsman. Ease of warranty and price being the main reasons.

If I could buy Armstrong's in Sears while my wife was shopping in the mall I might have a different opinion.

 

[benjamming]

Snap 50: You don't have a ton of choices, but here they are...

Craftsman (except the China made elbow and open end ratcheting styles that were just released) -- I have every US made set they sell and have been pretty darn happy with all of them. The flat and reversible ratcheting sets are my favorites. The locking flex models are decent, but the heads are a bit bulkier than other brands. The reversible cross force wrenches are pretty nice too, but don't fit as well as other styles in cramped engine bays.

Armstrong -- All are US made. Very nice wrenches; they make stubby, flat, reversible and double box configurations. Pricier than C-Man, but you may find a deal if you watch e-bay. I love the double box style with one end that is ratcheting to speed off fasteners and the other that is fixed for final tightening/initial loosening.

Matco -- Some of the older styles are US made. They are essentially the same as the Armstrongs but with a Matco stamp. Beware though, many of their newer styles are imported.

SO -- Very nice, but also very expensive, even used on e-bay. Also, they are supposedly made in the USA, but they are not stamped accordingly.

Good luck!

Is Wright Tool not an option as well (in other words are they made by one of the above) or were they forgotten? They are certainly made in USA with domestic steel.

 

[bobemmerich]

I was lucky enough to get a good deal on a set of Allen brand ones. They work great and are U.S.A. made.

 

[BB26]

Is Wright Tool not an option as well (in other words are they made by one of the above) or were they forgotten? They are certainly made in USA with domestic steel.

I guess I should clarify that my post was specific to modern fine tooth, one piece forged ratcheting wrenches. A number of alternatives exists if you are looking for the old school latch on, open head, large tooth ratcheting wrenches.