Finally busted my HF breaker bar

[ekimneirbo]

Best bet is to just buy one of Harbor Freights 3/4 drive Earthquake impact guns......the 3/4 is a heck of an impact. My son was telling me last night about trying to loosen a nut on a trailer hitch...too no avail with a breaker bar. Whipped out the 3/4 HF and walked it off like it was nothing. Got to get the 3/4 though.

 

[Tom.C]

Titan on amazon is decent and cheap if I didn’t own snap on that would be my choice

 

[Wakefield]

thanks

Fork on the head vs.
Fork on the handle

 

[Wakefield]

I want the 24'' long 1/2'' drive Koken breaker bar, but cant find a seller that will ship to usa. I love the koken ratchets with the knurled handles, so I think the breaker bar would be very nice too

The Koken breaker bar looks very well finished and polished,but it is only 1 inch wide at the head,even the thin Snap On is 1 and 1/8" wide at the head,my SK is 1 and 1/4" wide at the head
so I consider the Koken too delicate to use except where access,not power,is the main concern
check the "Frank's Tools" or "Tools of Japan" threads for Koken source

 

[Wakefield]

The fact that the bar can bend quite a bit without breaking indicates that the alloy, itself, is adequate for the job. A soft alloy would get bent permanently.

There is very little difference in the stiffness (Young's modulus) of various steel alloys. There is great deal of difference in the hardness of the steel alloys.

The HF bar is too thin to be stiff.

Older Duralast 24" long 1/2" drive bar is rather thick,thicker than the Snap On or SK ,otherwise looks like an early Harbor Freight with the ears on the head model
some of those things may come with the axle screw not tight enough!

 

[Badgerstate]

Take a look at the Masterforce breaker bar that Menards sells. Ive got one and its built like a tank, plus you can get it with a longish handle. Ive got the 18" version but they also make a 30" version for when youre done messing around.

 

[RPH]

Nothing like a zombie thread.
But get the tekton 3/4” beast bar.

 

[seber]

Hold your chest when you click on the link> https://shop.snapon.com/product/SN36



That kind of money would buy a very nice impact. Forget the breaker.









;

 

[dnschmidt]

How about an Aircat 1250K or the Milwaukee High Torque. Breaker bars are for Cavemen.

 

[Mallen]

1/2" breaker or 3/4"? You didn't mention that. I have a 3/4" 36" SK breaker bar that will get the job done with a 10' pipe and everything I've got on the end of it.

Far as 1/2" goes, around the farm for one particular piece of equipment that can't fit a 3/4" drive socket and breaker bar, I had to step up to Snap-on. The 25" ratchet with everything I've got in me on the end of it does the job.

Granted I know you said no Snap-on, but for that particular application I tried a lot of different solutions to the issue that ultimately ended up failing. Snap-on was my last resort and it has stayed working. Just to clarify once again it is a ratchet not a breaker bar for my application that I haven't managed to kill yet.

I have a snap on. Over the years I abused it over and over. So stone I would put it on a large bolt and jump up and down on it. It finally gave up when up put a six foot jack handle on it, put the handle across my shoulders and stood up using my entire body to lift the handle trying to get a wheel nut off a pt cruiser. A 3/4" harbor freight socket set with a 3/4 inch breaker bar split one of the sockets. A napa socket ended up getting the wheel nut off, but mangled the end of the hf breaker bar. But that's the kind of abuse it took to destroy it. Snap on sent me a replacement without any hassle. They are expensive, but worth it.

 

[VolvoRyan]

Kinda not cool to resurrect a thread like this. A lot of the players have changed since the original posted. HF today is probably better than HF even just a few years ago.

I have a 24" Snap-On that did flat-rate for 40 years before it broke (the "square" broke off through the ball detent). While I was waiting for parts from Snap-On (parts for a 1978 tool took about a week to show up), I bought a 24" SK.

That said, if you're seriously laying into a 1/2" bar, it makes more sense to get a 3/4" for those jobs. More leverage, and a more rigid package. Tekton is pretty cheap, but has a very professional presence, and depending on what you work on, you may be able to get away with just the sockets you know you "need". That means a pretty small outlay of cash, which beats doing a faceplant when a tool breaks... or walking around like a cowboy for the rest of the day because you overdid it with a 24" bar.

-Ryan

 

[Al Borland]

Tools break. Life is short. Get another and move on.
If you aren't breaking tools, you aren't working hard enough!

 

[Ton ton]

Tools break. Life is short. Get another and move on.
If you aren't breaking tools, you aren't working hard enough!

Well said.

 

[Ign]

Kinda not cool to resurrect a thread like this. A lot of the players have changed since the original posted. HF today is probably better than HF even just a few years ago.
{snip}
-Ryan

Not only that but Duralast --mentioned in this thread back in '19 -- overall is in a Craftsman-esque race to the bottom. Just 5 to 6 years ago we had threads about gems in their lineup -- and there were quite a few. Today most things have been redesigned to be cheaper and crappier.

Similarly, places like Lowe's and Menards tend to change their hand tools every few years. Oftentimes we don't notice until we go back looking for that great value and discover it's no longer such a value.

There was also talk of the Pittsburgh Pro actually getting less meat in it once the Icon came out, but I couldn't keep up with the latest data on that.

 

[VolvoRyan]

Not only that but Duralast --mentioned in this thread back in '19 -- overall is in a Craftsman-esque race to the bottom. Just 5 to 6 years ago we had threads about gems in their lineup -- and there were quite a few. Today most things have been redesigned to be cheaper and crappier.

Similarly, places like Lowe's and Menards tend to change their hand tools every few years. Oftentimes we don't notice until we go back looking for that great value and discover it's no longer such a value.

There was also talk of the Pittsburgh Pro actually getting less meat in it once the Icon came out, but I couldn't keep up with the latest data on that.

Lots of moving targets out there. Speaking of, I got a starter air tool set from Lowes eons ago after some of my tools got stolen. It was fine. Just a few years after, a friend got what was *seemingly* the same set. Junk.

-Ryan

 

[Jtels85]

Bent a Proto breaker bar once working on my old Durango. Borrowed my dads Pittsburgh and it got the job done. I was quite surprised.

 

[Wakefield]

Bent a Proto breaker bar once working on my old Durango. Borrowed my dads Pittsburgh and it got the job done. I was quite surprised.

Was that the first style Pitts. with the large head/ears on head?

 

[Jtels85]

Was that the first style Pitts. with the large head/ears on head?

It was the 24” Pittsburgh with the red & black comfort grip handle. My Proto breaker bar that bent came from a Military Surplus store.

I’m still shocked whenever I think about it. The Chinese Pittsburgh did the job that the top quality USA brand couldn’t do… and I’m a USA tool guy through and through.

 

[Wrench97]

It was the 24” Pittsburgh with the red & black comfort grip handle. My Proto breaker bar that bent came from a Military Surplus store.

I’m still shocked whenever I think about it. The Chinese Pittsburgh did the job that the top quality USA brand couldn’t do… and I’m a USA tool guy through and through.

I'd bet the Proto is probably designed to bend at it's failure point where the HF bar would just snap suddenly.

 

[qqzj]

I'd bet the Proto is probably designed to bend at it's failure point

If you register it on Proto's website, it will also send you a warning text message right before it bends.

 

[corn chip]

was the proto used a thousand times and the pittsburg nearly new ? could be a number of reasons why one broke and the other didnt. but also, not everything made in usa is brilliantly engineered to perfection

 

[Jtels85]

was the proto used a thousand times and the pittsburg nearly new ? could be a number of reasons why one broke and the other didnt. but also, not everything made in usa is brilliantly engineered to perfection

It came from a military surplus store and it was the first time I had used it. The condition was like new, so I don’t know how many times it had been previously used or if it had ever been used at all.

My 23” Carlyle breaker bar has taken an *** whooping over recent years and never once bent or failed. I’ve pushed on it, pulled on it, jumped on it.. it’s almost as if it were Snap On quality but at a fraction of the price.