Gearwrench 120 XP Torque Wrench

I haven't seen much if any info on these, I know they got glossed over during Sema, but outside of that I haven't seen anyone buy one or comment on having owned one. I needed a digital torque wrench that could do angle, and I'd have loved to get Snap On, but I'm just...cheap. Even as a professional its hard for me to justify paying ~550 for a torque wrench. So sorry, if your car comes in it wont be torqued by me with a Snap On wrench. It'll either be this or one of my Armstrong wrenches. I've found I like to find a good middle ground, and for digital torque wrenches most everything looked either to cheap, or way to expensive. I eyed up the CDI (or PI, i forget) digital and almost went that route, but I've made a lot of money with my other Gearwrench tools and these seemed to be well built from initial sema impressions so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Made in Taiwan, flex head, digital with angle! 10 - 100 ft pounds

The case is beefy and the wrench itself is really beefy. The last few digital torque wrenches I've used are oldish(?) wrenches of my co-workers, a digital Snap On and a Digital matco, both of which had lots of plastic. I know both of them, the whole digital/button housing was plastic. The Gearwrench one has no plastic exposed except the visible orange face as seen in the pictures. The other three sides are covered by the metal body. You'd think it would make the wrench rather bulky but it feels sleek and thin in my hand, and the pictures make it appear larger than I think it is. The only failure point I see (depending on how the mechanism/electronics hold up) would be the battery cap threads. When you take the cap off, the threads coming out of the body are plastic and feel like...plastic. Probably not an issue, but its the only cheap feeling part of the wrench.

Sorry the pictures aren't the best, its late and I just got home. Maybe I'll talk some better pictures tomorrow at work, I've got a job that 5 of the steering gear bolts need 5 NM + 90* angle, so I'll use this for that first thing in the morning! I imagine it'll be a busy day and the torque wrench torquing bolts down will be uneventful, but I'll report back irregardless!

The case, very heavy duty



How it arrived - Silica packet and all



Torque



Angle



120 xp



****** photo of the calibration and manual

I was looking into these a few weeks ago. I liked the metal vs plastic, but I haven’t had time to look into the reliability of their electronics on previous models. Amazon had a pretty good price on one a few weeks back, but I couldn’t bring myself to bite yet.

Nice. The clicker SO and CDI wrenches I use are coarse tooth which can present problems in certain situations. If you ever put it on a torque tester let us know how it performs.

81turbota said:

Nice. The clicker SO and CDI wrenches I use are coarse tooth which can present problems in certain situations. If you ever put it on a torque tester let us know how it performs.

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I have the older Armstrong 1/2 drive digital torque wrench with the 60T head. (I have an 88T kit I can drop in though) and yes, when in a tight spot, that little extra swing space can mean the difference between a 2 minute job and a 25 minute job. lol

As for the OP- I just can't stand the 120XP heads. 88T heads were perfect. Thin head, swing arc was good enough for 99.9% of the jobs it needed to do.

After further review, If they release it with an 88T head, It'd be a good buy imho.

It’s a nice looking torque wrench. Thanks for the pictures.

I've been looking into these for a few weeks now. Seem like a really nice wrench for the money. Been wanting an angle wrench for a while now to do TTY bolts.

What model number did you get and where did you get it from?

I've been debating on weather to get the 3/8" or the 1/2" one first. Which one is more usefull for doing angle torque on vehicles? Thinking the 3/8" for engine work.

Interested to hear more once you've put it in action - how much did you get it for?

Thanks everyone for the replies. I had heard good things about their past electronics, even those made in China. I cant obviously comment on how this one will fair, but hopefully its great. I picked up the 85195 3/8" wrench from ebay with a few accumulated ebay bucks + a 5 dollar coupon for 160 (172 - 5 ebay coupon - 7 ebay bucks)

I used the wrench today to do 5 NM + 90* angle, and unfortunately could not do it with a single wrench. This wrench is ~13nm - ~113 (10 ft lbs - 100 ft lbs) so I did the 5NM with another wrench, but did the 90* angle with this one, worked like a charm. Red and green on the display + a great vibration when hitting the desired value. This wrench will do a torque value + angle, but my torque value in this situation was unfortunately to low. No complaints, it obviously must have been fairly accurate, none of the bolts snapped and all seemed properly tight after the torque procedure. I meant to get better pictures and wanted to get a few with the handle light up in red and green, but again ended up way to busy and just didn't quite have the time. I will end up using this a fair amount in the next few weeks, and if it continues to fair well I might pick up the 1/4" as well. The wrench feels great in my hand by the way. Despite being beefy and robust, it felt rather light once in use.

I was hoping Gearwrench would use their new 90 tooth head on these because, I'm not a fan of the 120xp head. there are a couple of you tube videos demoing these at the SEMA Gearwrench booth. I like that there are lights and vibration plus angle on it.

Please post follow ups to this with any pros or cons you encounter through sustained use. Thanks for sharing

Flyordie said:

I have the older Armstrong 1/2 drive digital torque wrench with the 60T head. (I have an 88T kit I can drop in though) and yes, when in a tight spot, that little extra swing space can mean the difference between a 2 minute job and a 25 minute job. lol

As for the OP- I just can't stand the 120XP heads. 88T heads were perfect. Thin head, swing arc was good enough for 99.9% of the jobs it needed to do.

After further review, If they release it with an 88T head, It'd be a good buy imho.

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Fedwrench said:

I was hoping Gearwrench would use their new 90 tooth head on these because, I'm not a fan of the 120xp head. there are a couple of you tube videos demoing these at the SEMA Gearwrench booth. I like that there are lights and vibration plus angle on it.

Please post follow ups to this with any pros or cons you encounter through sustained use. Thanks for sharing

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I know most concerns are over the head size, and I don't own any 120XP ratchets to compare, but I don't think the regular ratchet head sizes translates into the torque wrench head size. In fact, this head must be within 1mm front to back when compared to a regular 3/8" 84T head, and that includes the higher portion, not just the beveled edge. I went in for a few hours today and unfortunately my digital caliper is dead and broken at work, so pictures will have to do.

84T 3/8" flex head vs Torque Wrench







Snap On S80A vs Torque Wrench



Snap on TLL72 vs Torque Wrench

Looks cool Ive been eyeballing these too. How do they compare in price to something like a PI or CDI?

InjectorService said:

Looks cool Ive been eyeballing these too. How do they compare in price to something like a PI or CDI?

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The equivalent CDI was about 140-150 dollars more expensive, about double. I'm not aware of PI digital wrenches or if they offer one. I know the CDI wrench is probably fantastic but I figured I'd check these out, partly because I've made alot of money with my GW tools and have never been dissapointed and because it saved me 150 dollars around the holidays. More gifts I can give!

Yea, its about 1.25-1.5mm thicker overall. Which to me isn't worth it.

It looks though like you can swap heads on these. So might be possible to swap on an 88T MATCO head. lol.

Really evident when you get close, I've never owned a digital but with the low torque value's its really easy to go over, even going slow and knowing where I need to be (done hundreds of plugs @ 23nm)

Looking fantastic!

This is pretty compelling. I have an Snap On 3/8" flex, but I'm not in love with setting the thing (I'm a DIY pansy). This might well see me put it on eBay and grab the GearWrench...

I use it all the time for the same two applications and have used it a dew times for some odd stuff. I do tons of steering rack bolts as mentioned above which are torque + angle and then I usually bust it out for spark plugs for shits and giggles. Just used it this morning actually. The audible beeps and color display make it hard to miss.

Does it keep the torque level displayed on the screen after you hit it?

For example, if you set the wrench to 90ft.lbs then use it out of eye sight until it beeps and vibrates, can you then take it away and it will be flashing or displaying "88.4ft.lbs" or whatever for a period of time?

I have GW's last digital torque wrench and I relegated it for home use after using it at work and not ever seeing the torque level I actually hit.

This one apparently does show you the torque value achieved.

There isnt a whole lot out there on these wrenches right now. Seems like a great deal compared to a techangle. I just ordered the 1/2" drive 85196 from Amazon. Only $175 right now.

Arrives on Friday so will share more once i get a few uses out of her.

I'll be the negative Nancy here and say that I don't like the clunky handle design with the protruding upper/lower sections.

Treeman said:

I'll be the negative Nancy here and say that I don't like the clunky handle design with the protruding upper/lower sections.

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Those cones? are to prevent your hand from slipping off the handle. I'm on the fence about it but, i might give it a shot though.

Treeman said:

I'll be the negative Nancy here and say that I don't like the clunky handle design with the protruding upper/lower sections.

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They are there for a reason--an effort to maintain proper grasp position on the handle.





OP,

Thanks for the heads up on these wrenches.
I put a downpayment through my MAC dealer about a month ago.... but haven't heard back since.

Ive been using the 1/2" drive one for a few months now and really like it. Having the flex head seems irrelevant at first but its come in handy. The 120 tooth is great as well, for getting into tight spaces. No complaints.

Ended up ordering the 1/4" version as well and have used it a few times. It does 2-20ft-lbs.

I loved everything I saw about these, so I ordered the 3/8" first to try out, with the intent of ordering the 1/2" if I liked it. The first unit I got came in looking great, but it was consistently 6-7ft/lbs off of accurate, always on the lesser side (i.e. it would alert as "target reached" at 53 ft/lbs instead of 60). I sent that one back and got a replacement, again brand new in box. That one exhibited the same behavior - consistently 6-7 ft/lbs off of accurate. Can't trust it, so I sent that one back too. It's a shame, I really like these and the price is great, but if they're not accurate, then they're worthless to me.

To everyone who buys these wrenches, make sure you test the accuracy before using them.

Mine was correct vs. My usa made gearwrench clicker. Perhaps there's an issue with your testing method?

Not likely. I’ve got 6 torque wrenches total, which have all been calibrated within the past year and all match when tested. I also checked the GearWrench torque wrenches on my Snap-On driver’s torque tester - same results. Maybe I got a bad batch, but I’m not willing to spend any more money to find out.