Aircat vs Earthquake 1/4 ratchet

[dfndr]

Earthquake 1/4 air ratchet on sale at HF for $45, that's $36 with 20% coupon.

Aircat 800 1/4 ratchet with silencing(82 db) for $69 on Amazon.

Which should weekend mechanic buy?

 

[gofastman]

aircat baby!

 

[nissan_crawler]

aircat baby!

WHat he said.

 

[Danglerb]

Anybody actually use either or both?

 

[DavidtheDuke]

The listed torques on things have scared me, I almost never need that much force when working with 1/4, 35ft lbs on SO's 1/4 ratchet seem more than enough as it is.

 

[Toolhorder]

Neither, get yourself a FAR25 from SO and be done with it.

 

[gofastman]

Neither, get yourself a FAR25 from SO and be done with it.

why the hell would a weekend mechanic (or anyone) drop $290 on a tool that offers less than the $80 alternative?

 

[tpolley]

Earthquake 1/4 air ratchet on sale at HF for $45, that's $36 with 20% coupon.

Aircat 800 1/4 ratchet with silencing(82 db) for $69 on Amazon.

Which should weekend mechanic buy?

correct me if i'm wrong but the 20% coupons say somewhere in the fine print that they don't work on sale prices. so if i'm not mistaken you can buy the air ratchet on sale for $45 or you can buy it at full price ($59.99) less 20% which would be $47.99. please correct me if i'm wrong because i'd buy a lot more **** from them if the 20% coupons worked othewise.

 

[BeansBaxter]

correct me if i'm wrong but the 20% coupons say somewhere in the fine print that they don't work on sale prices. so if i'm not mistaken you can buy the air ratchet on sale for $45 or you can buy it at full price ($59.99) less 20% which would be $47.99. please correct me if i'm wrong because i'd buy a lot more **** from them if the 20% coupons worked othewise.

They don't work with other coupons but if it's a sale price, you're good to go. In fact, the small print specifically mentions that it's good on sale prices. Here's a 20% off coupon that's good until 15-Feb-2010.

 

[BeansBaxter]

Earthquake 1/4 air ratchet on sale at HF for $45, that's $36 with 20% coupon.

Aircat 800 1/4 ratchet with silencing(82 db) for $69 on Amazon.

Which should weekend mechanic buy?

Where are you finding the 1/4" Earthquake ratchet on sale for $45?

 

[pattenp]

They don't work with other coupons but if it's a sale price, you're good to go. In fact, the small print specifically mentions that it's good on sale prices. Here's a 20% off coupon that's good until 15-Feb-2010.

My local Harbor Freight has refused to take the coupons on sale items because the coupon states is can't be used on discounted items which they say are sale items. But I do see the coupon you posted does say sale items.

 

[BeansBaxter]

My local Harbor Freight has refused to take the coupons on sale items because the coupon states is can't be used on discounted items which they say are sale items. But I do see the coupon you posted does say sale items.

That's a bummer. It seems like every HF is unique. I was able to use a scanned print from a magazine the other day but they had to do it as a separate transaction since I had some coupons for other stuff as well.

The guy tried to convince me to save it since it didn't expire for a while and the most expensive thing I was buying was only $10.

I guess the fact that I could just print another one didn't cross his mind.

 

[BeansBaxter]

Earthquake 1/4 air ratchet on sale at HF for $45, that's $36 with 20% coupon.

Aircat 800 1/4 ratchet with silencing(82 db) for $69 on Amazon.

Which should weekend mechanic buy?

You're probably fine with the Earthquake but I don't have any first hand experience with them. At least you know there's no way they can be as bad as the Campbell Hausfeld stuff.

If you have the extra scratch, I'd get the Aircat just for the quieter operation.

 

[speed bump]

Aircat>everything else because its quiet and to me that matters more than much else in an air ratchet.

 

[tpolley]

They don't work with other coupons but if it's a sale price, you're good to go. In fact, the small print specifically mentions that it's good on sale prices. Here's a 20% off coupon that's good until 15-Feb-2010.

sweet! i wish i'd have known that a long time ago!

 

[dfndr]

I'm the OP. Both HF stores in my town have both the 1/4 and 3/8 on the shelf with sale prices of about 25% off. Both of these stores have taken the 20% coupon on sale items. The sale is thru 11/20. Better decide soon!

 

[back2class]

The earthquake is a fine tool. I owned one in 1/2 dr and I was impressed. (now own a IR titanium) Get the earthquake.

 

[dfndr]

Well, while shopping on ebay I bought a nice used Snapon 3/8 in FAR72b for $49. Maybe I can do without either of the 1/4's. Thanks for the advice. Rick

 

[LGMechanical]

I use a Matco MT2858 3/8" and the MT1835 1/4" Both are durable, quiet, and have good power. (Especially the MT2858 )

 

[Toolhorder]

why the hell would a weekend mechanic (or anyone) drop $290 on a tool that offers less than the $80 alternative?

Because it's the best 1/4 air ratchet IMO. I dropped the money down for mine and couldn't be happier. I had cheaper 1/4 ratchets and got sick of breaking them. To each his own.

 

[1FordTech1]

I found this old thread while searching for the best price on the internet currently on the AirCat. In case someone finds this thread in the future I just wanted to say that I have owned several Snap On Far 25 and while being a fine tool it is very loud and after a year I have to get it rebuilt with heavy use. Then after that the 85 dollar rebuilds only last 6-9 months. I have found the AirCat lasts me about one full year with heavy use and can buy them new for less money on sale than the price of a Snap On rebuild of my FAR 25. I stopped using the FAR 25 and use the Air Cat exclusively now. Powerful and super quiet. At my age that is important to me especially since I work inside of vehicles much of the time and that gets even louder.

 

[mrholeshot]

Funny thing, I've been through a few dozen 1/4 drive air ratchets over my lifetime. Owned Snap-On, Mac, IR and a few others. The longest lasting and most used one I've owned is one I bought at Harbor Freight for like 9 dollars on sale. It's now 4-5 years old and gets used constantly even now that I'm retired. That thing is like the energizer bunny. All the rest lasted a year or two. Has about 25-30 ftlbs of torque. My FAR72 held up about 2.5 years and was used a good bit but just too much money for the weekend guy. I say go cheap on this one. Anything bigger than a 5/16 bolt you need to use a 3/8 air ratchet. Not really a place you have to spend mega bucks to get good results.

 

[Theloniousmonk]

every 1/4" air ratchet I have ever owned ends up breaking at the square drive head... so I don't use em anymore. IMO, it is a pointless tool unless you are assembling doll houses and exterior trim pieces.

 

[mrholeshot]

every 1/4" air ratchet I have ever owned ends up breaking at the square drive head... so I don't use em anymore. IMO, it is a pointless tool unless you are assembling doll houses and exterior trim pieces.

They are worth their weight in gold doing dash work where you need to pull the dash apart to install a heater core.

 

[Theloniousmonk]

They are worth their weight in gold doing dash work where you need to pull the dash apart to install a heater core.

See... I use a hand driver for that work (pita though), after years of fixing broken mounts and stripped screws because the previous job was done fast and dirty, and it's too loud for my delicate little ears... sometimes I use a dewalt 1/4" driver, but that has a torque limit and clutch. I also don't want a dirty air hose riding the sill plate or kick panel. To clarify though, I used a 1/4" for interior work at one time, but as I said they brake.

 

[1FordTech1]

They are worth their weight in gold doing dash work where you need to pull the dash apart to install a heater core.

This is exactly where I use mine often as I do most of the heater cores, air conditioning repairs, electrical repairs, etc in this Ford shop. The nice thing is that you can learn to feather the trigger and get great results. Electric screw drivers are too large for this work and this tool is perfect for it. I have never broken an air ratchet, just wore out the head gears or air vanes.