Best Ratchet Wrenches?

[Ralf11]

not finding threads on this...

I have some that work ok but there is no angle or offset to them which makes them hard to use

I'm looking for something in metric and just need a couple of these.

I see a brand on Amerzonk for cheap - SODIAL; any experience?

 

[Tom.C]

Best ones are probably the new snap on one's, they are offset on the box end like a normal wrench and reversible and also have the tightest clearance around the box if I remember correctly, I'm not sure that's what you're looking for tho, the title said "best" but you mentioned cheap so if your looking for best cheap ones I would say gearwrench.

 

[APS2000]

You said offset. There's a lot of choices; offset, flex, long, regular, stubby, reversible, combination, DBE, etc? Which one do you desire?

 

[Ralf11]

regular, angled head would be fine

offset is an option

Best, yes - I'd want to exclude anything really inferior from consideration

BTW, if a Snap-On is the best, will a Williams be as good?

and what does a Snapon truck guy do when you hand him a busted Williams tool??

 

[ocloc24]

Yeah I wouldn't risk going with a no name company on something like ratchet wrenches, even more so being cheap. It's already pain enough going through warranty with gearwrench. I've never heard of the company you mentioned and I am on Amazon alot. As mentioned above the snap on are probably the best there is. There's the Blue Point versions which are a little cheaper and they're still better than most others. Below that Blackhawk by proto are good. Then gearwrench who used to be really solid but is kind of a **** shoot anymore but should get the job done. Also sometimes craftsmans ratchet wrenches are sometimes on sale for cheaper than Gearwrench and I'm 99% sure they're made by gearwrench.

From what you said you either want reversible ones (the only ones that come with an offset) or flex head style.

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[icthruu74]

Anyone have experience with the Tekton ratchet wrenches? I almost picked up a set at a tent sale last week.

 

[unisawone]

Look at the Mountain brand, they are awesome! I use blue points and gearwrench a lot but love the Mountain the best

 

[Tom.C]

Williams and blue point are the same tool, snap on will NOT warranty williams, and contacting williams for a replacement won't be easy.

 

[Ralf11]

Mountain (on amazon) seems to be about the same price as Snappy - where are buying them?

 

[Tom.C]

Link? If mountain where the same as snap on they're smoking crack.

 

[pl_silverado]

Best ones are probably the new snap on one's, they are offset on the box end like a normal wrench and reversible and also have the tightest clearance around the box if I remember correctly, I'm not sure that's what you're looking for tho, the title said "best" but you mentioned cheap so if your looking for best cheap ones I would say gearwrench.

I'm not sold on their new design. I have two old style sets and one new style. Old style have been kicking **** for 15 years without any trouble. New style 14mm seized up after a week and 13mm feels like it's next. They don't feel as smooth as dual 80 ratchets that's for sure.

I'm not giving up the old style anytime soon, I don't remember ever wanting thinner boxed ends due to clearance with them.

 

[kythri]

Anyone have experience with the Tekton ratchet wrenches? I almost picked up a set at a tent sale last week.

No direct experience with their ratchet wrenches, but if they're anything like their recent (say, past year or two) tool line up, I'm sure they're good stuff.

 

[ocloc24]

I'm not sold on their new design. I have two old style sets and one new style. Old style have been kicking **** for 15 years without any trouble. New style 14mm seized up after a week and 13mm feels like it's next. They don't feel as smooth as dual 80 ratchets that's for sure.

I'm not giving up the old style anytime soon, I don't remember ever wanting thinner boxed ends due to clearance with them.

The old ones are enormous and pretty rough in me experience. The new ones have the smallest backdrag I've ever felt on any ratcheting mechanism. I have beat the piss out of mine for 6 months now and they are still buttery smooth. Plus the old ones levers were too fragile. And again they were huge, bigger than even cheapo brands

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[Brick Axelrod]

I have the Gearwrench, Proto , SK and Snap on ratchet wrenches in different sets. I would say if you want he best I would go Snap On.

 

[APS2000]

Best, yes - I'd want to exclude anything really inferior from consideration

I don't know you location. Are you near a NAPA? Carlyle brand perhaps? They sell singles too I believe.

https://www.napaonline.com/en/searc...sInterchange=true&referer=search_form-allprod

 

[unisawone]

I bought the Mountain from Tooltopia. I have mostly Snap On but these are cool, adjustable angle and and reversible, nice and long for better leverage. Like I said I still have regular style Gearwrench and Blue Points but these are nice?

 

[shawndp]

Gearwrench can be had for not a lot of $$ if you are in the US and do they job well for the price. Canadian Tire rebrands them as Mastercraft and you can find them on sale. The very best ratchets are Snap On, as has been stated by many others. They are 5x to 8x the price though, but over a 30 year career you tend to forget how much you paid.

 

[Olafur]

My gripe with ratcheting wrenches is you can't access great many fasteners with them. There isn't enough room for the box end. And certainly not where you really need them. For this reason my - not so cheap and quite nice- set of Facom 467 wrenches sit mostly idle in the drawer. So do my flex-head Toptul wrenches. Neither have the tendency to solve difficult situations.

But take a look at this wrench:

Notice how the center of the box end protrudes out of the head, like a short socket. This wrench (and the 16,17/18,19mm version) has saved my bacon many times. This is a great feature because this one can turn fasteners that the "regular" ratcheting wrench can't access!

My "dream wrenches" would have this feature. The "socket" might even protrude a bit more. In regular length with small angle to the head. Reversible!

 

[bobcatdan]

15 ears ago, GW was awesome. My personal favorites are the flex head combo. Sadly through the years with a few warranty replacements, they have steadily drop to ****. I have the newest style SO at work now and I'm 95% happy with them. Only complaint I have is the heads don't seem to be sealed the best. Working in foundry grit, I can tell it's getting inside them where it didn't with the 15 year old GW. I just spray them with lube around the drive and they are back to normal.

 

[M6erfan]

15 ears ago, GW was awesome. My personal favorites are the flex head combo. Sadly through the years with a few warranty replacements, they have steadily drop to ****.

^^^Yup^^^

 

[Tonyuk]

I've been using Facom ratchet spanners for the past few years and they have been excellent. They recently brought out a new design with a grip at the open end and a stop on the closed;

 

[earlthegoat2]

My personal favorite is the now defunct Armstrong reversible long pattern combination ratcheting wrench. True long pattern design. Thicker beam than the GW. USA. One of the only tools I can compare with Snap On (the old model) and other than SO having a few nice features like FD+ on the open end, I think they stand up to eachother equally.

I would eBay buy a set but there probably wont be any support for the product.

 

[cherrybomb]

I have Proto,chrome,U.S.A.reversibles ,spline,that are also a excellent choice.Nice finish,smooth ratchet and asd open end.The price was good,not cheap but less than the truck.Depending on how much you use the tool,I guess dictates how much you spend.Another tool where if you go to cheap,and use it often,you might regret.I really like my Proto USA,but if I could find a individual Facom,they sure look sweet.Another tool on my gotta have list.

 

[pl_silverado]

The old ones are enormous and pretty rough in me experience. The new ones have the smallest backdrag I've ever felt on any ratcheting mechanism. I have beat the piss out of mine for 6 months now and they are still buttery smooth. Plus the old ones levers were too fragile. And again they were huge, bigger than even cheapo brands

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That's good to hear, maybe I got a set that was rushed thru QC. I'll make my dealer swap the whole set out and give them another whirl before I decide to dump them om eBay.


Those old huge ones, are the best wrenches period, that I have ever bought next to the straight zero offset xdhm wrenches. 15 years with not a single issue, never broke a lever or anything. If they felt like they skipped a tooth I would just put 1-2 drops of oil on the ratcheting mechanism and keep going. While they were bulkier than others, I never found myself in a situation where that was an issue.

 

[ocloc24]

That's good to hear, maybe I got a set that was rushed thru QC. I'll make my dealer swap the whole set out and give them another whirl before I decide to dump them om eBay.


Those old huge ones, are the best wrenches period, that I have ever bought next to the straight zero offset xdhm wrenches. 15 years with not a single issue, never broke a lever or anything. If they felt like they skipped a tooth I would just put 1-2 drops of oil on the ratcheting mechanism and keep going. While they were bulkier than others, I never found myself in a situation where that was an issue.

The old ones were bulletproof on the mechanism, they were still one of the best options, I do industrial maintenance so the size didn't bother me too bad unless I was working on my car, but for auto guys I can understand the complaints.

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[az45]

I picked up a coupe Dewalt sets with angled heads at Sears a year ago becasue they were on sale. They have worked great, I grab them first of the others I have.

https://goo.gl/AkXq64

 

[Ralf11]

I'm in Oro-gone - we have NAPAs here and some carry things besides chainsaws.


... and pot pipes.

 

[1990 Grand Wag]

My gripe with ratcheting wrenches is you can't access great many fasteners with them. There isn't enough room for the box end. And certainly not where you really need them. For this reason my - not so cheap and quite nice- set of Facom 467 wrenches sit mostly idle in the drawer. So do my flex-head Toptul wrenches. Neither have the tendency to solve difficult situations.

But take a look at this wrench:

Notice how the center of the box end protrudes out of the head, like a short socket. This wrench (and the 16,17/18,19mm version) has saved my bacon many times. This is a great feature because this one can turn fasteners that the "regular" ratcheting wrench can't access!

My "dream wrenches" would have this feature. The "socket" might even protrude a bit more. In regular length with small angle to the head. Reversible!

That Facom wrench looks just like the wrenches in the Toptul set that I purchased from Dennis a while back. Works well.

 

[Olafur]

That Facom wrench looks just like the wrenches in the Toptul set that I purchased from Dennis a while back. Works well.

These? : https://www.toptul.com/s/2/product-389907/Pro-Series-4-In-1-Ratchet-Double-Ring-Wrench.html

Probably made in the same factory in Taiwan, also seen them under Bahco, Usag and other names. Unfortunately the Facom set I got consists of only two wrenches and therefore sizes like 14mm are missing. Toptul version has better size combinations.

Yes they work well and they can access many fasteners regular ratcheting wrenches can't. Having 4 in 1 can be a good thing too.

 

[stormfront_marauder]

I'm backing up Cherrybomb on the Proto chrome splined ratchet combination wrenches as they are my go-to tools for a big part of my job tasks (aircraft maintenance).
I manage to use them in some awful tight spots cramped with metal parts, tubes and wire bundles, and they do a VERY nice job. Definitely not cheap but worth every cent if you use them often enough.

 

[1990 Grand Wag]

These? : https://www.toptul.com/s/2/product-389907/Pro-Series-4-In-1-Ratchet-Double-Ring-Wrench.html

Probably made in the same factory in Taiwan, also seen them under Bahco, Usag and other names. Unfortunately the Facom set I got consists of only two wrenches and therefore sizes like 14mm are missing. Toptul version has better size combinations.

Yes they work well and they can access many fasteners regular ratcheting wrenches can't. Having 4 in 1 can be a good thing too.

Yep, those! Other than the selector and a cutout underneath, they look "almost" identical.

 

[Strouty]

I don't really think there is a best ratcheting wrench. In order to have the "best" you probably need multiple styles. All of them **** in some way, yes even Snap On versions.

 

[Olafur]

I don't really think there is a best ratcheting wrench. In order to have the "best" you probably need multiple styles. All of them **** in some way, yes even Snap On versions.

Agreed.

 

[Carquest]

Does anyone know if Snap On makes the reversible offset wrenches in SAE sizes above 3/4? I can't seem to find on Snap On website

 

[Strouty]

Bigger ratcheting wrenches are not as common, the size of the mechanism makes them seem a bit goofy IMO. I know that Proto has them up to 1 1/4" in the USA line and even larger in the Taiwan line.

 

[pl_silverado]

Does anyone know if Snap On makes the reversible offset wrenches in SAE sizes above 3/4? I can't seem to find on Snap On website

Nope. They don't.

 

[Ralf11]

any thoughts on Hazet?

some Europeans think it is the best (overall) brand

 

[drtyler]

They are not made in Germany. I don't believe they stand out over any of the others. There probably is little reason to pay more for them.

The Gedore ratchet wrenches (7UR and 7R) are made in Germany, if that is important to you. The quality is good as well.

any thoughts on Hazet?

some Europeans think it is the best (overall) brand

 

[kythri]

Bigger ratcheting wrenches are not as common, the size of the mechanism makes them seem a bit goofy IMO. I know that Proto has them up to 1 1/4" in the USA line and even larger in the Taiwan line.

GearWrench makes enormous sizes...

 

[Monte]

Maybe not the best, but good enough