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Best value long pattern combo wrenches?

J

Jersey Drew

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Looking for something that covers 8-22mm and not crazy on the pocket.
Snap on is too much
Wright is pretty pricey too
Tekton doesn’t seem to perform well in youtube tests and they don’t seem to make a long pattern.
Gearwrench everyone says quality is gone

So i don’t really know what to look at. I am looking to replace my older craftsman be cause they are very short and bulky and are just not comfy in the hand. Also would like to get some of these newer bite technologies in the open end. I’ve rounded a few bolts in the past.

Right now top contender is GW 81901 & 81902 sets
Suggestions....
 
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visionguru

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Jersey Drew said:
Looking for something that covers 8-22mm and not crazy on the pocket.
Snap on is too much
Wright is pretty pricey too
Tekton doesn’t seem to perform well in youtube tests and they don’t seem to make a long pattern.
Gearwrench everyone says quality is gone

So i don’t really know what to look at. I am looking to replace my older craftsman be cause they are very short and bulky and are just not comfy in the hand. Also would like to get some of these newer bite technologies in the open end. I’ve rounded a few bolts in the past.

Suggestions....
Click to expand...

Milwaukee? basically the same as Carlyle
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwauk...hanics-Tool-Set-15-Piece-48-22-9515/303010166

A couple of weeks ago, my local HD had this on clearance, but only SAE set was available, otherwise I would have picked up a set. Looks/feels very nice. 1d480e4875c0334e9fba91a731b051dc.jpg
 

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S

Skin

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Milwaukee and Icon (HF) are nice combos for a very reasonable amount of cash. Carlyle too assuming they ever go on sale again and with Icon they usually run a 20% coupon every couple months.

All 3 appear to be from Infar in Taiwan (Milwaukee has more of a European forged offeset I-beam design) so shop based on price and ease of location to warranty. I think GW has been Chinese made for a few years so i'd avoid them as their China stuff is generally inferior to what they produce in Taiwan.

There is also this set from Capri that is probably worth considering
https://capritools.com/shop/combination-wrench-set-tray-metric/

No personal experience with their tools but i've read and seen nothing but good things about quality and support after sale. Warranty is by mail but everything is prepaid and on most things they ship replacements first so there is no turn around lag.
 
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T

thugline

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The best value would be Channellock. They are basically the same as Carlyle but quite a bit cheaper. Best bang for the buck in my opinion.
 
S

Skin

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thugline said:
The best value would be Channellock. They are basically the same as Carlyle but quite a bit cheaper. Best bang for the buck in my opinion.
Click to expand...

They only offer a 9-19 and skip 16mm. OP wanted 8-24mm. Filling in with other brands would not comply to the laws of OCD and you usually get screwed buying singles too. Honestly for the cash the Capri would be hard to beat plus you get a really nice, and actually usable, foam organizer.
 
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SuperCat

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The Milwaukee wrench set has open ends with "Max Bite." That looks pretty aggressive, I bet that wrench damages fasteners. The HF Icon wrench appears to have a traditional plain open end without off corner loading or aggressive grip. Both wrenches appear to have an off corner loading design on the box end. Hopefully, the pictures on their websites are accurate, I have not seen either wrench in person. Just wanted to point out that difference, some folks don't want their fasteners chewed up. :thumbup:
 
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Fedwrench

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The Milwaukee wrenches aren't long pattern. They're more standard length.
The Capri combination wrenches are the same as Tekton combination wrenches with Capri stamped on them. they're not long pattern despite despite what Capri's catalog says. Like Tekton, they're longer than a Craftsman raised panel wrench but, shorter than a Carlyle or Snap on.
the Williams supercombo wrenches are quite nice but, or a little pricy as are Proto wrenches unless you can get a deal on them.
The Icon combination wrenches are quite nice too as others have mentioned but, you would have to buy two wrench sets to cover out to 24 mm at a before coupon price of $170 which to me isn't that cheap.
Gearwrench used to be a great choice but, there have been some quality control issues from moving production to China, People's Republic of. If you could find an older made in Taiwan set, they're pretty good. Carlyle is a good choice when on a decent sale.
Although prices have climbed, I would also look at the sets offered by Dewalt & OEM Tools. OEM Tools offers a satin finished set out to 22 mm. Look for a black Friday sale though. Good luck in your quest :beer:
 
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Mr_B

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Be careful with cheap aviation style box end wrenches as lot of them are very poor broaching/fit and with long design you want good broach .
The taiwan open end grip design is not that nice, you almost better off with quality standard jaw.
If you happy with a standard jaw you could look at toptul
The icon long ratchet wrenches are pretty good value with 20% coupon, I use metric standard jaw set professionally and no complaints, they only go to 19mm but do have the grip jaw version but I don't like them much . wright snapon and facom do about best grip open ends .
 
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dnschmidt

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I am confounded about the people that worry about the bite of Wright grip type wrenches. I haven't used an open end wrench in forever so I don't give a damn if they mark up a bolt head or not as the grip end ICON reversible ratchet wrenches that I have have never been used. In short, who the hell uses open end wrenches anyway?

The long reversible ICON ratcheting combination wrenches are the bomb. Why buy a normal combination wrench when you can buy ratcheting wrenches.
 
K

Kscardsfan

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SuperCat said:
The Milwaukee wrench set has open ends with "Max Bite." That looks pretty aggressive, I bet that wrench damages fasteners. The HF Icon wrench appears to have a traditional plain open end without off corner loading or aggressive grip. Both wrenches appear to have an off corner loading design on the box end. Hopefully, the pictures on their websites are accurate, I have not seen either wrench in person. Just wanted to point out that difference, some folks don't want their fasteners chewed up. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

From what I’ve seen, the HF Icon combo wrenches come in a plain and a Flank Drive/WrightGrip copy. Not sure if they’re long enough to be considered long pattern by the OP.
 
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Citation

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X1 Mike said:
I didn't miss it, why do you think I edited it out?
Click to expand...

Here is what I said:
Do you really need combo wrenches? What about a set of long, double box end wrenches? I'm posting these only as an example of the type.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087WLD5DW/?tag=atomicindus08-20
Click to expand...

From your post here is your quote of my post
Originally Posted by Citation View Post
Do you really need combo wrenches? What about a set of long, double box end wrenches? ......................
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087WLD5DW/?tag=atomicindus08-20
Click to expand...

My sentence saying "I'm posting these only as an example of the type." was replaced with "......................"
 
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DadsTools

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They don't get mentioned often, but I was recently looking for a few sized extra-long wrenches to fill out my vintage Armstrong "L" series combos and stumbled across Urrea. These are crazy-long, longer than the Armstrongs I have, longer than any other standard grade set I could find without launching out to the tool truck stratosphere where I have trouble breathing. They only go 10mm-21mm, but I think they're worth a look. Ordered my individual wrenches through Home Depot.

One of the things I found very funny (and a bit concerning) in my search for long patters is that FEW OF THESE GUYS POST THE EXACT LENGTHS. They tell you its long, but not how long. Researched Carlyle long patterns. No posted lengths, not even that the store clerk could find. Had to actually get someone in the dist. center to measure. Not all that long. Which is probably what they don't post the actual lengths.

Don't know whether this matters, but they're not Chicom. They're made in Mexico at the old company that was originally making the Mexican Proto versions. It's not USA, but it IS America.
 
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The Fall

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SK long-patterns. I bought a set new a few years ago (Ideal era). They're not cheap, but they're not tool truck expensive. You get what you pay for -- SK is a great value/high quality. I've used them part time in a garage so I've put them through a proper test.
 
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DadsTools

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The Fall said:
SK long-patterns. I bought a set new a few years ago (Ideal era). They're not cheap, but they're not tool truck expensive. You get what you pay for -- SK is a great value/high quality. I've used them part time in a garage so I've put them through a proper test.
Click to expand...
Hard to go wrong with SK if it's in the budget. Funny thing, though, here again, I looked it up on their website and could find NO DIMENSIONS given for lengths. What is it with these brands and no dimensions. They tell you it's "long" but what does that mean? Don't know why they have to hide this.
 
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WNYflyer

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DadsTools said:
Hard to go wrong with SK if it's in the budget. Funny thing, though, here again, I looked it up on their website and could find NO DIMENSIONS given for lengths. What is it with these brands and no dimensions. They tell you it's "long" but what does that mean? Don't know why they have to hide this.
Click to expand...

If you download the catalog you will find dimensions there.
 
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Toyo72

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rcbk00

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I bought the Gearwrench 81919 set a while back. For what I paid (around $200), they're absolutely fine. Mine are Chinese, not Taiwanese. FYI- the length is good, but the anti-slip on the open end isn't very aggressive. If you need an open end with bite, these probably aren't what you're looking for, but if want a relative inexpensive set of long pattern wrenches with no skips, they're a good buy.
 
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bobcatdan

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Maybe do some looking for Facom wrenches. They are the same as Mac Precision Torque wrenches that a lot of guys love. Some quick looking online and it looks like you could get sets pretty reasonably. Generally I would suggest Wright as they are a great wrench, but only a little bit longer than craftsman RP.
 
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DadsTools

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mls64 said:
Attached is a screenshot of SK long pattern dimensions (hopefully it comes through legible as the size limit is small, if not it is page 119 of the catalog).
Also, great place to buy them is HarryEpstein.com

https://www.harryepstein.com/tool-b...oduct_list_limit=all&product_list_order=price

https://sktools.com/content/dam/sktools/catalogs/SK Catalog 2018 Full.pdf
Click to expand...
Thanks. There they are in the catalog. Maybe it's in the OP's budget.

I personally wasn't looking for the dimensions. I was just complaining about why they couldn't post that with the web store listing. After all, if you're going to order them online, you'd use the item link--there's no link in the downloaded catalog with which to order. So the lengths are still "hidden" in a sense. I feel if they're going to have you order it from the item link, they should show you what you're ordering without having to go on a search mission. My two cents. A couple of mfrs actually post the length of their long pattern wrenches on their product link pages. That's much more convenient.

As an aside, and just for reference, the Urrea wrenches I mentioned earlier are longer. For example, the SK 11/16" is 10" while the Urrea is 11-3/4.
 
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ThePostman

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Buy the wrights, here's why.
Box end, strongest.
Open end, yes, it will mar the fastener like the snap on will too, but, only wright and snap on will shear off a grade 8 bolt head before giving up, and if you need an open end to get a bolt out, it's only those 2.
I like the beam of the wrights, fits in the hand good.
You can hammer on them, not recommended, but you can.
Wright approximately 250, maybe less with zoro promo codes etc. 8 or 7 to 24mm.
They are a full "head" length longer than gw or if.
You can hammer on proto too, I have their 6 points for that, they cost a little more, and, are longer, but the open end is not as strong as wright or so flank.
 
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