Duralast revisted

[mrholeshot]

As you all (or most) guy know I recently became a fan of the Duralast 3/8 ratchet. I had ordered a 3/8 flex awhile back and yesterday my wife went by auto-zone and picked it up. I havent used it yet but it has the same head as the fixed ratchet and other than the long handle and flex is Identical. I'm going to have to sssume on this one the head is as strong and durable as the other and no testing or use will happen until mid December but it does have a few fetures worth noting. The one thing I like most of all is the swivel joint. It doesn't have that stupid detent ball in it. Most of my high quality flex ratchets don't have any kind od detent. The finish on this one is absolutly flawless. I'm just more and more impressed with these. Now this is a 25 dollar ratchet and much more pricy than most Taiwan Not very popular ratchets. It's a bit thinner at .579 to the Snap-On 936 at .623 and a bit thicker that the Craftsman Pro at .548

Note the lack of detent on the SK, Snap-On and Duralast and detents on the C-man pros.

Nice smooth high quality joint

Just a really nice flex ratchet, very resonably priced high quality ratchet. Thought it was cool enough to mention

 

[RLRRLRLL]

the duralast 3/8 flex is actually my go to ratchet!

 

[Theloniousmonk]

FINE, i'll go pick one up and use it... I'm "ready" for a new 3/8 anyway, will end up in wife's car tool kit if I don't like it. thanks for the info and dedication to informing the masses mrholeshot.

 

[ImportTuner]

mrholeshot .. why don't you like the detent ball?

 

[mrholeshot]

mrholeshot .. why don't you like the detent ball?

I like infinate adjustment and no snap back. Just personal preferance. My detentless hold position better

 

[NJHandyGuy]

holy **** that's alot fo ratchets my word how many do you have

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

at least harbor the freight is low cost

 

[I can fix anything]

the duralast 3/8 flex is actually my go to ratchet!

Mine too, these are the best ratchets for da $

 

[RLRRLRLL]

Mine too, these are the best ratchets for da $

Indeed, i have stood on mine and bounced...dont remember why. but i did, and i weigh 250 pounds. its pretty stout. I will admit it felt like it was flexing a bit, but im not small.

 

[Wakefield]

Was the one stood upon 1/2" drive? (Duralast)
Looks like on mrholeshot's new one; one ear is thicker than the other on the flex clevis. Does it have a bolt,not pin,through the ears and head? I think Snapon truckman's big breaker bar is like that-one ear is thicker than other with Torx hole in bolt head/socket.
I think they have a cute little stubby 3/8's one that might have that same head on it as the one mrholeshot torture tested.

 

[Fedwrench]

Why is duralast backwards from most other brands in color coding their tools? Most companies use blue for metric and red for SAE, not Duralast. They use red for mm and blue for sae.

 

[bsaint]

Want to see after 2088 hours of use. 8 hr job using it for 1 year. A Kia looks like a solid car for the first 20k miles too.

 

[hguerrero]

me too...time will tell

however, that ratchet has only one or two ways it can fail.
the kia has many

Want to see after 2088 hours of use. 8 hr job using it for 1 year. A Kia looks like a solid car for the first 20k miles too.

 

[RLRRLRLL]

Was the one stood upon 1/2" drive? (Duralast)
Looks like on mrholeshot's new one; one ear is thicker than the other on the flex clevis. Does it have a bolt,not pin,through the ears and head? I think Snapon truckman's big breaker bar is like that-one ear is thicker than other with Torx hole in bolt head/socket.
I think they have a cute little stubby 3/8's one that might have that same head on it as the one mrholeshot torture tested.

3/8 flex is the one i stood on.

 

[stricht8]

For shame. I see those HF digital calipers. Actually those are quite good.

 

[Indy_500]

For shame. I see those HF digital calipers. Actually those are quite good.

The one he has is pretty good, the new gray ones are junk! Luckily, i picked up a black one right before they switched over

 

[Ditchdigger]

Geeze. Good thing you sent the missus out for that new ratchet. It looks like you were running low.

 

[kab00m]

Hmm, I use the Duralast 3/8 sockets and I have been looking for a long handled 3/8 drive ratchet.

 

[wxm]

Hmm, I use the Duralast 3/8 sockets and I have been looking for a long handled 3/8 drive ratchet.

Same here. Also ordered the stubby one. (Though the description says it is 6" long - not much stubby! Hopefully, it is a typo).

 

[mrholeshot]

holy **** that's alot fo ratchets my word how many do you have

About 150 in all, about 60 in this box.

 

[mrholeshot]

For shame. I see those HF digital calipers. Actually those are quite good.

Thats a pair I carry in the pocket of my wheelchair. As accurate as any caliper I own. <10.00. I check them on the Standards that come with my Starrett Micrometers and it's dead nuts

 

[mrholeshot]

at least harbor the freight is low cost

The Harbor Freight Snap-On copy is a very strong ratchet and I nothing bad to say about it. It did excellant in my ratchet shootout. The great thing about the Duralast is it's very very strong and the head size is smaller than a Snap-On and much smaller than the HF. On the HF ratchet it's a lot of bang for the buck. It's a much better ratchet than a crftsman raised panel. To me the Duralast in like a Tiawan built Snap-On 36 tooth. If they built a long handle 1/2 id be all over it at 35-40 dollars. I can't buy anything else right now but I would love to see the option open up for when I can. This one was bought and paid for several weeks ago.

 

[mrholeshot]

Want to see after 2088 hours of use. 8 hr job using it for 1 year. A Kia looks like a solid car for the first 20k miles too.

Been a Pro Auto Tech for well over 40 years. In all those years I've never had a day I used a ratchet for a solid 8 hours. In reality if a ratchet is in actual use (not just holding it or it laying near your worksight) for 60 minutes a day you are making some serious money or seriously using the wrong tool. On a typical brake job a ratchet gets around 1.5-2.0 solid minutes of actual use on 4 caliper bolts. By the Way I've seen more than several Kia's with 200K+ on the clock. i've never owned one but some of the upper scale versions are quite nice and their owners quite happy with them. I rode 2600 miles in a Sorento with a friend and drove it 2600 miles back to pick up a car and I was quite impressed with it. It was showing over 120K then. There is no reason these ratchets wouldn't hold up as good as any other. I've broken Snap-On, Mac and a dozen other brands and even had defects right off the truck. It's a very simple device and as long as the steel is good and the tolerance good it will work fine. The fit and finish is as nice as any ratchet I own (and I own a few) and the only downside is the COO. (not that much a downside). Tools like this is going to do to the tool industry what Toyota did to the US automarket. It's will weed out the bad stuff and make the good stuff better. Nothing like some competition to make better goods. If a lot of this stuff wasn't any good Sears wouldn't look like a ghost town. Like Lee Iacocaa said "Lead, Follow or get out of the way".

 

[HandyManny]

Want to see after 2088 hours of use. 8 hr job using it for 1 year. A Kia looks like a solid car for the first 20k miles too.

Ours has almost 200K on it and have just experienced normal wear, no real problems at all.

 

[HandyManny]

Thanks so much mrholeshot for opening my eyes to the high quality of Duralast. I own and use many high quality USA made hand tools. Brands like Proto, MAC, S-K, New Britain, older Craftsman, Blackhawk, Armstrong, etc. Until recently I had never taken the Duralast tools very seriously at all, never even looked at them closely. All this time I was of the opinion that you can no longer walk into an auto parts store and buy high quality tools right off the shelf. Boy was I wrong!! After your first review of the Duralast ratchet I bougth a flex-head 3/8 drive ratchet and was completely impressed with it. A few days later I picked up 3 different sized Duralast sockets and a 6 inch extention that I'd been needing anyway. Wow!! The feel is solid and of professional quality I haven't felt in a long time in a store brand tool. The finish is impeccable. In useage they seem to perform pretty darn well and I've subjected them to a bit of high torque too. I didn't expect much at first, but now I'm sold. And I say all this after having owned and used high quality USA made mechanics hand tools for many years. I don't care if they are made in Taiwan. I know a damn good tool when I use one. The price isn't too bad either. Sears and Craftsman can sure learn some real valuable lessons here from Autozone.

 

[stricht8]

No doubt that KIAs and Duralast ratchets can be long lasting and tough, but they have no soul. The car especially. Why in hell would anyone want to drive a KIA for 200K miles or use a Duralast ratchet day in and day out?

 

[HandyManny]

No doubt that KIAs and Duralast ratchets can be long lasting and tough, but they have no soul. The car especially. Why in hell would anyone want to drive a KIA for 200K miles or use a Duralast ratchet day in and day out?

Why not? Nothing can be that tough and useable without having a soul!! Duralast has much more soul than the newer Craftsman junk I've seen lately.

 

[stricht8]

I doubt that even Koreans lust after KIAs. It's a vanilla car with no significant heritage. Sure I've driven them and there is nothing wrong with these cars but nothing great either. They are just another appliance. As far as the Duralast ratchets go they are probably made in some generic factory in Taiwan and rebadged a bunch of different ways for a bunch of different companies. It's kind of hard to take any pride in that sort of thing. I have several no name china/Taiwan tools and they are perfecly fine but again I take absolutely no pride in using them. I'd rather buy an American or European made tool
for peanuts at the flea market.

 

[stricht8]

I bought an SK ratchet at the flea the other day for $4. Why would I buy a Duralast for $25? The only time I buy this stuff is for conveniece- you know it Sunday morning and I need a certain tool right then and there and the only thing close and open is my local Autozone. For example I needed to do an oil change on my car on Sunday, and needed to get it done fast for a trip I was going to take in an hour or two. I needed a 14 mm Allen socket and so walked over to Autozone and bought a Great Neck tool made in China or Taiwan. The tool was fine and appeared to be of good quality but there is no way in hell that I will cherish that tool like the SK or Hazet Allen sockets which I also own.

 

[Lawton]

Here's and observation on Korean cars: With reasonable maintenance and care any modern car should last 200k miles. The Koreans auto makers, - KIA, (Also known as "Killed in Actions" in the shop), and Hyundai, are big up and coming manufacturers.

The big knock on the Korean makes is that they are VERY non-service friendly!... We have to put mechanics on suicide watch if a Korean car comes in the shop! In short, they are evil to work on, a result of poor design work. This is in comparison to the Japanese manufacturers, (Honda and Toyota are generally very well designed as far as maintenance and general service goes). Ok, some of the parts on Korean cars are a little flaky...KIA V6 timing belt covers often will crumble in your hands like a 2 month old cow-patty.

The Japanese auto manufacturers had better watch out, the Koreans are coming. The Koreans are now the big dog in electronics manufacturing, (OK the Chinese make more stuff, but the Koreans make better stuff!). It wasn't too many years ago, that the Japanese were the 900 pound gorilla in the electronics manufacturing world.

Today's cars are all mostly soulless...they are really just "transportation appliances"...when they reach a certain mileage they are thrown away...in same manner as a broken VCR or DVD player. Yes, they are more reliable than they have ever been, but due to the High-Tech nature of modern automotive design the tipping point, (when a car becomes uneconomical to repair), comes much sooner. There will be no classic car shows in the future with polished and lovingly restored cars from the late 20th and early 21st century!

Lawton

Ours has almost 200K on it and have just experienced normal wear, no real problems at all.

 

[Theloniousmonk]

I'm still waiting for my hovercar and atomic power engine.

 

[Davefr]

The one he has is pretty good, the new gray ones are junk! Luckily, i picked up a black one right before they switched over

OT, but I agree 100%. The new ones have a very rough feel, smaller display and the scale looks like it's a piece of foil with blurry markings thrown on.

Those HF digital calipers went from PASS to FAIL very quickly.

 

[HandyManny]

I doubt that even Koreans lust after KIAs. It's a vanilla car with no significant heritage. Sure I've driven them and there is nothing wrong with these cars but nothing great either. They are just another appliance. As far as the Duralast ratchets go they are probably made in some generic factory in Taiwan and rebadged a bunch of different ways for a bunch of different companies. It's kind of hard to take any pride in that sort of thing. I have several no name china/Taiwan tools and they are perfecly fine but again I take absolutely no pride in using them. I'd rather buy an American or European made tool
for peanuts at the flea market.

I bought an SK ratchet at the flea the other day for $4. Why would I buy a Duralast for $25? The only time I buy this stuff is for conveniece- you know it Sunday morning and I need a certain tool right then and there and the only thing close and open is my local Autozone. For example I needed to do an oil change on my car on Sunday, and needed to get it done fast for a trip I was going to take in an hour or two. I needed a 14 mm Allen socket and so walked over to Autozone and bought a Great Neck tool made in China or Taiwan. The tool was fine and appeared to be of good quality but there is no way in hell that I will cherish that tool like the SK or Hazet Allen sockets which I also own.

I don't know, to each his own I guess. I just think it's strange how the mind works. We convince ourselves of insignifigant things like heritage or pride of ownership and try to justify it by this image we have of a certain tools being made in Kenosha, WI or in the beautiful Swiss alps and think Ahhh Pride

We see the USA stamped on a tool, even if it is rebadged for many other brands too and will overlook any flaw that it may have and even convince ourselves to look the other way when we see quality degrade in a tool stamped USA. Then some people see a very high quality tool, higher quality than most store brands and (even very close to some professional grade) in a tool made in Taiwan that's priced right when new. Yet they convince themselves that they will never be proud to own it. That's just silly how all they can see is Taiwan and have been either convinced by others or have convinced themselves that all Taiwan made stuff is inferior.

To me genuine soul and genuine pride of ownership can only be acquired when using a high quality tool. A tool that has earned it. Regardless of COO. I can't think of anything that can have pride of ownership than a tool that has earned it. Maybe I'm jsut different in my old age. I just see things now for what they actually are, rather than a preconcieved notion I may have had. Pride of ownership? It has to meet my quality standard for me to have pride of ownership.

 

[I can fix anything]

How did kia's get brought up? If you can't work on a kia then you need to find a new line of work.

Thats all irrelevent anyway. If you can follow me bolt for bolt you will see how wicked the Duralast tools really are. I ready for a wrench and socket test. Can this be done?

 

[stricht8]

I definitely see your point here and in the end a fine tool is a fine tool. I'm just not at the point yet where I can feel good about using this Taiwan/China stuff. I guess it is in part a mind thing. Some of us have allegiances to certain brands for whatever reason. It could be because we grew up with them or the plant is in our town or we have a thing about using US tools on American cars or German tools on German cars or whatever.

 

[MrMark]

I doubt that even Koreans lust after KIAs. It's a vanilla car with no significant heritage. Sure I've driven them and there is nothing wrong with these cars but nothing great either. They are just another appliance. As far as the Duralast ratchets go they are probably made in some generic factory in Taiwan and rebadged a bunch of different ways for a bunch of different companies. It's kind of hard to take any pride in that sort of thing. I have several no name china/Taiwan tools and they are perfecly fine but again I take absolutely no pride in using them. I'd rather buy an American or European made tool
for peanuts at the flea market.

Man, that is exactly how I feel about this whole thing. Yeah, the stuff works and all, but who wants it really. It's like driving a Toyota. I've never understood why anyone would buy a Toyota. Certainly not a "car" person. It has no soul.

 

[wxm]

To me genuine soul and genuine pride of ownership can only be acquired when using a high quality tool. A tool that has earned it. Regardless of COO. I can't think of anything that can have pride of ownership than a tool that has earned it. Maybe I'm jsut different in my old age. I just see things now for what they actually are, rather than a preconcieved notion I may have had. Pride of ownership? It has to meet my quality standard for me to have pride of ownership.

Well said, HandyManny. It looks like I am in the "old age" category too...

 

[I can fix anything]

I wish "soul" would fix cars but i don't. Blood, sweat, and duralast ratchets do

 

[bsaint]

Been a Pro Auto Tech for well over 40 years. In all those years I've never had a day I used a ratchet for a solid 8 hours. In reality if a ratchet is in actual use (not just holding it or it laying near your worksight) for 60 minutes a day you are making some serious money or seriously using the wrong tool. On a typical brake job a ratchet gets around 1.5-2.0 solid minutes of actual use on 4 caliper bolts. By the Way I've seen more than several Kia's with 200K+ on the clock. i've never owned one but some of the upper scale versions are quite nice and their owners quite happy with them. I rode 2600 miles in a Sorento with a friend and drove it 2600 miles back to pick up a car and I was quite impressed with it. It was showing over 120K then. There is no reason these ratchets wouldn't hold up as good as any other. I've broken Snap-On, Mac and a dozen other brands and even had defects right off the truck. It's a very simple device and as long as the steel is good and the tolerance good it will work fine. The fit and finish is as nice as any ratchet I own (and I own a few) and the only downside is the COO. (not that much a downside). Tools like this is going to do to the tool industry what Toyota did to the US automarket. It's will weed out the bad stuff and make the good stuff better. Nothing like some competition to make better goods. If a lot of this stuff wasn't any good Sears wouldn't look like a ghost town. Like Lee Iacocaa said "Lead, Follow or get out of the way".

Geez sorry I ever mentioned Kia.

I don't think you get my point. In 40 years how do you think this ratchet will hold up? Do you think the quality of chrome and thickness of chrome, the alloy makeup, the steel used to make the mechanism, etc etc will hold up? If you think it'll hold up great that awesome. Nothing like supporting cheap labor and piss poor working conditions. Right on!

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

funny , the engine/trans on kia is a mitsubishi , aisyn transmission
japanese