european ratches

[robertearl]

In europe, are the ratchets 1/4, 3/8, 1/2 or are they metric sizes? Never thought about it before and just curious.

Reb

 

[Rickkyyr8]

1/4, 3/8, and 1/2 drive

 

[dnschmidt]

But oddly, the predominate sizes are 1/4" and 1/2". 3/8 drive is far less popular in Europe than in America.

 

[Rickkyyr8]

But oddly, the predominate sizes are 1/4" and 1/2". 3/8 drive is far less popular in Europe than in America.

Why is that

 

[dnschmidt]

Don't know. The same is true in Asia as well. I use to sell TOPTUL tools and they have extensive 1/4" and 1/2" drive everything. Their selection of 3/8" drive is considerably less although still quite large. It might have something to do with the size of vehicles. Even in America 1/4" drive is far more popular than it use to be since many cars, particularly foreign made, use fifty 10mm bolts whereas in the old days domestic cars would use five 5/8" bolts. To the Euros and Asians it's either a relatively small car (1/4") or a Mann Truck (1/2"). Here in America we still have this pick-up truck fetish, which is completely odd in the rest of the world, which is why we like the larger than 1/4" 3/8" drive. If gas goes to $8 a gallon that might rapidly change as dragging that RV or boat around is going to get really expensive.

 

[richfinn]

We have the same drive sizes as the USA, Facom used to refer to 3/8" as 9mm drive. It's true that 1/4" and 1/2" were more popular drive sizes in engineering aerospace and industry.

3/8" drive has however always been available for Automotive applications as long as I have worked as a mechanic in the UK (37 years).

Facom used to market the 9mm drive towards Auto Mechanics in their older hardback catalogues

 

[JradM]

If you order tools from Amazon.co.jp (Japan), you'll often see the drive sizes marked as 6.35, 9.5 and 12.7 - millimeters. It's weird to think of them that way. That's the only place I've ever seen it done.