Gearwrench ratchets. Quality?

[Damian]

My commercial guy @ Advanced Auto parts can get me a pretty good deal on their Gearwrench line, and I need a new stubby ratchet. They've got one in the store for $29(non-flex). Is it worth the extra $10 over the Duralast version?

THX

 

[bmxr4life87]

36 tooth to 60 tooth.... Plus your not gonna find a thinner profile head than gearwrench/matco I have 2 of the 3/8 stubbies and they are everything I could ask in a stubby the gears are so smooth and have very little drag so they still work on fastners that are pretty loose! Get one you won't regret it

 

[dirtrider]

36 tooth to 60 tooth.... Plus your not gonna find a thinner profile head than gearwrench/matco I have 2 of the 3/8 stubbies and they are everything I could ask in a stubby the gears are so smooth and have very little drag so they still work on fastners that are pretty loose! Get one you won't regret it

I agree.

 

[Wes28376]

I own a Duralast ratchet and a few Gearwrench ratchets. The duralast is solid ratchet for the money but the GW in significantly smoother. Out of the two I prefer the GW ratchets.

 

[84bimmer]

I own a Duralast ratchet and a few Gearwrench ratchets. The duralast is solid ratchet for the money but the GW in significantly smoother. Out of the two I prefer the GW ratchets.

Same here. The GW ratchet is one fine Chinese specimen.

 

[Pro-Painter]

when it comes to stubby ratchets that are needed in tight spaces, the more teeth the better. Although still nice, the Duralast is too course and has way to much drag for a stubby ratchet IMO.

 

[dirtrider]

Same here. The GW ratchet is one fine Chinese specimen.

Don't you mean Taiwan?

 

[NinetyTwoFifty]

Don't you mean Taiwan?

All of mine are made in China.

 

[84bimmer]

Don't you mean Taiwan?

No sir. I have the 3/8" & 1/4" thin profile, sealed head, standard length, 60 tooth ratchets, and they are both Chinese.

Here they are on Amazon.............
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000NI93JS/?tag=atomicindus08-20

It seems that within the last year or so, any GW hand tools that I have bought have all been Chinese. I like these two ratchets quite a bit. When I saw they were made in China, I was a little worried. But they are great tools. They each came in small socket sets (around 14 pc. ea. set) from Advance Auto, for about $20 a set. Everything in these sets are Chinese. The chrome on the ratchets really stands out from the rest of the sets. The sockets and extensions are good, but their finish is kind of lame. However each of those pieces do have good knurling.

 

[dirtrider]

No sir. I have the 3/8" & 1/4" thin profile, sealed head, standard length, 60 tooth ratchets, and they are both Chinese.

Here they are on Amazon.............
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000NI93JS/?tag=atomicindus08-20

It seems that within the last year or so, any GW hand tools that I have bought have all been Chinese. I like these two ratchets quite a bit. When I saw they were made in China, I was a little worried. But they are great tools. They each came in small socket sets (around 14 pc. ea. set) from Advance Auto, for about $20 a set. Everything in these sets are Chinese. The chrome on the ratchets really stands out from the rest of the sets. The sockets and extensions are good, but their finish is kind of lame. However each of those pieces do have good knurling.

That's interesting most of the Gearwrench wrenches I have seen and own are made in Taiwan. But I guess a lot of the newer stuff is coming out of China now.

 

[84bimmer]

That's interesting most of the Gearwrench wrenches I have seen and own are made in Taiwan. But I guess a lot of the newer stuff is coming out of China now.

Yeah, all of my old stuff (mostly ratcheting wrenches flex and non) is from Taiwan. This last Christmas I bought a set of regular metric ratcheting wrenches from sears, and gave it as a gift. They were made in China, and they looked fine. I only hope they are holding up as well as mine have.

 

[bmwohio]

Same here. The GW ratchet is one fine Chinese specimen.

OT....

84bimmer....that looks like an E28, but could be an E30 (pic is small) either way, I like it what else you got goin for that bad boy? Modded?

Oh yeah.....+1 for GW ratchets

 

[plinker]

I bought a set of flex head (3/8 & 1/4) they are pretty thin, and the mechinasm is pretty much the same as my S-K's in feel and swing arc.

Overall quality is pretty good. The selector lever does seem a little stiff though.

I bought these mainly for the 60 tooth gear and the thin head for hard to get to areas.

 

[Damian]

Thanks for the input sirs. I'll pick up the GW today.

 

[DARKSCOPE001]

I suppose Im to late to the table. But here is my oppinion

For the money they are nice ratchets for a home box (even a work box for light use) The only problem is getting them waranteed. I have the 1/4 and 3/8 compfort grip set and I broke the paw on mine and went through so much trouble trying to replace it. I just threw parts from my craftsman ratchet (60 tooth thin profile is identical insides) Into the GW and waranteed the C-man ratchet.

They are very nice ratchets (I recomend getting the flex head) and In my oppinion after owning my set for almost 2 years. Get the chrome skip the compfort grip. To hard to clean. feels weird in your hands covered in grease dirt and oil. And when you do drop it (dont kid yourself you will) the grip is the first thing to get chewed up and it looks like $#1!.

Best bang for the buck is the 4 piece swivel head found on amazon. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000V5G7LU/?tag=atomicindus08-20 I advise getting this kit because for the price you pretty much get the stubby for free. Trust me. You will use it! That gearwrench 3/8" is almost 11 inches long and is a hastle to swing fast.

But overall High quality ratchets especialy for china made.

Sorry for the long post but hope it helps
Sean Scott

 

[mrholeshot]

great ratchets, warranty stinks as does Gearwrench customer service. It's a shame such a good tool comes with such piss poor support.

 

[joshthedieseltech]

I have 1/4" and 3/8" ,going strong and have never slipped or needed replacement. Well worth the $$ I spent.

 

[ZRX61]

I had to warranty a GW ratchet, thanks to them insisting on using the morons known as Fastenal, it took about three months.

 

[hischj]

I love gearwrench ratchets. I have seven now and have been impressed with all of them

 

[84bimmer]

OT....

84bimmer....that looks like an E28, but could be an E30 (pic is small) either way, I like it what else you got goin for that bad boy? Modded?

Oh yeah.....+1 for GW ratchets

It is an E28. Unfortunately, it is not mine. I wish I had the time and funds to do something like this. I do have a couple E28s and E30s. My daily driver is a super eta E28. It is mostly stock.

But you should check this guys cars out. They are so cool man. There are lots of threads out there on this guys cars. Here is one........

http://www.stanceworks.com/2009/05/resurrection-the-complete-story-of-the-zombie-e28/

Here's another one, the photography is top notch. I love these cars.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5035367-That-Rusty-E28....

My dad has around 20 80's bimmers out on his land. We used to flip them. When I get the time, I'd love to create some frankenstein-zombie-monster-euro rats.

 

[saturdaymechanic]

I'm also picking up some GW ratchets, since I was happy with their ratchet wrenches (mine were Taiwan).

A quick question: do all GW ratchets have a 60 tooth count?

 

[matthew]

do all GW ratchets have a 60 tooth count?

I believe they also made ones with quick release that had 45 teeth.

 

[toolmaker1]

I believe they also made ones with quick release that had 45 teeth.

Yes they did actually. This is the only flex head that advance auto carries and it is a decent rat but not as smooth as the 60 tooth models.

 

[bmwohio]

It is an E28. Unfortunately, it is not mine. I wish I had the time and funds to do something like this. I do have a couple E28s and E30s. My daily driver is a super eta E28. It is mostly stock.

But you should check this guys cars out. They are so cool man. There are lots of threads out there on this guys cars. Here is one........

http://www.stanceworks.com/2009/05/resurrection-the-complete-story-of-the-zombie-e28/

Here's another one, the photography is top notch. I love these cars.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5035367-That-Rusty-E28....

My dad has around 20 80's bimmers out on his land. We used to flip them. When I get the time, I'd love to create some frankenstein-zombie-monster-euro rats.

Oh, I'm very aware of M. Burroughs and Stanceworks. Some guys on my Bimmer forum don't really like his style. Some of his cars are nice, but some are pretty ridiculous. To each his own I guess....

 

[84bimmer]

Oh, I'm very aware of M. Burroughs and Stanceworks. Some guys on my Bimmer forum don't really like his style. Some of his cars are nice, but some are pretty ridiculous. To each his own I guess....

I haven't paid too much attention to him. I know he does a lot of other things, but I don't really care. I watched some videos with him in it, and I think he's a little *****. I don't care for the wheels, and way too much money is put into this stuff. I could achieve similar results for next to nothing. I love old BMWs, and something about these cars grabs me. I think it has a lot to do with the great photography.

 

[Damian]

Warranty with Gearwrench is not an issue. Advanced Auto Parts carries the GW line as their main tool line now, and my commercial guy would not risk ******* me off over a ratchet warranty. I spend $2000/week with them.

I spoke with him about it this morning and there will be no issues with warranty if I need something replaced. It's good to know people.

 

[84bimmer]

Warranty with Gearwrench is not an issue. Advanced Auto Parts carries the GW line as their main tool line now, and my commercial guy would not risk ******* me off over a ratchet warranty. I spend $2000/week with them.

I spoke with him about it this morning and there will be no issues with warranty if I need something replaced. It's good to know people.

Man, I'm sure this is true, for the tools that they sell. However Advance just doesn't carry many GW tools. Not even online, I use their site daily (they have awesome online promos!!!). Did they tell you they could warranty more than they sell? This seems to be one of the problems with GW. They make a lot of tools, but very few are readily available in retail stores.

 

[BackTracker]

Personally I find the gw roto ratchets to be my go to ratchets of all the ones i own. I have that 4 piece flex head set as well. The first thing I did was order the 88t guts from match and slap those in there. I LOVE them! they are Tough and take quite a beating and if they break I'll just get a rebuild kit and not worry about their customer service. It's just not worth the hassle to me. Besides if I manage to strip the gears it's probably be ause I did something stupid and the 25 bucks is a good punishment.

 

[mrholeshot]

Warranty with Gearwrench is not an issue. Advanced Auto Parts carries the GW line as their main tool line now, and my commercial guy would not risk ******* me off over a ratchet warranty. I spend $2000/week with them.

I spoke with him about it this morning and there will be no issues with warranty if I need something replaced. It's good to know people.

Not everybody is in the position to hold the parts store hostage ( I held NAPA hostage for many years, lol) but the fact of the matter is that Gearwrench makes a lot of tools that nobody buy unathurized dealers seem to be able to get their hands on. Somewhere along the Gearwrench pipeline **** must be getting hijacked, stolen, falling off trucks or maybe the best explination is that Gearwrech is selling to others but not in full discloseure of who they are selling to. The company has a great product line thanks to some manafactuer in China and Taiwan who is doing a wonderful job. Until they work the kinks out of the supply system and get a handle on customer service and warranty they will just be another flash in the pan. It's a shame to have such a great tool line that is inacessable to every dealer except the ones that don't matter as far as warranty goes. Any dealer should be able to get any tool gearwrench sells. The dealers that can get it like Fastenel takes forever and you would think you were buying off the tool truck at that place. They need to get their **** together and warranty the tools no matter where thay are purchaced.

Somebody at Gearwrench has their Cranium up their ****** and as time goes by the non warranty is going to become a real issue. Right now they are pretty fresh out of the gate and not much warranty going on. As soon as a lot of the tools get some age on them it's going to get rough. For me lifes to short to deal with some CSR on the phone who voiding my warranty because I bought my new gearwrench at the wrong dealer and got really nasty when I told her I would email her a copy of my receipt where I bought the tool new. If you are a pro tech making a living with your tools you will apprciate the customer service that comes along with Snap-On ownership. Over 4 decades and Ive never had to throw away a Snap-On tool because of a warranty issue. Tools I bought 45 years ago can be warrantied like I bought them yesterday. I'm done with disposable tools like Gearwrench.

As much **** as my son has been though with gearwrench (along with me) they have done nothing but sent him an incomplete kit to repair a ratchet. I had mentioned what part was needed and that just happened to be the part missing. Maybe thats what happens when you call a company out. They just like screwing with you.

Micheal who post here (Gearwrench Brand?) who is a big wig at Gearwrench has spent more time on this forum dancing around the problem than he has actually trying to fix a real problem. He may blow smoke up the *** of forum members but he has no concern whatsoever in actually making an actual customer happy by honoring the warranty. Buyer Beware

 

[Damian]

Man, I'm sure this is true, for the tools that they sell. However Advance just doesn't carry many GW tools. Not even online, I use their site daily (they have awesome online promos!!!). Did they tell you they could warranty more than they sell? This seems to be one of the problems with GW. They make a lot of tools, but very few are readily available in retail stores.

I'll take a pic of their tool wall. The store I use has a HUGE selection of GW products.

I'm not too much worried about warranty issues with a stubby ratchet. If you're putting enough TQ on a stubby ratchet to break it you probably shouldn't be wrenching anyway. But FWIW, in all my years of wrenching I've yet to warranty a GW product. I've got some ratcheting wrenches of theirs I bought 10 years ago that I've abused on a daily basis without one failure so far.

I haven't plunked down the cash yet. Holding out for another used Matco. My Matco man had a used one on the truck but wanted $65 for it. F that.