Harbor Freight US General timeline from purchase

[mercracing]

In my typical timing, I have missed the 300$ off of the Harbor Freight box I wanted. Sale ended today, and the store closed at 6pm. I am now just going to order one as I can't justify a used Snap On box for home. My question is if I go tomorrow and purchase what I want, do they usually have them in the back and I leave with it? Is it something they order? If it's ordered, how long does it usually take to show up? Thanks for the help.

 

[BlakeTheCarGuy]

If it’s in stock it will be in the back and they will forklift it to your car. As for wait times I’ve never personally had to wait on one but I’ve heard about people having to wait for months.

 

[mrvm]

When HF had a big sale on the USG 56” the local HF store took pre-orders to handle the volume of interest. Probably took about 2 months to get an email for pickup. Plenty of time to rearrange the home garage to accommodate the big box. During that time the side cabinet went on sale and I pre-ordered that too. Odds are that sale you missed will be back either in Nov or Dec

 

[dante2]

My green 56" top took right at 6 weeks. My local store has the original colors in stock for the most part. A lot of the OKC stores are bigger and have the newer colors in stock.

 

[NUTTSGT]

My 56" Slate Gray took 5-6 weeks to come in. If you look online, you will be able to tell if they have the box in stock of the color you want.


However, be forewarned, if it says limited stock, it may one in stock but a pre-order for someone else.


FWIW, you may find applying for a HF card might be help ease the purchase price.

 

[mercracing]

When I looked online it just said must be bought in-store.

 

[1Bad55Chevy]

What box and color are you trying to get?

My father in law had to order his lime green 56" box and they told him 5 to 6 weeks, it came in 2 days later.

 

[mercracing]

72” red. Nothing odd. I’m just trying to plan around when i’ll have room in the garage to move things.

 

[NUTTSGT]

When I looked online it just said must be bought in-store.

If you order online, its going to get shipped to you and you incur shipping costs.

You can not order online and ship to store. Which in my opinion is flawed.

 

[NUTTSGT]

72” red. Nothing odd. I’m just trying to plan around when i’ll have room in the garage to move things.

Do you have a plan to unload it ? These new Series 3 boxes are not light.

 

[mercracing]

Do you have a plan to unload it ? These new Series 3 boxes are not light.

My hope is the wheels are on it and I can roll it on and off a trailer. If the wheels are not on it… i’ll figure out plan B.

 

[1Bad55Chevy]

You cant enter your zip code and see if its in stock?

 

[mercracing]

Yea, it’s not in stock at my local store

 

[jade97]

I ordered (2) 72" on 8/10, in store. I got the call on 8/21 that they arrived and were available for pickup.

They are strapped to a pallet. They give you a wooden ramp (inside one of the drawers) to help roll it off the pallet. These boxes are heavy, but the wife and I got them off my 5x10 utility trailer and into the basement. It's going to be fun getting them back on the trailer and up to the garage once the painting is done.

Here are pictures of the pallets that they come strapped to.

 

[jade97]

Picture of the supplied ramp.

 

[NUTTSGT]

My hope is the wheels are on it and I can roll it on and off a trailer. If the wheels are not on it… i’ll figure out plan B.

If you have a trailer with a ramp, you should be fine like Jade mentions the pallet and included ramp.

 

[mrvm]

My hope is the wheels are on it and I can roll it on and off a trailer. If the wheels are not on it… i’ll figure out plan B.

Didn’t wait for assistance. With some luck I got the pallet off the pickup truck bed and didn’t drop it

 

[mercracing]

How did you get it on the truck at the store? Do they have a forklift they can use?

 

[dcg9381]

My question is if I go tomorrow and purchase what I want, do they usually have them in the back and I leave with it? Is it something they order? If it's ordered, how long does it usually take to show up? Thanks for the help.

Last order, I could tell online what they had in stock and what they didn't. What you can't tell is if it's a display model or not. If they have it in stock, I'd call the local store.

Took about 4-6 weeks to get one in to N. Michigan after I ordered it. YMMV for better shipping locations. Hope you've got some help, had to unload this with a tractor/forklift...

 

[jade97]

How did you get it on the truck at the store? Do they have a forklift they can use?

In my case, the Quakertown PA store had a forklift. I'm sure all HF stores have one.

 

[mngundog]

Me, I'm waiting 2-4 weeks for the next sale for $300 off. I've removed drawers to get a box unloaded at home, maybe cost me 10 minutes.

 

[E chassis BMW owner]

Do you have a plan to unload it ? These new Series 3 boxes are not light.

Yea your not joking. I'm so glad I didn't try and save some money and load it into the back of the F150. I had to pull most of the drawers out to make it light enough to turn on its short side to fit in a hallway to get in our office. Motorcycle trailer wasn't too expensive and worked well for the 56inch.


Took around 5 weeks to arrive at store after ordering.

 

[NUTTSGT]

In my case, the Quakertown PA store had a forklift. I'm sure all HF stores have one.

I think every store has one, I believe it's how they unloaded the semi-trailer because I don't see any truck docks.

 

[AEAdam]

Just devils advocate. $1700 is a lot of money for a Chinese toolbox, I bought my 56” KRL for $800. I’d buy 2 42” USG boxes before I paid $1700 for a HF toolbox. Surely, there are used tool truck boxes in your area.

BTW, when I moved my KRL, I pulled all the drawers out, then my son and I were able to lift it easily into the back of my pick up. With its drawers, I think it’s around 450lbs. My guess is it was easily 1/2 that without them.

Everybody's situation, desires, second hand market is different. But there’s no way I’d pay nearly 2 grand for a new toolbox, when I can get a Mac or Snap on box for that second hand,

 

[dante2]

These are shipped for free last time I checked. Might be worth a call.

Scratch and Dent Sale - Harbor Freight Tools

Free shipping + deals up to 45% on scratch and dent items. Unique descriptions and conditions for each item.

www.harborfreight.com

 

[mercracing]

Just devils advocate. $1700 is a lot of money for a Chinese toolbox, I bought my 56” KRL for $800. I’d buy 2 42” USG boxes before I paid $1700 for a HF toolbox. Surely, there are used tool truck boxes in your area.

BTW, when I moved my KRL, I pulled all the drawers out, then my son and I were able to lift it easily into the back of my pick up. With its drawers, I think it’s around 450lbs. My guess is it was easily 1/2 that without them.

Everybody's situation, desires, second hand market is different. But there’s no way I’d pay nearly 2 grand for a new toolbox, when I can get a Mac or Snap on box for that second hand,

Believe me man, after wrenching for a living for more then 15 years I am accustomed to the finer things in life like Snap-On drawers. If I could find something close to 72” in size for not 3x the price I would do that. I’m checking FB market place often just in case.

 

[AEAdam]

Believe me man, after wrenching for a living for more then 15 years I am accustomed to the finer things in life like Snap-On drawers. If I could find something close to 72” in size for not 3x the price I would do that. I’m checking FB market place often just in case.

You are in a weird position. Some of the guys here decide the USG boxes are awesome having never worked out of a truck tool box. No disrespect, but ignorance is bliss. If you've worked out of pro boxes, you may be sorely disappointed in US General. I personally would never own one of their roll cabs. The ICON boxes are ok, but the USG drawers are pretty annoying and meh. It's the latches and the drawer glides, not sheet metal thickness that everyone here talks about. Also the layouts and drawer depths are not what I'm accustomed to.

A cheap used 72'' box could be a bit of a unicorn. I like my 56" box, but if I needed to start over, I'd absolutely bottom feed older 40" KRLs. There are several for sale less than $1000 in my area. There is at least 1 red 40" KRA with an asking price of $600.

Point is, before you spend nearly $2000 (incl sales tax), I'd want to know what the alternative was.

More:
While I love my 56" box, 80-90% of my work is now done with this SO roll cart I bought second hand for $300.

Another thought would be the Edd China approach, where you have one of these for metric, another for SAE, a third for electrical, then maybe another with body tools and spare parts bins. I'd bet for $1700, I could buy 3 or 4 Snap on boxes to suit my needs. That might actually make more sense than a big base roll cab. Hit me in the face with a pie, I'd probably buy used USG carts and have 4+ boxes for less than $1000.

Just food for thought before you pull the trigger and possibly have regrets. GJ raves about HF and USG, but hate to say it, no offense, it's largely an uninformed opinion. I think they aren't really nice boxes any of them. What's great about them is that they are cheap and readily available. Once one of those attributes is challenged (i.e. prices pushing over a grand) I think there are WAY better alternatives. At least in my neck of the woods. Hope this helps

 

[mercracing]

Part of the problem is I have long breaker bars and torque wrenches that don’t fit in the smaller boxes. That’s why I was looking for something in the 72” range to have one or two wide drawers to hold those odd things.

How do you store those in the carts? I hadn’t thought of that before.

 

[AEAdam]

The whole concept behind the use of carts is that they hold 80% of the tools you need for 80% of the jobs you do. They aren't a "one for one" replacement of bigger boxes. But because they are small, agile, contain 80% of the stuff you use most, they are often way more convenient and possess higher utility than the alternative. See pic above. I have that cart right next to the work I'm doing.

But to answer your question, guys store long tools vertically down the side. Some attach long tools to the back as well.

The question I'd ask you (hope this doesn't sound argumentative, I'm really just trying to help), how much is it worth to you to have a box big enough to store everything plus really big breakers and torque wrenches? And BTW, I'm assuming 3/4" stuff or bigger, because even my roll cart can hold 1/2" breakers, torque wrenches etc. They are only 20-26" long. A 36" pry bar I think fits vertically in a Snap on cart. The handles are too long for the USG carts last I looked. But not the end of the world.

For ME, a huge majority of the work I've been doing has been 1/4" and 3/8" sockets and ratchets, and 1/2" impact and a mid torque battery gun. Of the tools in my roll cart, I routinely use about 25% of them, just over and over again. My roll cab stores stuff I use less - multiple versions of screwdrivers, wrenches, large assortments of sockets in different lengths, then stuff like pullers, pliers, retreader kits, grease gun, that I use maybe once every 6 months if that. What I LOVE about my 56" box is I can open that top drawer and see EVERYTHING all at once.

Here's reminder photo:


Unlike pros who store all their tools in the top wells of their roll carts, I use the drawers. So here is the comparable drawer in my cart:


For most jobs, this is all I need. The red magna caddy and red Snap on Allen set top middle are SAE for lawn mower type stuff. Everything else is metric. I have a set of 1/4" metric semi deeps I'm adding to this set.

 

[1Bad55Chevy]

You are in a weird position. Some of the guys here decide the USG boxes are awesome having never worked out of a truck tool box. No disrespect, but ignorance is bliss. If you've worked out of pro boxes, you may be sorely disappointed in US General. I personally would never own one of their roll cabs. The ICON boxes are ok, but the USG drawers are pretty annoying and meh. It's the latches and the drawer glides, not sheet metal thickness that everyone here talks about. Also the layouts and drawer depths are not what I'm accustomed to.

A cheap used 72'' box could be a bit of a unicorn. I like my 56" box, but if I needed to start over, I'd absolutely bottom feed older 40" KRLs. There are several for sale less than $1000 in my area. There is at least 1 red 40" KRA with an asking price of $600.

Point is, before you spend nearly $2000 (incl sales tax), I'd want to know what the alternative was.

More:
While I love my 56" box, 80-90% of my work is now done with this SO roll cart I bought second hand for $300.

Another thought would be the Edd China approach, where you have one of these for metric, another for SAE, a third for electrical, then maybe another with body tools and spare parts bins. I'd bet for $1700, I could buy 3 or 4 Snap on boxes to suit my needs. That might actually make more sense than a big base roll cab. Hit me in the face with a pie, I'd probably buy used USG carts and have 4+ boxes for less than $1000.

Just food for thought before you pull the trigger and possibly have regrets. GJ raves about HF and USG, but hate to say it, no offense, it's largely an uninformed opinion. I think they aren't really nice boxes any of them. What's great about them is that they are cheap and readily available. Once one of those attributes is challenged (i.e. prices pushing over a grand) I think there are WAY better alternatives. At least in my neck of the woods. Hope this helps

If I remember correctly you are an aeronautical engineer?

How many professional shops do you walk in a day? And how many professional mechanics do you interact with a day?

Walk into any professional shop and count how many HF boxes and Husky carts you see! My buddy is a sales rep for Grainger and he is constantly bitching about how he can not longer sell tool boxes or hand tools because HF and taken the market from them.

I get your a SO fan but if you have never worked out of a HF box in a professional environment you opinion is just an opinion.

 

[bigredcornhead]

I am still surprised that HF still isn't making stainless steels tops for the us general cabinets, holding until the next sale to get my 72.

 

[AEAdam]

If I remember correctly you are an aeronautical engineer?

How many professional shops do you walk in a day? And how many professional mechanics do you interact with a day?

Walk into any professional shop and count how many HF boxes and Husky carts you see! My buddy is a sales rep for Grainger and he is constantly bitching about how he can not longer sell tool boxes or hand tools because HF and taken the market from them.

I get your a SO fan but if you have never worked out of a HF box in a professional environment you opinion is just an opinion.

I've gotten a lot of exposure to manufacturing of a variety of aerospace commodities over the years. Because of my unique attributes(?) I've worked more "hands on" than "normal" engineers. They sort of use me as a problem solver, tricky parts person.

So to answer your question, I've worked out of just about every toolbox one could find in a professional setting including the special stuff like the tool control EPIQs. I personally own Snap on and Kennedy boxes.

To your point, I think one can't know a toolbox by opening its empty drawer in a store.

 

[dcg9381]

To your point, I think one can't know a toolbox by opening its empty drawer in a store.

Do tell. I don't own a snap-on anything, not out of hate for snap-on, but because it's not a "full time job", just no reason to pay the premium. I've got HF roller-bearing boxes that are going on 20 years old and with the exception of some de-lamination on the castors, they're still working for me and haven't failed... But turning a wrench isn't what I do for a living.

 

[mercracing]

I measured again today and I have 88” of room to play with, so i could do a 72” HF or some combo of 54” snap on two bank and either an end box or a cart.

 

[bigfunwmu]

I measured again today and I have 88” of room to play with, so i could do a 72” HF or some combo of 54” snap on two bank and either an end box or a cart.

Look at the Strictly Toolboxes Tool Vault stuff. Their boxes are 30" deep and have 250/500 pound drawer slides which beats the socks off any of the HF stuff.

I currently have an Epiq 68 across from a Tool Vault 55. The Tool Vault drawer slides are smoother, but I like the Snappy layout more. I just wish they made 92 instead of an 84 Epiq for me to upgrade to.

I had a gen 1 HF 72. Both of these boxes I currently have are a massive step up from the HF box. The HF was a big step up from the 26" Craftsman stuff from the 90s I had before. In today's market the only US general stuff I would be looking at is the 4, 5, or 6 drawer carts. For a main box there is a lot more box available for not that much more money.

 

[1Bad55Chevy]

I've gotten a lot of exposure to manufacturing of a variety of aerospace commodities over the years. Because of my unique attributes(?) I've worked more "hands on" than "normal" engineers. They sort of use me as a problem solver, tricky parts person.

So to answer your question, I've worked out of just about every toolbox one could find in a professional setting including the special stuff like the tool control EPIQs. I personally own Snap on and Kennedy boxes.

To your point, I think one can't know a toolbox by opening its empty drawer in a store.

I started in my uncle's shop at 13 in a Craftsman box and worked there for 5 years until he fired me and told me to go college. 12 years later I went back to turning wrenches after working as a software engineer and have been doing that for 10 years now.

I have worked out of every box and it dosen't matter... you just need drawers to hold tools. I have yet to hear a service writer call a customer and say "ya we didn't get your car done today because Jason dosen't have a SO box so he couldn't get his drawers open fast enough... luck we have Matt and he has a SO box so he will be rolling on the job when he gets in tomorrow ".

If you really want to make an impact on your work efficiency buy a 2 post lift and a better scanner. Without a lift and diag tools it dosen't matter what brand tools/tools box you have.

 

[1Bad55Chevy]

Look at the Strictly Toolboxes Tool Vault stuff. Their boxes are 30" deep and have 250/500 pound drawer slides which beats the socks off any of the HF stuff.

I currently have an Epiq 68 across from a Tool Vault 55. The Tool Vault drawer slides are smoother, but I like the Snappy layout more. I just wish they made 92 instead of an 84 Epiq for me to upgrade to.

I had a gen 1 HF 72. Both of these boxes I currently have are a massive step up from the HF box. The HF was a big step up from the 26" Craftsman stuff from the 90s I had before. In today's market the only US general stuff I would be looking at is the 4, 5, or 6 drawer carts. For a main box there is a lot more box available for not that much more money.

I have looked at the Tool Vault stuff when I was in the market for a box. I didn't like the fact it came with a 5 year warranty. The Icon box atleast carries a lifetime warranty.

 

[AEAdam]

I started in my uncle's shop at 13 in a Craftsman box and worked there for 5 years until he fired me and told me to go college. 12 years later I went back to turning wrenches after working as a software engineer and have been doing that for 10 years now.

I have worked out of every box and it dosen't matter... you just need drawers to hold tools. I have yet to hear a service writer call a customer and say "ya we didn't get your car done today because Jason dosen't have a SO box so he couldn't get his drawers open fast enough... luck we have Matt and he has a SO box so he will be rolling on the job when he gets in tomorrow ".

If you really want to make an impact on your work efficiency buy a 2 post lift and a better scanner. Without a lift and diag tools it dosen't matter what brand tools/tools box you have.

You understand why this isn’t helpful for someone looking to spend $1700 on a toolbox right? That can be a lot of money for some people. And some people care about the stuff they buy. Thats why they post questions on the internet.

It’s just like folks looking for cars and people saying they are all the same. They all just take you from point A to point B.

 

[whateg01]

I bought not snap on on purpose. I looked at a couple krl here for decent prices and decided I hate the latches almost as much as the ones on the new usg boxes. If there was a big epiq for a grand I would buy it but I ended up with a husky that I'm very happy with. I also have 4 usg 26" boxes stacked and they work very well but I wanted some long drawers so I could put all sockets in one and all wrenches in another. No regrets. If you want hf boxes, buy hf boxes.

Mine took a few weeks but that was a few years ago. Sounds like it's about the same today.

 

[whateg01]

... And some people care about the stuff they buy. Thats why they post questions on the internet.

Yes they do. OP stated he wants to buy a box from hf. And he asked how long they take to arrive. You told him why he needs a SO box. He stated why he doesn't want SO. Why do you care so much what he buys?