How handy is a portapower?

[Danglerb]

HF has a couple of these on sale, 4 ton for $70 and 10 ton for $120, how handy are they to have around? Would a set of big prybars do a lot of the same stuff?

..

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Simply depends on what kind of work you are doing. If you need one, you just cannot do without it, but its not often you need it. If you are working heavy equipment, tractors, etc, you just might find a use for it.

At work (heavy aircraft maintenance facility) we have a roll around cabinet. On one end of it is a home made bench top hydraulic press using a small porta power cylinder, and on the side is a mounted hand pump. Open the lid, and you find a whole assortment of large and small cylinders, hollow (pull thru) cylinders, and a bottom drawer with assortments of threaded rod in various sizes and lengths, large machinery nuts for the rod, and different metal plates with holes for the rod. This kit is invaluable for removing all things frozen and rusted in place. It has a mile long hose so you can carry the cylinder up to your work while your workwith stands down below to operate the pump.

I'd like to have one of these sets, but cannot justify the expense, given that I rarely would use it.

Charles

 

[rsanter]

if you do need one now and cant think of an upcomming project where you will need one then I would not do it.
I have 2 of them. bought one because I needed it and bought the other because it was used and so cheap I could not walk past it.
I have made good use of the ones I have (and so have my friends) but have only used it 6-8 times in the past 10-12 years.

bob

 

[Uncle Buck]

Unless your trade is body man you will not use it very often, but if you do jobs that require the use of one, even occasionally they are worth their weight! I have not had my box open in several years but it is nice to know it is there when I need it. Like the rest of my hydraulic equipment I bought it not working for $5.00 at a swap meet and resurrected it.

 

[Franz©]

It's being sold by Horror Flotsum, so every time you use it to jack the motherinlaw off the couch you'll have to worry abut the cheap cast fracturing, and her being a permanent patient requiring 24/7 care in your house.

I own 2 real portapowere, they have 2 hoses and the cylinder pushes and pulls. Those are damn useful a few times a year. The one way cylinders are about as useful as dogcrap on your new lugsole workboots.

 

[Danglerb]

I wasn't sure if it might be handier to use than pry bar sometimes,when you don't exactly have a good spot to pry at, but need to move something. Picking one up really cheap at the swapmeet sounds like an option too.

 

[Uncle Buck]

I wasn't sure if it might be handier to use than pry bar sometimes,when you don't exactly have a good spot to pry at, but need to move something. Picking one up really cheap at the swapmeet sounds like an option too.

I say when in doubt always have both! (best rule of thumb for the single man with no kids!)

 

[Chris Adams]

Get it on Craig's list or the recycler.
Most of them end up on the classifieds after the owner gets tired of moving the super heavy, oily box around the garage for a couple years.


I bought my HF unit there for 30 bucks. Used it a couple times on things you wouldn't expect, example a pushed in tool box back. With some careful positioning I was able to gently 'undoing' a big ding in a Craftsman box that had had a nasty fall.
Remember, a porta-power can get you into more trouble than you started with. Bending metal is an art, not just a simple task.
Its worth30 bucks. Not worth 70 unless you KNOW you will need it.

 

[Red Green]

I have had a 10 ton porta power. I have used it several times about once a year. I had to move the frame horn out on my stock car and I have used it for other things but I cant remember anyother stuff right now.

 

[goodfellow]

I used to do body and frame work and used the 4 ton porta-power almost daily (a true Porter Cable unit). In the last 20 years I've used it a few times, but it's nice to have around. The spreader attachment along with a jimmy bar has come in handy for lifting bulky machinery a few inches off the floor to get dollies, trucks and/or rollers underneath.

As far as HF is concerned, don't expect these things to provide the same service as Porter Cable of Blackhawk units. Nice to have on the shelf though when you need it.

 

[Slim-Pickins']

If you have to ask if you need one, then you probably don't. Not trying to be a smarty, just a realist.

 

[OldCarGuy]

And if you own one, you'd wonder how you could get along without one!

I have three portapowers. The ten-ton unit I used in my homemade hydraulic press setup. The little five-ton I find handy when I need to straighten something that’s too large to get to my press. It also nice to get into tight places. For BIG muscle, I bring out the Beast,, a 50-ton Dayton unit. It’s great for straightening frames and raising sunken headers to sister stiffening beams.

 

[Uncle Buck]

As far as HF is concerned, don't expect these things to provide the same service as Porter Cable or OLDER BLACKHAWK units. Nice to have on the shelf though when you need it.

The new Blackhawk stuff is Hi-Chen!

 

[Uncle Buck]

And if you own one, you'd wonder how you could get along without one!

I have three portapowers. The ten-ton unit I used in my homemade hydraulic press setup. The little five-ton I find handy when I need to straighten something that’s too large to get to my press. It also nice to get into tight places. For BIG muscle, I bring out the Beast,, a 50-ton Dayton unit. It’s great for straightening frames and raising sunken headers to sister stiffening beams.

NOW THAT'S A PORTA-POWER! " Said like Crocodile Dundee!"

 

[KennyBrekhus]

Where can I get my hands on a 50 ton porta power?

 

[jonwally]

I bought one at P-Auto about a year ago. Like everyone else I don't use it very much but when I do nothing else would have been as easy. Last time I used it was to push back a lower rad support a customer had bent while off-roading in their car; did the job nicely.

 

[Outlawmws]

I have three, one from my racing days when we needed WAY too often to straighten bent stuff, and two more I've picked up for next to nothing at yard sales...

I think I've used one maybe twice since the racing stopped...

Answer for how handy it is?: it depends on what you do... (I use a Come-a-long several items a year min for instance...)

 

[bobcatdan]

Thing with ports powers is 98% of them are identical to the ones HF sell and the four ton kits are pretty keep for what they. I agree you either use them or you don't, but for $80 or so a four ton kit cost. There are worst things to have cluttering up the garage.

 

[Andy Griffith]

Old thread I know, but what the heck. I have the 10 ton HF kit and as others have stated it doesn't get used all that frequently but when you need one, you really need one.

It gets used for straightening replacing bent pieces on the racecar and various pieces of farm equipment. It really saved our bacon when the dozer jumped a track in a muddy/bad area. That was a heck of a mess and while it wasn't pretty, the portapower enabled us to get the track adjuster collapsed enough to get the track back on. That was after we used a combo of the portapower and HF hydraulic jack on its side to pry the track out from where it jammed down between the track frame and main frame members. Straighten bent farm gates and/or cow feeder panels. Also used it recently to pry apart a couple of the c-channel on the frame of the firewood trailer.

The most used attachments have been two that are not included in the kit but come in very handy.

The short body ram aka 'The Puck', and the pull back ram. For example, used the puck to spread open some of the stake pockets on the firewood trailer so the stakes would slide in easier.

 

[ilovevocs]

I use my ports power once or twice a year, but when I need it I'm glad to have it.

 

[ADSR]

I use my ports power once or twice a year, but when I need it I'm glad to have it.

Same with me. When you need it, you're boned without it.

 

[Provincial]

I have the HF 10-ton unit. I had an Astro 10-ton for at least 15 years before this one and it sold with my business. Both worked fine and they have been maxed out a lot! The HF unit is still going strong. I bought the HF accessory kit with a variety of rams and have used several of them. When you need a special ram (the "puck" comes to mind) you really need it. I also have a center-hole 30-ton ram that comes in handy.

I have used mine for positioning, straightening, body work, carpentry/wood construction, and assembly/disassembly. I use them several times a year now. Well worth having around.

 

[Zelatore]

I'm right there with everybody else - don't use it that often, but when I do it's about the only tool for the job. I've got a HF version, and it's about on its last legs but still alive. I primarily use it to shove diesel engines around on their mounts when doing shaft alignments in boats. No room for pry bars in an engine room, and you ain't gonna shift a couple thousand pounds by hand.

(man I hate doing that job)

 

[Justanoldguy]

I have several of them.
Used them heaps when in construction.
Almost daily at busy times.
Think outside the box and the uses are endless.