Oil filter wrenches

[moocowman]

I used to own some lube shops. There's no one filter wrench that worked for everything. Filter cups/sockets never worked well. The lube techs preferred to start with the steel band wrenches. Don't bother with the ones that have a rubber or cork liner inside the steel band. If space constraints didn't allow a band wrench or it didn't have enough leverage to break the filter loose, they'd go for the 3 jaw tool because you can stick a long handle ratchet on it for leverage. But the tool that we always turned to when everything else failed was the "Gator Jaws". They totally destroyed the filter, but they were strong and able to reach almost anything. Some of the techs used the Gator Jaws exclusively.

As for installing filters, you shouldn't need to use a tool at all. Hand tight.

 

[Qualitytools]

I used to own some lube shops. There's no one filter wrench that worked for everything. Filter cups/sockets never worked well. The lube techs preferred to start with the steel band wrenches. Don't bother with the ones that have a rubber or cork liner inside the steel band. If space constraints didn't allow a band wrench or it didn't have enough leverage to break the filter loose, they'd go for the 3 jaw tool because you can stick a long handle ratchet on it for leverage. But the tool that we always turned to when everything else failed was the "Gator Jaws". They totally destroyed the filter, but they were strong and able to reach almost anything. Some of the techs used the Gator Jaws exclusively.

As for installing filters, you shouldn't need to use a tool at all. Hand tight.

Thanks for sharing. Gator Jaw had not been mentioned and I had to google it, appears to be stout and not cheap either.