OTC tools, never again

[2x_Tom]

I have a couple OTC tools, all made in USA and pretty good quality. Last week I ordered a 4518 puller set to remove a pinon bearing. Usually I use my friends Mac or Matco (can't remember which it was) but he no longer has his tools.

It arrived today (Sunday delivery, go Amazon) and the first thing I notice is "Made In Taiwan" on the box. Upon inspection the casting of the clamshells looks kind of cheap. Oh well, OTC wouldn't sell something that wasn't quality I think. So I set up the puller with the small clamshell, lube up the puller and start to turn. SNAP! The threads of the extension tear right out of the clamshell. Great, now one of the extensions and the small clamshell is shot.
Oh well, I need to get this off somehow with this junk puller. So I set up the larger clamshell, heat up the bearing to make life for the puller easier and start to turn. BAM! The whole puller shifts to the side. Bends the drive nut and the other extension.

So within 20 minutes the entire kit was destroyed. I'm going to call the place I bought it from and OTC tomorrow and see what they say. I don't even want it warrantied, I want to send it back and get a refund so I can buy a better set. I've got a feeling they're going to try and cry abuse and tell me in SOL though.

 

[2x_Tom]

Forgot the pic

 

[rapid robert]

That *****! I hope you are able to get your money back.

 

[Frank-D-Tank]

Thanks for the info, I was looking at this set not too long ago. Think I'll pass.

 

[littletoes]

That settles it for me!

May have to break down and get a PROTO....

 

[GTA Matt]

The stinger line is otc's imported line. Fwiw, I have that same puller, used it countless times, on small stuff all the way up to big Dana's without a problem. What diff were you working on?

 

[Super Sport]

The stinger line is otc's imported line.

Not completely true. The Stinger line is their cheaper line, but most all OTC stuff is now made overseas. I know, I have several OTC tools and kits I've bought over the past year, and nothing has been USA made.

 

[2x_Tom]

What diff were you working on?

A 12 bolt.

 

[DodgeMech]

at work we have the same puller, but is a bit older...has done god knows how many pinion bearings...that one there looks like **** though...without even touching it

 

[G1GRANDEUR]

probably re-badged unit that you can buy from any auto or parts stores.

I hear Amazon have great customer service.

 

[devoncoolman]

Have the same unit. Broke it several times. Blew the studs off the extensions. Stripped the threads on the clamshell studs. But it generally will work for about 30 or so times then break something. Mine is a matco same thing so i just make matco replace whatever broke.

Fwiw the snap-on stuff is way better then all this new asian made ****.

 

[woody 73]

For what it's worth in the past (cave Man Days) when someone complained like the op then a good company that was getting high failure rates and returns then their R&D would work on over drive to fix the problem.

Sigh... Maybe those days are over.

 

[Shadowdog500]

I really like OTC products, BUT that looks like you could have bought it at HF. I have some HF stuff so I should know. For by bigger and better pullers, I wound up looking for old made in USA stuff.

Chris

 

[jd_1138]

When will these idiots realize that people will pay more for Made in the USA quality tools? It's cheaper to keep production here and charge higher prices for quality rather than build **** overseas, charge way less, and then have to warranty out these pieces of ****.

 

[John in OH]

Well, this is all disappointing to hear. I always thought OTC made pretty good products, but this bodes ill for any future purchases.

 

[Tarheelgarage]

When will these idiots realize that people will pay more for Made in the USA quality tools? It's cheaper to keep production here and charge higher prices for quality rather than build **** overseas, charge way less, and then have to warranty out these pieces of ****.

You need to remove USA and quality from the same sentence; how about reading my post last week of piss poor wrench quality from Proto.


http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=268460

USA does not always mean you will get a quality product.

 

[Skin]

That settles it for me!

May have to break down and get a PROTO....

Im surprised the Proto is USA. I wonder if that's made in a Stanley facility or sourced elsewhere. I bet its high quality because you're sure paying for it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002M71QXY/?tag=atomicindus08-20

OTC kit is $80

You need to remove USA and quality from the same sentence; how about reading my post last week of piss poor wrench quality from Proto.


http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=268460

USA does not always mean you will get a quality product.

How long are you going to beat this horse? There is a BIG difference between failing while being used as designed and failing due to a rare quality control issue.

 

[Ruger_556]

You need to remove USA and quality from the same sentence; how about reading my post last week of piss poor wrench quality from Proto.


http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=268460

USA does not always mean you will get a quality product.

You got a fluke man, stop crying about it and warranty the thing already... If you're so convinced they're **** then send them to any of the several members who said they wanted them.

 

[srmofo]

Ive got that set and have used it for years. Although mine does not look nearly as shiny as yours, its more of a matte finish.

 

[justme-]

When will these idiots realize that people will pay more for Made in the USA quality tools? It's cheaper to keep production here and charge higher prices for quality rather than build **** overseas, charge way less, and then have to warranty out these pieces of ****.

not necessarily - some customers will pay more for US made and some (probably a larger percentage) will gladly shuffle off to HF or their corner parts store and buy the china made/taiwan made junk for a tenth the cost of a Snap-on. Many who are looking to save the cash and buy the china stuff are doing so because it's a one time use, or because their shop just got a job that it has never needed said tool for in the past and can't justify the outlay for a US made (high end) tool when it may not need it again. Still others have the false sense of economy buying a cheap low quality tool (maybe they don't know any better...) and expecting it is a short lifespan item.

I have a few OTC/Kent- Moore/Miller tools - all are made in US and all are several years old. I would be upset with that same situation and apparent quality from OTC, regardless of the CO of the tool. let us know how it works out...last tool I bought from them was a Miller seal tool for Dana axles, and I bought direct from Miller/OTC.

 

[toolaholic]

The Otc stinger 4533 strut cartridge tool *****. It worked to remove strut cartridge fastener on the factory cartridges but did not work for the aftermaket Gabriels. The piston was bigget and hit inside strut remover. Got full refund and return shipping paid from amaxon. Reason they paid return shipping was I checked the box " product did not meet description". I then rented the oem kit from autozone to finish the job.

 

[Adam.C]

When will these idiots realize that people will pay more for Made in the USA quality tools? It's cheaper to keep production here and charge higher prices for quality rather than build **** overseas, charge way less, and then have to warranty out these pieces of ****.

It's obviously cheaper to buy tools from Chiwan. And the idiots are here on GJ buying HF.

The OPs story just echoes my experience with cheap tools. Chiwan makes tools that look almost like quality tools, but the little details, materials, processing, heat treat etc, just aren't there. And when these tools fail, and I admit they don't always, but when they do, the cost- car damaged, lost time, possibly missing work, easily justifies the best quality tool. Personally, I dont see the VALUE in cheap tools.

Clearly, we who buy the bait and switch tools are the idiots.

 

[mechanicworkman]

I am not sure how you paid for the tool. However many credit cards have additional warrentys that extend or double the manufacturer warrenty. For instance American Express has a thing that doubles man. warrenty. and in some cases if a vendor won't return an item they will re-imburse you for it. Check into your credit card protections. I use amex alot with the great protections they offer.

 

[wild cowboy]

You got a fluke man, stop crying about it and warranty the thing already... If you're so convinced they're **** then send them to any of the several members who said they wanted them.

Just because people's experience is not the same as your narrow view of the world would dictate, doesn't mean they are crying, it just means you are not intelligent enough to realize that there are other points of view and other experiences, which is likely based on your lack of experience.

This is not the first or second or third time I have seen you whining about other members who do not share your views and berating them, instead of trying to learn from the wider body of intelligent feedback here, you say other folks are crying, when it is plain to see who is actually whining and unaware. Wake up, man!

 

[2x_Tom]

Wow, that Proto one is buck bucks. I went with OTC because I thought they were good while not being as much as the truck brands. I saw a similar puller to the OTC on Macs website for $200 so I didn't think $85 was rediculously cheap for this thing. Now I see Mac has two of the same thing, one for $200 and one for. $500. I bet the cheap one is the same as the OTC.
I'll be trying to return this today. For the moment I'm out of time so I'm going to have to do what I didn't want to and cut the bearing off. I'll either order that Proto or Mac or wait until an older good one comes along.
I got what I paid for, I just didn't realize that I was in the complete junk price range when I bought it. Now I know better.

 

[wild cowboy]

It's obviously cheaper to buy tools from Chiwan. And the idiots are here on GJ buying HF.

The OPs story just echoes my experience with cheap tools. Chiwan makes tools that look almost like quality tools, but the little details, materials, processing, heat treat etc, just aren't there. And when these tools fail, and I admit they don't always, but when they do, the cost- car damaged, lost time, possibly missing work, easily justifies the best quality tool. Personally, I dont see the VALUE in cheap tools.

Clearly, we who buy the bait and switch tools are the idiots.

as someone with 1000's of tools hailing from probably at least 30 different countries, the first thing I would say is that you should not say "Chiwan" as most Chinese tools are junky, and yet many tools made in Taiwan that I own are as good or better than tools made in USA.

here is a chart I made to help:

good tools typically come from:

USA
Germany
Japan
Korea
Taiwan
Switzerland
Austria
Spain
France
Italy
Netherlands
Sweden
Finland
Norway
Russia
Lithuania
Ukraine


countries I would currently avoid due to inconsistent quality:

China
India
Indonesia

 

[Cope]

I bought an OTC 1123 puller last year. It is marked made in USA with globally sourced components. More of a matte finish than the OP's set.

 

[Mike007]

This is the puller I picked up for differential work. It's not cheap, but its USA made, removes bearings easily, quickly and without damage.

 

[cgv69]

Im surprised the Proto is USA. I wonder if that's made in a Stanley facility or sourced elsewhere. I bet its high quality because you're sure paying for it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002M71QXY/?tag=atomicindus08-20

OTC kit is $80

You got to look around. Amazon is not always the cheapest game in town...
http://www.toolup.com/proto_j5041_bearing-splitter-combo-pack.aspx

Granted that's still not as cheap on the OTC kit but more often then not, you get what you pay for. Hindsight being 20/20...

Do you think the OP would have minded paying extra for the Proto kit and avoided all of this wasted time, energy and frustration the OTC kit is giving him? Buy once, cry once!

 

[2x_Tom]

Amazon took it back without a word of complaint. They even paid the return shipping. Wound up getting the bearing off with a grinder and air hammer.
Next time I'll be buying a real kit, that Yukon puller looks nice. I watched a video they have and it seems like it would be perfect for those oops moments you need to pull a bearing off without wrecking it.

 

[Toyota mechanic]

Not completely true. The Stinger line is their cheaper line, but most all OTC stuff is now made overseas. I know, I have several OTC tools and kits I've bought over the past year, and nothing has been USA made.

It is almost all imported now... +1

 

[2oolhound]

This is what OTC built it's reputation on. It's about 30 years old.





The newer snap-on is as good a quality and I like the offset threaded holes for the puller apparatus, it leaves a nice open area to retrieve bearing races, shims etc.

 

[zakmartin]

FWIW, I bought some OTC bearing splitters not that long ago; the 1122 and 1123 along with the pullers 7392 and 7393 and they're all made in the USA. You end up paying a bit of a premium for buying everything separately. Like you said though, their multi-tool splitter kits are all made overseas now.

 

[d.mcfarland]

not necessarily - some customers will pay more for US made and some (probably a larger percentage) will gladly shuffle off to HF or their corner parts store and buy the china made/taiwan made junk for a tenth the cost of a Snap-on. Many who are looking to save the cash and buy the china stuff are doing so because it's a one time use, or because their shop just got a job that it has never needed said tool for in the past and can't justify the outlay for a US made (high end) tool when it may not need it again. Still others have the false sense of economy buying a cheap low quality tool (maybe they don't know any better...) and expecting it is a short lifespan item.

I will say that the high school kids are adoring the HF stuff every time I'm in the area. In their minds, quantity is better than quality.

 

[wjamyers]

And the idiots are here on GJ buying HF.

all of the HF tools I bought based on the recommendations here at GJ have paid for themselves already and none of them have failed, dipshit.

 

[supersteve]

all of the hf tools i bought based on the recommendations here at gj have paid for themselves already and none of them have failed, dipshit.

potty mouth!!! Potty mouth!!!!!!!!

 

[Mridolfo]

as someone with 1000's of tools hailing from probably at least 30 different countries, the first thing I would say is that you should not say "Chiwan" as most Chinese tools are junky, and yet many tools made in Taiwan that I own are as good or better than tools made in USA.

here is a chart I made to help:

good tools typically come from:

USA
Germany
Japan
Korea
Taiwan
Switzerland
Austria
Spain
France
Italy
Netherlands
Sweden
Finland
Norway
Russia
Lithuania
Ukraine


countries I would currently avoid due to inconsistent quality:

China
India
Indonesia

Are we forgetting about tools Made In Canada ?

 

[SantaAna12]

Grey,eh?

 

[RedneckWelder]

I brought two OTC tools recently, the large and small hydraulic cylinder gland nut wrenches.

Both are made in the USA. Pin retention could be better, but for $110 total for two wrenches that will cover most sizes, I can tolerate it.