Ratcheting Wrenches, your preference?

[Whatsit]

I have been checking out ratcheting wrenches after being in several positions to where these thing would have been a God send.
Between Craftsman & Blue Point the price differenace is not as great as I thought it would be. I have also checked our Gear Wrench, Husky, and others.
I'm thinkig for the price, just to go for the Blue point ones.
i would be interested to hear what you guys have tried and like.

 

[iiibdsiil]

After dealing with a few different types, I went with the Gearwrench with the flexhead. I have been in a situation maybe twice where the flex head caused a problem.

And in fact, I have a set of Blue Points, 8-19 mm that are in damn good condition. I don't ever use them, so if you want them, make me a fair offer.

 

[Blacknwhitepit]

I have been checking out ratcheting wrenches after being in several positions to where these thing would have been a God send.
Between Craftsman & Blue Point the price differenace is not as great as I thought it would be. I have also checked our Gear Wrench, Husky, and others.
I'm thinking for the price, just to go for the Blue point ones.
i would be interested to hear what you guys have tried and like.

I have a set of Craftsman ratcheting wrenches. I love them for taking off transmission bellhousing bolts on old GM's.

If all things are equal, I would choose Craftsman, They are made in USA and have the best return policy. The Gear wrench and Husky are overseas made.

I noticed Snap on is now making Snap on ratcheting wrenches. (Not just blue point). I can't justify the expense of the Snap on ones, when the Craftsman stuff works fine for the limited amount of time I use it.

-BWP

 

[eschoendorff]

Buy whatever ones you like the best; they're all basically the same. The ratcheting mechanism in all of them comes from Taiwan anyway. I have GearWrench and I have Craftsman. They're both excellent.

 

[wythors]

I have Craftsman SAE and Gearwrench metric. Other than the printing on the handles, they appear to be identical.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

I have two gearwrenches, found lying in the street, a 13mm and a 14mm, both FLEXHEAD. The 13mm was a life saver for running out the bellhousing bolts on my Ranger during a clutch replacment.

Some cases the flat, flip over to reverse, type are very useful, but can get you in trouble in a tight spot too. Other cases, the reversable type, slightly offset like a normal combo wrench is the best, sometimes the shortys are handy, shoot just buy them all!!!!!!!!!!

Charles

 

[kartracer55]

If your talking about fully polished ones, I have a few individual craftsmans at the track. I use these things, especially the little 10mm ALL the time and it has held up well. My freind has a full set of SAE and Metric and we have flat out abused these things and they wont die. Im taling about doubleing up a wrench on them for tons of leverage, breaking things free. Craftsmans have my vote. Im sure the gearwrenches are good too but since the Craftsmans are made in USA Im more inclined to spend the extra $$$

Jim

 

[wilbilt]

I have some older Snap-On ratcheting wrenches (we used to call them "flat ratchets").

I had occasion to use them today, as the giant "accessory drive bracket" on my '88 Chevy truck decided to bend and crack. The PS pump was about to launch through the radiator, so I figured I'd fix it.

While pulling the bracket off, there were many instances of bolts with close clearances. I brought out the "flat ratchets", but was wishing I had some fine-tooth GearWrenches to try.

The Force is strong in this one, but I feel myself being drawn to the Dark Side.

 

[chevy302dz]

You really can't go wrong with any of the brands of gearwrenches as far as the ratcheting end. The open end is where you will really see a difference in quality between brands.

 

[milly]

From what I had seen and heard, the polished ratcheting wrenchs from Gearwrench, Husky, Craftsman, Blue Point, and Stanley are all made by.....Stanley. I heard this and didn't believe it, but recently saw a show about tools and a Stanley rep made the comment about the design of the wrenchs. Compare them sometime. The only difference is whose name is stamped on the handle.

 

[wythors]

I have some older Snap-On ratcheting wrenches (we used to call them "flat ratchets").

I have a set of those by Mac that I bought about 20 years ago (damn, I'm getting old ) that are darned near indestructible. MUCH heavier duty than Gearwrenches, but the ratcheting mechanism is a lot coarser.

 

[wantedabiggergarage]

From what I had seen and heard, the polished ratcheting wrenchs from Gearwrench, Husky, Craftsman, Blue Point, and Stanley are all made by.....Stanley. I heard this and didn't believe it, but recently saw a show about tools and a Stanley rep made the comment about the design of the wrenchs. Compare them sometime. The only difference is whose name is stamped on the handle.

The Craftsman and Armstrongs, are USA made by Dahaner. Dahaner (spelling?) also owns KD (Gearwrench), but those are oversea's. I have both Gearwrenchs, and Armstrongs.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

I have some older Snap-On ratcheting wrenches (we used to call them "flat ratchets")

Dog Bones, thats what we call them at work.

Charles

 

[Ign]

First, it's important to clarify reversible (ie you flip a lever to reverse direction) vs the non-reversible (you turn the whole wrench around to reverse direction).

I've had bad experience with the reversible GearWrenches in both standard and metric. With very little use on them numerous sizes would bind up when using them, or reverse themselves. I kept replacing them at Napa, but the replacement kept having the same issue, or new sizes would spring up w the same issues. Off the top of my head the 8mm, 13mm, 1/2 and 9/16 were all replaced at least once, a couple of them twice. The 10mm is also suspect. I believe all the sizes are susceptible. The replacements always displayed the same results after a bit of use.

I did not over-torque these. I did not use a cheater. I did not use them to break frozen fasteners. I did not store them in a humid environment, allow them to rust, drop them in puddles, spray them with solvents, or anything else. They sat on my workbench in a relatively dry environment. They were only a couple weeks old when they started showing problems.

I DO NOT recommend the reversible Gearwrenches or any of the re-badged ones. I've now got the reversible SK's. Not enough use on the SK's to give a report. The Gearwrenches went in my truck tool bag where they sit behind the seat 363 days of the year I'd guess, they're too annoying to use on a regular basis.

 

[wantedabiggergarage]

First, it's important to clarify reversible (ie you flip a lever to reverse direction) vs the non-reversible (you turn the whole wrench around to reverse direction).


I did not over-torque these. I did not use a cheater. I did not use them to break frozen fasteners. I did not store them in a humid environment, allow them to rust, drop them in puddles, spray them with solvents, or anything else. They sat on my workbench in a relatively dry environment. They were only a couple weeks old when they started showing problems.

Only knew of one person with the reversible ones, and they agreed with your assessment.
However, I started with the combo Gearwrench sets (bought one, given the other as Christmas), but was annoyed that you had to have a second wrench to break loose the bolt. So those have been relegated to the mechanics shop (where they see daily use, for tedious spots) and I bought/won this sae/metric set off of Ebay:
http://www.fastenal.com/web/products/detail.ex?sku=0204258
Boxed end to break loose the fastener, then the gearwrench side. Just didn't pay Fastenal's money.

 

[pl_silverado]

I have the Snap-on set... not sure if its worth the 550 or so that it costs, but to me it is. If i were to only have one set of wrenches thats the set.

 

[Jokeman]

I like the non-reverseable gearwrenches(stubby and regular lenth). For the reversable ones I have the Craftsman ones(regular lenth and flip head). Ive pulled on the non-reversable gearwrenches something fiece and used a small cheater on them and they held up. I wouldnt trust the open end of them though.

 

[eschoendorff]

I like the non-reverseable gearwrenches(stubby and regular lenth). For the reversable ones I have the Craftsman ones(regular lenth and flip head). Ive pulled on the non-reversable gearwrenches something fiece and used a small cheater on them and they held up. I wouldnt trust the open end of them though.

I agree WHOLEHEARTEDLY!!!!!!!!!!!