No, there's no such thing as an Ugly Jeep - there are Ugly Chevys for certain, but not Jeeps. Then again, the FC series was, uh, "unique", but more Pugly than Ugly...
how do you ID a RHFT ratchet?
UTN's pics are worth a thousand words, but I'll add a few more. The RHFT ratchets were originally patented and produced by Moore Drop Forge (later EASCO, and finally Danaher) for Craftsman and several other brands. The shifter cap is fairly unique and doesn't really resemble any other round head ratchet (at least to the semi-experienced eye). There's also an integral knurled speeder ring on the drive side (not seen in UTN's pics). The "other" (and IMHO lesser quality) Craftsman round heads sourced from Stanley have the integral knurled speeder on the reverse cap side.
The design is a double pawl that has one pawl just disengaged when the other is seated, and so effectively "doubles" the number of clicks you get when ratcheting compared to the actual number of teeth found in the round head, and halves the minimum swing arc for a pawl to engage the next tooth (hence Round Head Fine Tooth). It was for a good while (and still is to more than a few of us), the
Best Craftsman Ratchet Ever Produced.
Fortunately, a bazillion of them seem to have been sold over many years and they've proven to be pretty darn durable (the 1/4" ones maybe not quite as durable as the rest), so the standard length ones aren't "rare" by any stretch of the imagination. Now the flex-head ones shown above are a little different story rarity-wise, particularly the 1/2" one. You can find the standard length ones branded (with a variety of handle shapes/knurling designs) for NAPA, KD, Allen, Armstrong, Master Mechanic, and EASCO. A long handled fixed head 1/2" version was never offered by Craftsman but can be found (with varying difficulty) in most of the other brandings as well as Rigid (for use with their pipe threaders). There are other branded 3/8" flex ratchets around, but I've yet to see a 1/2" flex branded for anyone but Craftsman. Finally, there are non-quick release versions of some of the other brands, but AFAIK, the Craftsmans were always quick release.
There you go, far more info than you ever wanted to help identify the venerable RHFT....
There are/were other manufacturers that have round head fine tooth ratchets with double pawls out there (Bonney for example), but there's only one RHFT....
Very nice, I love RHFT ratchets., looks like you have some very nice ratchets. What is the tooth count on the 3/8" flex head (2nd from top)?
