TheGrooveking
Well-known member
Their selling Gearwrench ratchets. One dealer I know is telling the me hanics that he will offer them 100% trade in value towards Matco ratchets when he gets them.
TheGrooveking
TheGrooveking
So Matco is backordered on all ratchets
- Thread starter warmpancakes
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shockwave
Well-known member
I know what you mean I have an old metal railed set of deep sockets and they are completely redesigned my 14mm was replaced that is longer than my 15mm in set or maybe early 00's when they switched to plastic rails
Almost forgot about this thread. Buddy of mine got his 1/4 ratchet swapped out no issues. I put my hands on it.....its a silver eagle. Lmao. Told him the scoop about how the eagle line is China husky. Dealer never mentioned an upgrade at a later time. He thought he was getting a new ratchet and took it for his broken one. Mmmmm
TheGrooveking
Well-known member
That dealer should have a broken face for pulling **** like that.
I may be over-zealous in my thinking but Matco has committed a cardinal sin with this ratchet fiasco. My Matco dealer was showing my their new digital angle torque wrenches and my response was "how do I know if I buy thks from you that you will be able to support it and I could buy Gearwrenches digital angle torque wrenches for $200+ cheaper".
Matco dropped down in my personal opinion when after years of not getting on one of their trucks I get on and find new ratchets (88 tooth) and I still have the original Matco ratchets made by Wright I bought in the early/mid 80's.Granted my career had moved away from using them much, but when I inquired about warranty and the dealer told me they would only give me the last price they sold them for I was mad that the lifetime warranty I paid for was worthless.
Yet because the dealer was a good guy I bought two or more of every cushion handle ratchet and some of their hard handle ratchets, fortunately for me two years ago I became concerned about their ratchet repair kits possibly moving to / starting to coming out of China so I bought 4 kits for each drive size (dealer thought I was crazy - why buy them when I'll install them free when you need them).
Fast forward a few years, that dealer turned into a turd so I won't even talk to him, I stopped dealing with him and I now have a new dealer (thanks to Matco reworking their territory map), but now the new dealer can't honor the warranty again, personally I feel I made a mistake not just buying Snap On and sticking with them all of these decades, I would of if a few of their dealers weren't complete stuck up *** clowns.
TheGrooveking
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Dr. Jekyll
Active member
Has anyone gotten an update? They haven't answered my inquiry to them from several weeks ago.
finn
Well-known member
They ignored my inquiry too.
Are they still in business?
Are they still in business?
Dr. Jekyll
Active member
That's actually a legitimate question. How can they remain profitable when SO & Mac are stealing all their customers???? I mean I can understand no inventory due to unforeseen circumstances but to blow off your customers? Unheard of.
ihateminimumwage
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Didn't realize this was still going on. Saw this thread as well today, so when the Matco stock is back, check your locking flex heads.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=329438
Only a matter of time until they just switch over to just selling re-branded Gearwrench ratchets, seeing as they have no problem with not stamping USA on the comfort grip ratchets due to an imported piece of rubber.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=329438
Only a matter of time until they just switch over to just selling re-branded Gearwrench ratchets, seeing as they have no problem with not stamping USA on the comfort grip ratchets due to an imported piece of rubber.
Loscaldazar
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Umm, that's the law? I'm far from a fan of apex/danaher/whatever they are called now, but shame on them for following the law.
ihateminimumwage
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Sorry if it came across any different, but my issue is that they'd rather import a cheap piece of rubber and skip stamping USA on an otherwise American made ratchet than to spend the little extra to have the handle poured in the states, not that they should stamp USA anyway.
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bsaint
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Guess that Armstrong ratchet is of the list. Is Mac affected at all? Or is Stanley not apart of it?
Loscaldazar
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That makes more sense- Yeah, I'd definitely agree with you there! Mayhew at least put the effort into buying a US factory to get their handles made in. Matco/Apex is way larger than mayhew- if they wanted to, they could have already.
Two totally different companies. Apex->Bain Capital. MAC->Stanley.
Except Matco makes no tools. They have the ratchets custom made and assembled for them alone as Apex does not make comfort grips for their USA ratchets. Other than tool boxes Matco contracts every tool they sell and is in no way directly apart of Apex. As far as im concerned you can thank Danaher for this disaster when they decided to sell off their tool production and leave Matco as little more than a tool box factory and distribution warehouse.
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ihateminimumwage
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Well aware Matco doesn't make their own tools.
No real shock that the locking flex Gearwrench ratchets were released (with the older Armstrong/Matco style ratchet mechanism, not the 120XP) right before Matco and Armstrong production was "consolidated" into one factory.
The comfort grips are more than likely coming out of the same plant as Gearwrench, so basically it will take less effort and cost for them to just start stamping Matco in GW ratchets than to ramp up USA production in a now limited space, which has already led to Armstrong suffering as well.
All just a WAG on my part, but seems to make sense.
hold that thought. i just bought a set of dominator pry bars and on the label it says "assembled in the USA of US and global components"
Loscaldazar
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Recent acquisition, plenty of stock with the taiwan made handles out there.
i saw a comment about matco tools on my facebook. a friend of mine shared a link, then a friend of his(which is a matco driver) posted a comment that they are the strongest tools out there, superior to snap on. so i commented that matco doesnt make one single tool, it is all outsourced from other companies and they removed my comment.
Dr. Jekyll
Active member
i saw a comment about matco tools on my facebook. a friend of mine shared a link, then a friend of his(which is a matco driver) posted a comment that they are the strongest tools out there, superior to snap on. so i commented that matco doesnt make one single tool, it is all outsourced from other companies and they removed my comment.
From everything I've seen Matco has been far from classy over the last 6 months.
Co worker has had his tool box delivery delayed for about a month and a half past the promised delivery date... He is not too happy.
HomeTheaterMan
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Threads like this really make me wonder why anyone would buy Matco anything. You can buy the same stuff for a fraction of the price from the company that actually makes it, or get something way better with the same convenience for a nearly identical price from Snap On or Mac.
Brownsfan
Well-known member
A lot has to do with the route owner. If the Snap On guy is an ******* and the Matco guy is great. You will buy more Matco stuff. I think for many(myself included) that plays the biggest part.
While I can understand that to some degree, I've never met a Matco tool I felt the need to pay tool truck prices for. And I haven't seen a Matco truck in many years...and I live in one of the most populated areas of the USA.
For cost conscious buyers none of the tool truck tools are worth buying. Okay so you don't like matco tools, doesn't make the argument for a $500 snap-on wrench set better though.
I am quality conscious, not cost conscious. Waiting nearly a year for the replacement of a daily use basic hand tool makes a pretty good argument to buy another brand to me. None of them are perfect, but the subject of this thread is inexcusable.
Greg85mcss
Well-known member
So I've had my 3/8 rebuilt twice in the last few months & it broke again. Matco man came by today & ordered me a new one. I guess we'll see how long it takes
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plinker
Well-known member
While not a ratchet, I had a broken Matco 1/2 to 3/8 reducer swivel that broke back in january, last week got the replacement. On the other hand the Armstong 1/2 locking flex ratchet I have out for warranty is still out.
JBradley500
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So are they still fixing Gearwrench ratchets? Can't they just give you an imported repair kit for now?
Brownsfan
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You haven't but most techs don't care . They just want to buy from the guy who treats them the best. Gives them the best deals. Quality difference between the brands is close enough most will buy from the guy who treats them the best. I have seen it first hand. We all know Matco Goethe most part can be found cheaper from the tools OEM. But most techs don't know or care.
OP
warmpancakes
Well-known member
May 3rd I was told end of may, now its end of June i just requested a credit of 293.75 towards other tools, They have had the ratchets since 8/22/15 9 months, i could have made a kid faster than they can make ratchets
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Loscaldazar
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They would only have the 84T kits. There is no 88T import kit. The 84T is also much more likely to self reverse or pop into neutral, or even jam. Both the USA craftsmand and the imported gearwrench versions have this issue, so it's probably a design issue. I wouldn't want that kit in my armstrong ratchets.
2ndGearRubber
Well-known member
I throw 84 tooth ratchet kits in my Armstrong stuff, Armstrong in GW. I see no difference.
I just bought some extra GW kits, and now if anything breaks which they will fit in, they get swapped.
mikebaker1129
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Where did you pick up the GW kits and how much ?
ihateminimumwage
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Huh, never once had that issue with any of my Gearwrench ratchets when I was working on trucks. Still have my 1/2" flex, which after 6 years now has never skipped a tooth, reversed or any other issue and it's been put to work on some big stuff as a 3/4" using an adapter and a piece of pipe.
ihateminimumwage
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I do find a bit of irony in that I worked the **** out of my Gearwrench ratchets with the plan that if I broke one, I could just hop on the Matco truck and buy an 88T rebuild kit and get back to work (never broke one).
Now it's come to the point that a Gearwrench kit is what's available to fix broken Armstrong/Matco ratchet.
Now it's come to the point that a Gearwrench kit is what's available to fix broken Armstrong/Matco ratchet.
The jamming is due to the spring tension on the little pivot/pintle piece that the pawl sits on. Has nothing to do with small differences in tooth count. I've had the problem with multiple ratchets from varying brands. Didn't happen to the older 60 tooth though.
psychoclaw84
Well-known member
I feel your pain, also needing a 1/4 ratchet repair and the trucks I have tracked down do not have any repair parts or new ratchets to replace.
The dealers I have dealt with are sympathetic to my needs, but cannot help due to supplier issues which is out of their control. I made mention to one dealer that Snappy would be a better choice.
The dealers I have dealt with are sympathetic to my needs, but cannot help due to supplier issues which is out of their control. I made mention to one dealer that Snappy would be a better choice.
I actually bought a spare Armstrong 1/4 MAXX ratchet from Amazon Warehouse just for the internals to fix an Armstrong 1/4 Flex. The Flex ratchet was locking up while switching directions. Took it to Fastenal for warranty, they found one at another store, shipped over to my local store, swapped them out, got to work and realized it was a 60 tooth.
The Amazon ratchet showed up in a bag with an "inspected" sticker on it. Unwrapped it, twisted the drive..okay, went to switch directions, locked...wtf. Open it up, the selector is chewed up. Took the 88T gear and pawl and swapped it in the flex ratchet.
I was going to then warranty the Amazon ratchet when I noticed it's smaller than my other 10-992 MAXX ratchet. It has the smaller handle profile and head that the flex has. Same part number, 10-992. Maybe it was a mistake? Older run? Revision? Don't know, but I'll hold on to it now and just wait for rebuild kits to become available.
The Amazon ratchet showed up in a bag with an "inspected" sticker on it. Unwrapped it, twisted the drive..okay, went to switch directions, locked...wtf. Open it up, the selector is chewed up. Took the 88T gear and pawl and swapped it in the flex ratchet.
I was going to then warranty the Amazon ratchet when I noticed it's smaller than my other 10-992 MAXX ratchet. It has the smaller handle profile and head that the flex has. Same part number, 10-992. Maybe it was a mistake? Older run? Revision? Don't know, but I'll hold on to it now and just wait for rebuild kits to become available.
