We were joshing each other on another thread yesterday, and then today Project Farm did a real shootout between all the popular brands.
Strongest box end, best grip on rusty bolts, most play, most stretch on open end
Project Farm buys all their tools themselves, and does not accept any sponsors
Who won? Watch and discuss:
Best Wrench? Let’s Settle This! Snap On vs MAC Tools, Matco, Proto, SK, GearWrench, Kobalt, Husky
Quoted from vid1900:We were joshing each other on another thread yesterday, and then today Project Farm did a real shootout between all the popular brands.
Strongest box end, best grip on rusty bolts, most play, most stretch on open end
Project Farm buys all their tools themselves, and does not accept any sponsors
Who won? Watch and discuss:
Best Wrench? Let’s Settle This! Snap On vs MAC Tools, Matco, Proto, SK, GearWrench, Kobalt, Husky
Watching now. Love to get a set of thin wall box and thin wrench end. Been digging into a few pinball games lately that would benefit
I thought China was the king of cheap tools, but it looks like India made probably 50% of the cheaper wrench brands tested.
India:
Pittsburgh (harbor freight), Husky, Craftsman, Cresent, Sunex,
China:
Gearwrench (6pt), Performance Tool, Kobalt, Klein,
Taiwan:
Tekton, Williams, Matco, Gearwrench (12pt), MAC
USA:
Wright, Proto, SK, SnapOn
Germany:
Gedor
France:
Facom
I watched the whole video and that guy could be an auctioneer!
So the Pittsburgh brand is garbage. My stepdad learned to wrench in the Korean War and was on Jeep repairs before becoming a Ford tech for 40 years. He swore by Proto. They did pretty well in that test. I have a set of metric Gear wrench ratcheting box wrenches and they work well. Snap-On finished 3rd.
Quoted from vid1900:Of course all the wrenches were destroyed by the end of the testing, but, I wonder if you ground off the taper from the box end, would some of them perform better?
I would think so. The taper caused a bunch of the box ends to fail. He also made it harder on them by shimming the bolt end to make the available grip area smaller.
I loved the comment, "the box end is now an open end"!
Quoted from tomdrum:He also made it harder on them by shimming the bolt end to make the available grip area smaller.
That's pretty much how it is in real life any time I'm under my van
There is so much corrosion at the base of the nut you can't reach to scrape off, 1/16" washer is probably being generous, lol
A good part of the 'bestness' of a wrench lies in how it balances and feels in the hand. A wrench can be strong but if you hate holding it, or it it too clunky to fit in places, it's no good. I generally avoid Snap-On for reasons like this (plus their super high price and poor dealer network).
I'd like to see a ratchet shootout
Not only till failure, but how much 'back drag' until the next tooth catches
I used to love my Snapon dual 80 ratchet, until I tried the Gearwrench XP120. The XP120 has less back drag and purrs like a kitten
Of course, I imagine that if I was using the GW 8 hours a day, it would fail long before the Snappy, but for my 1/2 hour a day, it's my goto.
Quoted from vid1900:We were joshing each other on another thread yesterday, and then today Project Farm did a real shootout between all the popular brands.
Strongest box end, best grip on rusty bolts, most play, most stretch on open end
Project Farm buys all their tools themselves, and does not accept any sponsors
Who won? Watch and discuss:
Best Wrench? Let’s Settle This! Snap On vs MAC Tools, Matco, Proto, SK, GearWrench, Kobalt, Husky
I love this guy. Honest, well done tests of a lot of stuff I use. I have not watched this one yet but very interesting that the top name / most expensive brands are not always the best and there is usually something right in the middle price range that I would buy from the reviews.
Quoted from vid1900:I'd like to see a ratchet shootout
Me too.
I owned a tranny rebuild shop and was horrified when I saw my tech's giving the Snap-On guy a $50-100 every paycheck to knock down the 3-6K they owed him. Lifelong debt. So, in 2005 I started to advertise on CL, "cash for your Snap-On tools". Started buying used tools to resell to my employees to get them off the truck habit. I bought lots of other brands as well. I'd sell to them at cost and finance if needed to my guys. The excess I sold on eBay. Snap-on gets their hooks in young techs and then they bleed them.
I have had many ratchets pass thru my hands in reselling tools over 17 years and the Snap-on Dual 80 stuff is nice. But Matco, Gearwrench and others have some really nice ratchets too, so a test would be great.
25 years in automotive industry I was a snap-on guy. lately I've been buying Carlysle from Napa. I won't look back. 1/3rd the price same warranty
Quoted from WalrusPin:I'd be curious to see how the HF Icon line would compare
I'm not sure if Project Farm did Icon open ends yet, but TTC did and they held up with all the other Taiwan brands.
I believe Wright won that shootout, with Snappy in 2nd
Cheap wrenches got a lot better after Snap-On's "Flank Drive" patent lapsed and everyone immediately copied them.
Quoted from balzofsteel:Cheap wrenches got a lot better after Snap-On's "Flank Drive" patent lapsed and everyone immediately copied them.
Fastener grip is one thing but steel hardness also makes a great wrench.
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Sana'a
Lenoir City, TN