Right after graduating college, while I was waiting to start aviation officer candidate school with the Navy, I worked at a junkyard, taking cars apart. It was great. I didn’t have to put them back together, and I didn’t have to fix them, just take them apart.
That's the only saving grace for the tool-truck brands anymore, at least it's what fans argue or emphasize. Thing is, and it is mentioned in later posts, how often is the tool-truck around ? Certainly not daily, sometimes not even weekly. Worst case, call the dealer and see where he/she is and possibly drive to them. As a mechanic, you'd better have back-up tools (as I'm sure they do - probably HF !!
). At least with ICON and HF opening more and more stores, the mechanic can run to the store or send a helper. In the old days, the same applied with Craftsman and Sears (I suspect Craftsman are not relevant nowadays with professionals).
Not totally true. As someone who wrenched 35 years on school buses for a living, I will tell you from experience that it is no fun fighting inferior tools. In a lot of cases the current crop of Taiwan tools is pretty good for most things. There are times though where "pretty good" doesn't cut it. I currently use an Icon 1/4 sae/metric socket set at the mower shop daily. The ratchet was garbage after a few months and while the replacement was easy, the new ratchet is the same short lived crap. I splurged for a Koken, it is not much better. Very loose and sloppy on the flex and ratchet mechanism after a year of use. Very disappointing but it still performs better than the Icon.It will be replaced with a Snap On in the near future. I tried imported air tools in the bus garage, they worked OK at first, but the inferior materials used made for accelerated wear and failure. If one is serious about wrenching, sometimes you have to step up.
I just had to warranty a HF Pittsburg ratchet that I busted. I just walked in, handed to the worker, and they went out and grabbed a new one off the shelf. No paperwork, no receipts, barely any questions, sub 2 minute warranty replacement. It took me longer to drive round trip down to the store (roughly 14 minutes total).
I would expect a lot more for $560 bones. I use a few of them from Stahlwille, Hazet, Capri and Icon and had no issues with any of them, the Icon are long pattern so being stronger is a plus and 6 lb.in back drag is more than acceptable. Frank (Demarpaint) has a new high 100 tooth Snap on ratchet and has had more trouble with that thing and only gets a song and dance, he told me it feels like a breaker bar has less back drag.
LOL I'm still working on getting it resolved, hopefully this week. Wish me luck. I will say their CS has been good thus far, although I still have a problem, and got a few songs and dances along the way. IMO they released the product too soon. I will update if/when it gets resolved.I would expect a lot more for $560 bones. I use a few of them from Stahlwille, Hazet, Capri and Icon and had no issues with any of them, the Icon are long pattern so being stronger is a plus and 6 lb.in back drag is more than acceptable. Frank (Demarpaint) has a new high 100 tooth Snap on ratchet and has had more trouble with that thing and only gets a song and dance, he told me it feels like a breaker bar has less back drag.
I have been using Snap on since 36T was standard and they were excellent as is the dual 80.
