I needed to replace the hubs on my 3/4 ton pickup. The axle nuts are supposed to be torqued to 180 so I figured I might need a 3/4" wrench just to be safe. It's a 1 time use (I hope) so I got one at Harbor Frt. China really came through for me. I put a cheater bar on it and it bent about 10 degrees. I'm surprised it didn't break. It looks like a boomerang. I got the nuts off by using a longer pipe and sliding it all the way up to the ratchet. After I get it back together, I'll take it back to HF since it has a lifetime warranty (assuming my lifetime lasts until next week). I might just trade it for a 3/4" breaker bar.

Their 1/2 inch Icon breaker bar at 25 inches has worked for me. They have a 3/4 inch Icon breaker bar at 36 inches for $90.00 . Have bought some of their stuff for a 1 time use job. Bought myself an electric Milwaukee impact wrench last year, what a god send.

No way that'll break. It's 10% rubber!

Thats why they came out with the Covid..........helps with that Lifetime warranty stuff.

I never use a torque wrench to get stuff undone, use a breaker.
Only use the torque wrench when installing.

Need to put the spacers on my ZJ.
But am about crippled anymore, and don't have air tools.
Used to take me 6 hrs knucklebusting to do a suspension lift.

Last one was 13 yrs ago.

Better look at those newfangled electric impact dealies.

When reassembling, you’ll know the nuts are tight when the ratchet handle is straight again.

Your shop teacher would slap you upside the head. Get a breaker bar, and stop shopping at harbor freight.

You are aware that you are not supposed to use an extension on them...right?

DAMMIT Ol boys,ya get what ya pay for. Harbor Freight looks like a good deal till a put it to the task. But almost always lets ya down

The sad part is that there stuff is better than it used to be.

Gotta watch what you buy there. I have one of their creepers that has been good for occasional use.

It's the jack stands that'll really let you down !

Broke a 1/2" Snapon ratchet on a backhoe hydraulic cylinder once. It "snapped off"! No bending...

Man, when I think of the abuse I've dished out on my old Craftsman stuff, I just shutter. My old 1/2" drive ratchet finally gave up on me. 'Guess it didn't take well to being used as a pry bar, hammer, and whatever else I could come with for it. As the old saying goes, they just don't make 'em like they used to. I'm crusing the pawn shops looking for a decent older used ratchet. Just can't deal with this cheap junk.

Cmon, you just werent holding your mouth right...geezer.

I have a long handled Snap-On 3/8 ratchet that i got as a gift from a friend 20+ years ago. I've literally been laying on the ground with both feet on the handle of that ratchet pushing with my legs to break loose transmission crossmember bolts and it hasn't broken. I dunno what Snap-On used for the guts in that thing but I've put some serious muscle and abuse and it survived all of it.

It's not a torque wrench. It's just a ratchet. The ratchet held up. It's just the handle.

Total misuse of a tool and expecting a warranty replacement to boot...

You have a tool for those "hard to reach places" now!

And they'll send it back to Cheena, melt it down, and make a 3/4" ratchet, which will also bend.

Back in my steel mill days another guy and I were on top of a 400 ton Electro-Melt steel furnace trying to adjust the shock blocks on the electrode arms. The other guy, Jim, had a 3/4 drive ratchet (PROTO I think) with a head that socketed into different length handles. He had handles from 18"-48".
He had the 48" handle on and tried to loosen the 1" stainless bolts first, but had no luck. He told me to give it a try so I grabbed it with both hands and pulled til I was grunting, but no luck. He told me to push it with my feet so I turned around and, with my back to the eye casting, put both feet on it and pushed it pretty hard with no good result.

Ol' Jim looked at me with disgust and asked,"That all you got"? I put my feet back on that handle and PUSHED... And things started moving.
But it wasn't the bolt that moved. It was the 4' handle that bent. He was really disgusted with me then...

We have two Ridged pipe wrenches, and 3', and a 2', both have bent handles. I bent the three foot in 76, cheater pipe, and a loader.

You should not need a 3/4 breaker bar to torque a axle nut to 180

Climb right under those HF jack stands without a backup.

Remember it's better to be lucky than smart.

dishonesty comes in all shapes and sizes and colors...….this is a prime example of that...….bob

A 3/4 wrench that can't handle 180 ft lb of torque is defective.

I'm not sure that dishonesty figures in here. Pretty sure you can tell Harbor Fright exactly what happened and they will replace the tool.

Edit; Get a second ratchet out of them and you're still the one that got ripped off...

he will try to remember that when he gets a new one for free...….bob

1/2 cordless high-torque impact will have 700+ Ft/Lb, then you can leave it in your truck when you're done with the hubs for anytime you need to change tires on the truck or anything you're pulling. Charge the Li-Ion batteries about every 6Mo and you're golden.

That reminds me, I just got tires at Jose’s New and Used Tire Shop. They are fast and cheap but man, they don’t mess around with them air wrenches.

Gotta break the nuts loose in the driveway first and re-torque them to doable before I end up trying to do the same out by the highway somewhere.

I've read, 1/4 bolts, 1/4 drive, and so on up the size. Before Jake bout his Dewalt 20volt impact, I watched the 3/4 breaker when we were both pulling hard on the cheater pipe bend.

I can't recall ever seeing a 24" or 36" pipe wrench that didn't have a bent handle. Other than Lowes or Home Depot.

Should be that way

In a perfect world a guy shouldn't use a 1/2" ratchet on a 1" bolt. But in my perfect world that 1" bolt would always be in the shop, not a quarter mile away and 60 feet in the air.
S-K always pushed the 1/2" bolt, 1/2" ratchet stuff, all the while cheerfully selling 1 1/2" sockets in 1/2" drive.

Most nuts are torqued to as tight as a guy can get them. On cars, though, you expect them to come from the factory torqued to their own specs. An axle nut on this pickup is torqued to 180 ft-lb. Any 3/4" wrench should easily be able to handle that.

Put the right size cheater bar where it belongs on the ratchet and it won't bend, even China junk. A sharp blow with a hammer does a good job of loosing a nut or bolt up .

This.

When are dumb mf'ers gonna stop shopping at HF and buying this chinese sheit?

Interesting I would have expected the guts to strip out. If you would slide your pipe all the way to the base the handle wouldn’t bend. I think harbor freight breaker bars work fine. Torque wrenches too.

Or save a bunch of work and just rattle it off with a impact wrench. Harbor freight Impact sockets though....

When someone opens a business that sells american made what I need now. $100 in fuel 2 hrs of my time and you get there and they don't have it in stock. The internet has created a business atmosphere where inventory cost, so if you need something they will order it for you. I can order it myself and do so if I know up front what I need next week. If needed now that china crap will have to do. Especially with the virus shutdowns.

Harbor Fright has a recall on their jackstands right now. I went out last night and read the stock numbers and I have two sets! I figured I was safe with a jackstand.

I'm afraid to go look at my jack stands spent more time than I like under my truck and autos this last year. When changing out the suspension on my truck I used 2 jack stands and 2 floor jacks . A safety for my safety. Cousins husbad had his auto fall on him, talk about fu-ck-ed up!

Snap On and Mac trucks come by my shop every week, usually have what I need. I own about 150K worth of their tools, sheit don't break and if it does they hand me another one.

All bets off on removing nuts that have been out in the weather. I have an old HF set; they definitely believe in clearances on their tolerances

I keep a few breaker bars in the toolbox.

There is also a 4' piece of cheater pipe stashed.

And I try not to use a cheater on a ratchet.

And I really try not to buy Chinese tools. Most of my stuff is Taiwan, USA, Spain or German.

Mike ,

Those air impact wrenches can warp your rotors and disfigure the hole where the nut faces up on the wheel .

I got new tires a week ago and said -- please don't impact hammer my wheels on , they didn't , but i checked them all that evening and they were from too tight to not nearly tight enough .

Gitter done Rock Chuck .....

No doubt my box would be filled with like tools if I wrenched for a living or if I just had more expendable income. Wait! my safe would be full of expensive shotguns that the wife would say we can't afford . I am shopping for some new longer box combo wrenches sae and metric and they will be Wright or SK and not HF.

Always check my lug nut torque after leaving the tire shop. The last tire change I watched the guy and all hand tools used for tightening and torgue. Still checked the values at home.

Guys would ask how much torque to use on lug nuts. I would tell them 1 foot pound or 2 foot pounds, depending on how many feet they had on the bar.
That or the classic 'Turn it til it strips, then back off 1/4 turn.'

Hand tight. Whose hand ,yours or mine?

They make breaker bars so you won't use wrenches, ratchets and torque wrenches to break nuts and bolts loose.

I'm not a big ,135# if I fall in the creek. I have broken or twisted 1/2 " Snap On's and Craftman's 1/2' breaker bars using a cheater on them. I now have a 3/4"drive ,18"long breaker, a 4 ft pipe cheater,and an high impact quality socket for my truck and trailers.

"an high impact quality socket for my truck and trailers."

That's what I need plus somebody to mount the 125 lb tire wheel for me,

Guys, don't forget, if you are running aluminum wheels, ALWAYS retorque them after 50 - 100 miles. Doesn't matter if you put them on or somebody else.

Not trying to be smart alec but what happens to need to be retorqed?

Most people don't realize that steel car wheels are dished where they bolt onto the axel. When you torque them down the center of the wheel flexes and functions like a lock washer. I spent several years working in auto wheel factories. The center of the wheels are stamped out with a series of progressive dies. One of the most important aspects of the quality control was measuring the dishing.

A wheel with inadequate dishing has a very real risk of coming loose and causing lawsuits.

A co-worker is about 6'4" 300#+, a big strong dude.
One day he comes in saying "I think something is wrong, my truck has a bad shimmy." We go out, I'm looking at the wheels for missing nut/studs.

Try by hand to see if they are tight, a couple turn.
Get a breaker bar and socket,. He said, "They aint loose, i rotated them last week, and tighened them." I turn them...and turn them...
They are stripped.

Not the threads,

The ribs on the studs.

When ask how tight he made them,
"Until they screeched?"

"You went one screech too far.

Yep. Breakaway torque usually exceeds makeup torque even without corrosion or grit.

Totally on the Milwakee.The first time I used it I thought it was broken. It gave a little low rpm zzt and the lug nut was in my hand. Just a little bit of advice. Don't use it on a locking lug nut, the ones with the squiggly slots. I sheared the male end of the "key" right off.