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Harbor Frieght
jwharding
Member Posts: 2,897 ✭✭
I don't see how they sell the stuff so cheap. I was there yesterday an bought a 5 pc. Set of tools for 7.99. It has 1 pair of channel lock type pliers, 1 pair of 8" side cutters, 1 pair of wire cutters, 1 pair of 8" needle nose pliers and 1 pair of 10" wire pliers. All tools come with plastic wrapped handles. I know these aren't Klien grade tools but for 8.00 that's cheap. It's got to cost something for material, labor and to ship them all the way from China. Like I said I know their not the best tools but I buy them to leave at the farm. If someone steals them I haven't lost much.
JW
JW
Comments
Not saying much cause Craftsman quality has gone to the dogs.
Allen
America pays china to build stuff priced cheap to sell to Americans till there is no competition left for china to raise prices on cheap stuff
quote:Originally posted by bullshot
I've bought tons and tons of stuff from HF over the years, maybe I've just been lucky but I've yet to have anything fail and if it does .... so what? Their stuff is just pennies on the dollar.
And therein is the problem in America today ~ far to many people will accept poor quality in cheaply made goods as "normal."
As such, quality products that will last a lifetime and more have become a scarce commodity with few exceptions.
[:(]
Like I said, I've never had a tool from HF fail, on the other the last Craftsman ratchet I bought broke the first time I used it. I know Craftsman tools are not American made anymore but at least at HF that is reflected in the price.
I pulled up to the store at 4 am and I thought a mistake had been made. The store was in a little strip mall. I parked out front and walked around the store, there was no loading dock. I figured it was impossible to unload my truck.
I was wrong. In a half hour the Harbor Freight employees began arriving.
By 5 am they had set up a collapsible conveyor belt that went from the back doors to 50 feet inside the back of the store. They had a crew of 5 guys and one of them was driving a fork lift.
The fork lift guy lifted the rear pallet of stuff down to the ground, and the crew put the merchandise onto the conveyor belt and they rolled it into the store.
After he had unloaded the 2 pallets he could reach with the fork lift. a guy jumped up into the truck with a big strap. He tied the strap around the next pallet, and the fork lift towed it to the edge of the truck. Then he lifted it down onto the ground with the fork lift.
These guys unloaded the entire 18 wheeler in 45 minutes.
You can buy "Made in China" tools at Harbor Freight - or at Sears, or Ace Hardware, or Lowe's, or Home Depot, or Checker Auto, or...
Take your pick; they're ALL "Made in China" tools.
And for specialty tools for the shade tree mechanic, they are great.
I bought a 1-1/8" hammer drill from HF about seven years ago as a throw away on a job and it just quite working two months ago after very heavy use.
I once had my entire car (approximately 5000 lbs) up on those jack stands for 2 days while laying under the dead center of the car and working on the transmission. Was I a little nervous? Yes, but no more nervous than I am any time I have to crawl under a car that's not supporting 100% of its own weight.
Their welders and other tools are great.
Not the ones I been around. Junk.
quote:Originally posted by Zulu7
My 3-ton quick-lift floor jack, and all 4 of my jack stands are from Harbor Freight, and none of them have ever failed to do what they were made to do.
I once had my entire car (approximately 5000 lbs) up on those jack stands for 2 days while laying under the dead center of the car and working on the transmission. Was I a little nervous? Yes, but no more nervous than I am any time I have to crawl under a car that's not supporting 100% of its own weight.
Approxmately 5,000 pounds. What kinda car did you have a '76 Cadillac El Dorado?
2001 Mercury Grand Marquis. Door lable says GVWR 5237 lbs.
My 3-ton quick-lift floor jack, and all 4 of my jack stands are from Harbor Freight, and none of them have ever failed to do what they were made to do.
I once had my entire car (approximately 5000 lbs) up on those jack stands for 2 days while laying under the dead center of the car and working on the transmission. Was I a little nervous? Yes, but no more nervous than I am any time I have to crawl under a car that's not supporting 100% of its own weight.
They lift and hold my truck. Have the aluminum quick lift and my stands are from HF. I am going to modify mine but that is for use outside in the gravel Going to put a metal solid base so they do not sink into the ground, was using plywood but if it happens to rain they will cut right thru plywood. Have 4 others I use in the Garage, the metal bases may slide on concrete.
Don't expect anything to change anytime soon. Guess which countries we are in debt to.
Goverment at all levels is the biggest single cause of the manufacturing exodus in the USA not Asia.
I went to blocks after trying to use one of their faulty jacks.[:D]
[:D][:D]
Every Nam vet who has read my books (and there are a lot of them) has told me that that sentence captured it dead nuts on.
Harbor Freight has a digital caliper in today's ad for $9.99 & they can be used for both inches & metric.
Of course I still have mine & they still work fine so I suppose we will have to wait fifty years to see how many of theirs are still working.
quote:Originally posted by Zulu7
quote:Originally posted by austin20
quote:Originally posted by Zulu7
My 3-ton quick-lift floor jack, and all 4 of my jack stands are from Harbor Freight, and none of them have ever failed to do what they were made to do.
I once had my entire car (approximately 5000 lbs) up on those jack stands for 2 days while laying under the dead center of the car and working on the transmission. Was I a little nervous? Yes, but no more nervous than I am any time I have to crawl under a car that's not supporting 100% of its own weight.
Approxmately 5,000 pounds. What kinda car did you have a '76 Cadillac El Dorado?
2001 Mercury Grand Marquis. Door lable says GVWR 5237 lbs.
GVWR is not the weight of the car. It is the gross vehicle weight rating.
At some point, it doesn't matter if it's 4200 or 5200 lbs when a car falls on you. Either way, it's not going to be pretty.
Just wait until you blow up one of your knuckles on a lug stud after you bust one of their wrenches loosening a brake caliper...then let's hear your opinion.
...don't ask me how I know.
I have a nasty scar from HF pliers, my grip was more than they could take and upon breaking got a nasty cut from the sharp edge. So I have an idea, how you may know. [:)]
FCD, I am inordinately proud of the first line of my Vietnam novel, "Baggy Zero Four." It describes very succintly my first few seconds of arrival at the Tan Son Nhut airport: "It was as if the world had farted in his face."
Every Nam vet who has read my books (and there are a lot of them) has told me that that sentence captured it dead nuts on.
I never read your book,but the analogy is quiet correct of Ton Son Nhut......1967[:o)]
Went there with a friend of mine who is adding on to his shop. He spent 2k there. HF tool boxes are great. That was half the purchase.
HF has an inline fuse amp tester for car fuses and mini's. I highly recommend it and have never seen it elsewhere.
The $9.99 calipers read to two decimal points. Better than a tape measure. I have a few of their products and if they are used for what I expect from a cheap China made item - things are fine.
The ad claims "accurate to +/-0.001" I'm not sure my old eyeballs can do that well with the venier calipers. I wondered if it should be singular or plural but I guess it's like a pair of sissors.
I went to blocks after trying to use one of their faulty jacks.[:D]
Which way did you stack them?
I remember a thread about that I think.[:D]
JW
I delivered a load of cargo to a Harbor Freight store. This was just north of Atlanta, near Tucker Ga.
I pulled up to the store at 4 am and I thought a mistake had been made. The store was in a little strip mall. I parked out front and walked around the store, there was no loading dock. I figured it was impossible to unload my truck.
I was wrong. In a half hour the Harbor Freight employees began arriving.
By 5 am they had set up a collapsible conveyor belt that went from the back doors to 50 feet inside the back of the store. They had a crew of 5 guys and one of them was driving a fork lift.
The fork lift guy lifted the rear pallet of stuff down to the ground, and the crew put the merchandise onto the conveyor belt and they rolled it into the store.
After he had unloaded the 2 pallets he could reach with the fork lift. a guy jumped up into the truck with a big strap. He tied the strap around the next pallet, and the fork lift towed it to the edge of the truck. Then he lifted it down onto the ground with the fork lift.
These guys unloaded the entire 18 wheeler in 45 minutes.
The one near my house is the same way in a strip mall. I have lots of stuff from there. I had one Air compressor go south a few years ago and they replaced it right away. Other than that, Their good screwdrivers are better than Craftsman these days. I would not buy the cheap (orange) wood clamps again. The plastic failed after a few jobs, but they were 99 cents....