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Harbor freight engine hoist


sinkrun
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Don't have experience with the HF brand one, but my experience is that the Princess Auto tools (jacks, hoists, etc) we can get up here look like they come out of the same factory in China but with different paint on 'em. If you don't use it too often, it should do you, but if you plan on using it every day at or near its full capacity for the next ten years, your money may be better spent on something else. It'll at least be expected to work under moderately heavy use until the warranty runs out.

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I bought the 2 ton model several years ago and love it.  I've used it to pick up all sorts of heavy items; engines, axles, entire front ends of rigs, to rocks bigger than a bean bag chair. :D very handy tool and so far has been problem free.  :thumbsup:

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We bought one put it together, picked up my Cummins and set it back down and took the hoist back. The HF one's arm and angle wasn't long/big enough. It would t pick that little 3.3 Cummins up high enough before it hit the back of the hoist. We went and got one from advanceauto instead. Works great!

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Nothing wrong with harbor freight stuff. Wrenches, ratchets, sockets, and impacts.. no. But everything else is great.

 

I have a hf air over hydraulic 8 ton ram on my ancient 10 ton picker. Works awesome.

 

Blast cabinet.. has made my business absurd amounts of $

 

Love their aluminum jacks. won't crawl under a car without jack stands tho.

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Nothing wrong with harbor freight stuff. Wrenches, ratchets, sockets, and impacts.. no. But everything else is great.

I have a hf air over hydraulic 8 ton ram on my ancient 10 ton picker. Works awesome.

Blast cabinet.. has made my business absurd amounts of $

Love their aluminum jacks. won't crawl under a car without jack stands tho.

I have broke more crapsman ratchets then the Pittsburgh Professional brand. Lifetime warranty on them too. My biggest complaint is not being able to exchange one extension or adapter, you have to get the kit...!! Love the ballpoint press too!

 

No electric type tools.. Saws, drills, grinders etc for me from there!

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I've used the 1 ton many times.  It's a little short on some vehicles, but it gets the job done.  I had to do the last one (Vette) from over the fender, since the boom wouldn't reach.   The most I've lifted with it was a 4.0/AW4/231 combo.  My buddy just borrowed it to pull a fully dressed 460 big block.

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I've used the 1 ton many times.  It's a little short on some vehicles, but it gets the job done.  I had to do the last one (Vette) from over the fender, since the boom wouldn't reach.   The most I've lifted with it was a 4.0/AW4/231 combo.  My buddy just borrowed it to pull a fully dressed 460 big block.

Thats what I wanted to confirm and  thanks to all for the replies!

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Nothing wrong with harbor freight stuff. Wrenches, ratchets, sockets, and impacts.. no. But everything else is great.

I have a hf air over hydraulic 8 ton ram on my ancient 10 ton picker. Works awesome.

Blast cabinet.. has made my business absurd amounts of $

Love their aluminum jacks. won't crawl under a car without jack stands tho.

I have broke more crapsman ratchets then the Pittsburgh Professional brand. Lifetime warranty on them too. My biggest complaint is not being able to exchange one extension or adapter, you have to get the kit...!! Love the ballpoint press too!

No electric type tools.. Saws, drills, grinders etc for me from there!

I do not touch anything crapsman except wrenches and 1/4" sockets/extensions. You could not pay me to use crapsman ratchets...I break the 3/8" and 1/2" every time, and bust knuckles over it.

 

For anything but the above mentioned, including air tools, I have Cornwell. Electric I run only Milwaukee, you couldn't pay me to run dewalt. Makita, maybe...but not for the price.

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I've used the 1 ton many times.  It's a little short on some vehicles, but it gets the job done.  I had to do the last one (Vette) from over the fender, since the boom wouldn't reach.   The most I've lifted with it was a 4.0/AW4/231 combo.  My buddy just borrowed it to pull a fully dressed 460 big block.

Thats what I wanted to confirm and  thanks to all for the replies!

 

I bought their cheap leveller with it too.  The plastic handle came off the second time I used it.  I ended up welding a nut in its place and I use a ratchet to spin it now.

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Modern Craftsman is absolute garbage. Even the stuff made in the US is still a lot worse than the Chinese crap HF sells. HF has a lot of stuff well worth the money.

 

Solid lists of good and bad stuff from them:

 

http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?19051-HF-Tools-That-Suck

 

http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?3165-HF-tools-that-don-t-suck

 

The HF Mig welders are actually pretty decent if you swap in better wire like Lincoln. I've had better sucess with HF stuff the less moving parts the tool has. Most of my jacks, stands, ect I have at home are all from there and have all been great.

 

Didn't Cornwell recently go out of business? Their stuff has sucked the last couple years and I noticed the Cornwell truck stopped coming to my dealership about a year ago.

 

Kobalt at Lowe's is still the best for consumer grade sockets, ratchets, and wrenches imo. They're manufacture by Matco right now and their socket sets carry a better warranty than Snap On does. I've been using their wrenches and sockets at home for about 5 years now and I've yet to break anything and they work as well as the Snap On stuff I have at work that I spent 10x as much money on. The socket sets you can register at the Kobalt site and they warranty them against breakage, theft, and even if you just lose something. I've lost a couple sockets out of sets and they've mailed me replacements without any questions.

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Still have some of my dad's Craftsman stuff from late 1950's and 60's.  No quality problems with them.  Now, the stuff Sears sells with the Craftsman name today...

I try to buy as much old Crafstman stuff at yard sales as I can. Their old stuff is hard to beat and was properly made in the US. Just sucks if you break something and take it in now you get horrible quality replacements. Even their Made in the USA stuff they still have is even worse than Chinese built stuff now. I don't expect they'll be around in the next couple years anymore anyway though.

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Modern Craftsman is absolute garbage. Even the stuff made in the US is still a lot worse than the Chinese crap HF sells. HF has a lot of stuff well worth the money.

 

Solid lists of good and bad stuff from them:

 

http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?19051-HF-Tools-That-Suck

 

http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?3165-HF-tools-that-don-t-suck

 

The HF Mig welders are actually pretty decent if you swap in better wire like Lincoln. I've had better sucess with HF stuff the less moving parts the tool has. Most of my jacks, stands, ect I have at home are all from there and have all been great.

 

Didn't Cornwell recently go out of business? Their stuff has sucked the last couple years and I noticed the Cornwell truck stopped coming to my dealership about a year ago.

 

Kobalt at Lowe's is still the best for consumer grade sockets, ratchets, and wrenches imo. They're manufacture by Matco right now and their socket sets carry a better warranty than Snap On does. I've been using their wrenches and sockets at home for about 5 years now and I've yet to break anything and they work as well as the Snap On stuff I have at work that I spent 10x as much money on. The socket sets you can register at the Kobalt site and they warranty them against breakage, theft, and even if you just lose something. I've lost a couple sockets out of sets and they've mailed me replacements without any questions.

Cornwell is still in, and I know nothing of any "sucky" stuff by them. Never had a problem with any of my tools from them. Well, the 1/2" impact was rebuilt once....after taking a bazillion 1-5/16" semi truck lug nuts off, and those things are torqued very very tight

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