No dis please, HF 1.5 aluminum racing jack 59.99

[mr48chev]

All right as it say we all know everyone likes to talk nasty about HF tools and yes some are rather suspect but this is a coupon for their 1-1/2 aluminum "racing" jack that is light as all get out and easy to wag around and lift or hold things up. I've had one for several years an it gets used on almost every project I do, gets hauled along when I tow the boat and even gets drug or carried out to lift the riding lawnmower to change a flat.
This is one of those things you don't know you need until you have it and then you won't give it up. I have three floor jacks including this one but if I don't need the three ton lifting capacity of the other two this is the one I use.

[joedoh]

they arent all aluminum any longer. I have one I bought years ago that is all aluminum and light, the one I bought last year is only aluminum on the outside plates, almost everything else including the handle is steel now

IMG_7152 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

thats the only picture I have right offhand, but you can see, the original is on the right and the new on the left.


also, when I bought the second one, the picture on the box was still the old one. the picture in your coupon is the new style

still a good jack, and I use them all the time, but it wont lift anywhere close to 1.5 tons, seems to twist like a pretzel with any more than 7-800lbs on it.


edit: here is a better picture of the differences, you can see everything between the side plates is steel now, even the handle and handle receiver
IMG_7851 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

the weight went up 8 lbs from 26 to 34.

[b-mac]

I've had one of these for years and love it. (probably the old style) I don't lift anything too heavy though.

[mr48chev]

I don't lift anything too heavy with mine but it sure is easy to drag out to use like Joedoh's were in the photo. The big jacks weigh 90 lbs each one coming from Costco and the other from HF and they can be a lot of work to drag around.

The price is usually 69 or 79 so I thought that was a pretty good deal .

[capnduane]

I love HF! Ran a construction crew for 22 years. All the guys from south of the border. Sawsalls, drill motors, double jacks, crescent wrenches,
and other tools. If they didn't break, they would disappear in a couple of weeks. Part of doing business? The best of the best was their jig saw , copy of a Bosch. still tickin after all these years. My jack is a old HF steel one, still lifting my truck.

[Jesse Z]

I have to laugh at the "tool snobs" who won't buy HF stuff. By shopping HF I have more money left over for cool parts for my truck!

[whitedog76]

How much lighter are they than a normal jack?

My old Craftsman 3 ton can be a beast if I have to carry it.

I’m not a HF snob, the Craftsman was sourced from overseas too.

[iowaboynca]

I like going into HF. You just have to look tools with a critical eye. Some stuff is really good and some stuff, well isn't, but it's usually pretty obvious.

Mr48- if the jack works for you and your happy that's all that matters.

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by iowaboynca

I like going into HF. You just have to look tools with a critical eye. Some stuff is really good and some stuff, well isn't, but it's usually pretty obvious.

Mr48- if the jack works for you and your happy that's all that matters.

Yep, it can take a keen eye. I go there often (my son worked there too) just on the way home yesterday I got a pair of channel locks that I had lost. And those jacks, a few guys have them at work and they seem to do a great job for them.

The thing I hate is the real fact that people without much experience go there and buy tools that simply are garbage and couldn't do the job they are expected to do. The sad part is the guy without much experience will often make the mistake in thinking it is HIM that can't do the job when in fact if he had a good tool he could!

That's the thing I hate about the crap tools. But no, I have a tool box I use every day at work (my small roll around) that is HF and there are a number of HF tools in it. But I have no problem in spending the big bucks for the ones that I really need to rely on.

Brian

[mr48chev]

A few years ago I was at a tool sale by Cummins Tools. One of those outfits that came around once a year and set up at the Eagles banquet room or some other rented hall for a couple of days and sold cheap tools. I was at one of those sales and was standing next to a local farmer I knew who was picking up several sets of combination wrenches and some inexpensive pliers. He stated that they were "worker" tools that the guys who worked for him could use as the weren't allowed in his good tool box in his shop. Another said that he called them truck tools, as he threw a set in his truck in case he needed to change a belt on the side of the road and he didn't have to worry about them.
I bought almost exclusively Snap-On off the tool truck and Craftsman when they were real tools at the Waco Sears store when I was twisting wrenches daily for a living. I didn't buy much from Mac and never saw the Cornwell guy. Those were tools that I made money with and my wife knew if I owd the tool truck I was making money and If I didn't owe the Snap-On guy anything work was slow and money was tight.
In those days I haunted a few pawn shops that would break up tool sets and throw the wrenches and sockets in bins an price them by size more than by brand. I picked up a lot of Snap-on, Mac and Craftsman tools that way and at one time every Metric wrench I had had come from the pawn shops because they didn't think metrics were worth as much as standard sizes. It's not that way now though.

I do buy tools from Lowes, Sears and HF now but quite often the HF tools are some specialty tool that I won't use very often. I bought an inner tie rod tool off mathem the other day because it was on sale and I need to change the inner tie rods on my BMW and may have to change them on my wife's Monte Carlo. They aren't fancy but they won't get use very much over the years either.

As I said before I posted the deal on the jack because those little jacks are handy and a lot easier to deal with than one of those little trolley jacks from the parts house. They are light enough that you don't mind dragging them around the shop and they "hold this up" without whining quite well when you need something held up a few inches off the floor so you can work on it.