torque_Spec wrote: Harbor Freight vs Snapon vs Gearwrench Torque Wrench.
Which is your favorite? Any quality differences between the lot?
Personally I don't touch harbor freight tools. if your only using it for wheels maybe could get away with it . Last harbor freight 1 I seen said accurate with + - 10% which is horrible I believe standard is around 3% if your doing anything that requires accurate torque get a name brand , craftsman has a decent 1 for under $100 I'm not sure the price point of the gear wrench it's probably comparable to the craftsman and Snap on May offer slightly higher quality but with a price point approaching $500 I'm not sure that would be on my top 3 choices....
Any torque wrench that uses a spring will drift out of calibration because the spring settles during initial use.
It is exactly the same as a road spring, a brand new road spring might be 12" (300mm) in length. But if you fit it to a vehicle and use it for 6 months and then remove and measure it again and it might measure 11" (275mm) but refit it and use it for 10 years and unless there was a manufacturing defect causing it to fracture it will still measure very close to 11" say 273mm.
Eventually if the road spring has been cycled millions of times it reaches the end of its life and the spring will just rapidly. collapse.
It is in my experience more important to use and wrench that has correct range for the job you are working on if you are fitting stretch bolts that are torqued then angular tightened choose a wrench where the maximum torque is no more than the torque setting x 1.5
Electronic torque wrenches use a mechanical bar as spring but because it is tens or hundreds times stiffer they tend not to have the same issues. Having said that I still use tradditional mechanical torque wrenches -- I always buy ones that meet Euro DIN standards.
" We're trying to plug a hole in the universe, what are you doing ?. "
(Walter Bishop Fringe TV show)
Matco 1/2" 50-250ftlbs. Ten years of use and I recently checked it on the Snapon truck. It's about 10% off which isn't too bad.
The worst thing to screw up when torquing are wheels. That's the last thing I'd want to use a cheap torque wrench on. I'd use a harbor freight torque wrench on cylinder head bolts before I'd use it on wheels. How much is your customers life worth? A $500 torque wrench? Easily...
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