Harbor Freight - Gems and Junk

I am not a professional mechanic and I usually don't have another pair of hands available when working on my vehicles.

I was telling my wife about how different some things are today compared to when I began working on cars in the early 1970s. To remove and replace an engine, we had to go to a rental store for an engine hoist, remove the engine, return the hoist, work on the engine, rent a hoist, install the engine, return the hoist. Hydraulic engine hoists were unobtainable for us back then. They seemed to be sold only by jobbers to professional outfits. Besides, they were probably way out of our price range, even if we could buy one. However, we weren't pulling an engine every week, so the purchase price wouldn't justify buying one. If I recall correctly, renting a hydraulic engine hoist in those days was about $12-$15 per day, which was rather expensive in those days when minimum wage was $1.80/hour.

Enter Harbor Freight tools. I bought one of their hydraulic engine hoists a couple of years ago on sale, something like $100. I told my wife that I couldn't build one for that price. Two weeks ago, I bought a load leveler for the hoist for about $25. I pulled the 'Cuda engine and trans by myself last week using those two HFT tools. They worked perfectly. I imaging that renting a hydraulic engine hoist would cost a lot more than $12-$15 per day these days.

I have also purchased a number of other "low use" items from them in the ensuing years. Some things seems rather cheaply made and might not stand up to the rigors of every-day professional use, but most compares well to my "good" Craftsman and SK tools. Some HFT items include:

Sheet metal bending brake (3 foot) - works just fine.
Sand blasting cabinet - haven't used yet.
Spark plug tester - plastic light housing separated from connecting probe (I fixed it).
Tire inflator with gage - seems accurate.
Hydraulic press - used a number of times - works fine.
Pneumatic brad nailer - piece of junk - brads keep bending and get caught in feeder.
Cut off wheels and grinding discs - work fine.
HVLP paint spray gun - not used yet.
Freebie multimeter - works fine.
Hydraulic floor jack - works fine.
Jack stands - work fine.
Mig and gas welding carts - work fine in the shop/garage.

It seems that I have actually purchased a number of their items over the years, some not mentioned here, and I have been, on the whole, happy with their performance thus far.

One of the best things is their free coupons. I have gotten one of their 9 LCD flashlights for each of our cars and my tool bags/boxes. They are small and bright and come in very handy.