Went to rent/borrow 3/8" torque wrench at autozone. Out of stock. Tech said the rental charge amount is $350??? He said the 1/2" wrench is on sale this week for $25 and 3/8" is $18. But they were out of stock of the 3/8". He did say the 1/4" in/lb wrench is $50 to rent. I have a 1/2" model that is 25-250lb but I don’t like to use it for smaller bolts. AZ is odd. $350 for wrench rental?
1 Like
I know Harbor freight doesn’t get a whole lot of love for people who own shops and use tools daily. But for me the HF torque wrench has done a good job. They go on sale for $9.99. One of mine went bad and I was actually ready to cough up the dough for a new one but they exchanged it under their lifetime warranty (take that Sears!)
1 Like
The expensive torque wrench is for a boat.
1 Like
I have used the Harbor Freight Tools click-type torque wrenches, and I was not impressed. I could not really feel the “click” when the desired torque value was reached, and certainly exceeded it more often than not. Fortunately, I was only using it for fasteners where the torque value was not super-critical.
When it came time to do a head gasket, I bought two beam-type torque wrenches from Craftsman, a 1/2" drive and a 3/8" drive. I think they cost about $100 for both. Having used them both to do this job, I can say that seeing the visual indication of the needle pointing to the desired torque value is much easier than relying on the wrench to make an audible “click” or to make a “click” that can be felt.
I think you got a defective HF torque wrench. I also have a 3/8 and 1/2 " Craftsman torque wrenches bought more than 50 years ago, but I have a click type HF one for lug nuts. At my age and with my back, It is too hard tor bend over and read the beam type. The click from the HF wrench is quite audible even though I have 40% hearing loss and I could feel the click with gloves on.
I have checked it against the Craftsman and it is well within the ±4% they claim. I also have no confidence in a Chinese made Craftsman being better made than HF
I’m not a heavy user but my Harbor Freight torque wrench works.
I can believe that a Snap-On costs $350. It could be a set. Auto Zone lends tools for free: perhaps $350 is the deposit that you get back if you return it? When I borrowed a gas cap tester they only had a set. They billed the credit card but refunded the charge when I returned it.
A torque wrench is worth owning, especially an HF cheapie.
It’s a deposit and probably includes a full set of sockets to go along with the torque wrench. Before I bought my own ball joint press and master set of dies/cups, I rented one from AZ. It was brand new and the rental was the same as the cost to buy from them. I asked what would happen if I didn’t bring it back- just wouldn’t get my deposit back. I should have kept it. It had a combination of cups not found in most other sets and it was brand new, never used…
But now you know what to buy.
Yes I do. As mentioned the AZ kit would have been the better buy for me than the master set I spent 4x as much, to get all the dies and receiver cups the AZ kit included, for my truck.
I used my 25-250lb wrench to get the 1st value of 45lbs. I barely rotated the handle and click.than 95 deg. I did say the old bolts came off easy. I see why
That’s a refundable fee they put on your credit card when you borrow it, right? I expect they make it that amount just to give you incentive to return it undamaged. If you don’t, they have to go through a bunch of paperwork on their side, which they don’t want to incur the expense of doing. Suggest to feel grateful it’s done as a courtesy, gratis, as long as you return it. I was over to a major retail homeowner store the other day, and noticed their rental fees weren’t much less than just buying the tool. A rotary hammer drill 4 hour rental fee was $45, but you could buy a similar-looking rotary hammer drill for $60 outright.