these are the best wrenches on the market.

[TomsMR2]

i had a little problem at work.. frozen tie rods.

they're 14mm and you have to use an open ended wrench to turn them for alignments. over time they sieze up pretty good. a lot of people use vice grips and screw the rod all up, but i wanted a good, strong, stiff wrench to properly do the job.

i had the typical big 3 tool trucks.. mac, matco, snapon.

matco showed up first, and i purchased a 14mm standard wrench.. it didnt fit a 14mm fastener. wtf! who sells a 14mm wrench thats not 14mm? with some forcing i got it on the tie rod and gave it a shot.. massive flex, the wrench spread open and slipped. total failure. i returned it the next time i saw him.

mac showed up next.. he let me "test drive" their 14mm.. its a nice wrench, fits in my hand well.. i put it to the test on a frozen rod.. bam! works GREAT! extremely stiff, no slip, no tip spread.. quite satisfied.. he shows up next week and i get the price if i want to keep it.. 50 bucks. FIFTY bucks for one single wrench. thats insane, i return it, even though it admittedly was pretty nice.

then snapon rolls around, and i give their flankdrive a test.. decent quality, but it spreads open on stuck tie rods.. unacceptably so. i feel kinda let down by the lack of stiffness in a snapon wrench. not thrilled. its 30 bucks, not unreasonable i suppose, but its not really a good wrench, and definitely not up to the task of alignments. less spread than matco, more than mac. bummer. i kept it around and used it for other things until someone stole it. gah, wrench shopping time again.

so i lost the snapon wrench on a friday and needed a new one by monday.. i figured id swing by sears and pickup a POS craftsman professional wrench to make it a few weeks or whatever.. i find out they're now selling gearwrench brand standard non ratcheting wrenches.

these look good. gearwrenches are an industry standard for their ratcheting wrenches, i have a ton and love them. these new ones have a "corner drive" system like snapon does.. and its cheap as hell, was about 10 bucks.. ill give it a try.

i get to work and use it.. wow, their corner drive system works VERY well, almost as good as flankdrive.. but damn near no flex. this is an extremely stiff wrench, probably 95% of what the mac wrench was.

months later i still have it, and use it. the gearwrench wrenches have never let me down. frankly, they're amazing. they're also priced about where craftsman wrenches are, but seriously... id take them over snap on. they're that good, and a steal of a deal.

so cliffnotes: buy gearwrench brand wrenches, even the non ratcheting ones. they're fantastic!

[conor]

I'm sold! *runs to Sears*

Gotta warranty the Gearwrench ratcheting wrench I broke anyway

[TomsMR2]

i dont know if its just my local one, but they keep blowing out the sets for really cheap, like 40 bucks!

for the pros.. matco is now basically owned by KD tools, who makes gearwrench and most of matcos crap. they'll warranty all your gearwrench and KD's. snapon will too through their 3rd party distributor, but they'll groan about it