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Looking to get a torque wrench. Most dont list their accuracy. The ones at Harbor Freight are accurate to +/- 4 % and their cheap($). Are these good enough or would you suggest spending more on a name brand like craftman. Also what sizes to get 1/4 and 3/8? How about the 1/2 or can I get away with out. Need to save money so I can buy more shtuff

I would suggest a 3/8"drive in/lb wrench 20-250 in/lb range - and a 1/2" drive ft/lb wrench in the range of 10-150 ft/lb range. You can get a reducer adapter to use the 3/8" torque wrench with 1/4 in sockets.
These two torque wrench will cover over 95% of the typical back yard mechanics needs.

A better torque wrench is usually marked as being being within + or - 2% of the standard testing torque. If your young and enjoy working on things buy the best you can afford: they should last a lifetime if the torque wrench is a quality wrench. Just my 2 cents.

The answer is yes buy one. You have a dirtbike get a torque wrench. You can score a 3/8 craftsman on sale for under $80. Get a ft/lbs one first. Save up get the in/lbs too. Indispensible.

IdahoCharley wrote:I would suggest a 3/8"drive in/lb wrench 20-250 in/lb range - and a 1/2" drive ft/lb wrench in the range of 10-150 ft/lb range. You can get a reducer adapter to use the 3/8" torque wrench with 1/4 in sockets.
These two torque wrench will cover over 95% of the typical back yard mechanics needs.

A better torque wrench is usually marked as being being within + or - 2% of the standard testing torque. If your young and enjoy working on things buy the best you can afford: they should last a lifetime if the torque wrench is a quality wrench. Just my 2 cents.

Buy the best you can afford AND always when your done with it return the torque to the lowest setting on wrench and it will last for many years

I have all kinds of HF tools, and the TQ wrench is one I'd stay away from. Buy a good one.

Just a sugestion but you could make shure it is calibratable and have it calibrated ounce in a while.

I got a HF torque wrench.... haven't had any overtorque issues. It is a clicker type.

I have a 7' cheater bar with a 1" drive and all the reducers I need to fit anything down to a size 0 phillips.


Never had a problem with it.




IC's right.

Varmint's right.

Moody's right.

fuzzy's right.

mudder's right.

Inda: How do you quantify 'no issues'? Because nothing has broken yet?

HFs torque wrenches may be perfectly fine. SOMEthing they sell must be! It's the law of averages. (that's a kind'a pun).


Get a good one. Some things..and sometimes...it's not worth the money you 'save'.

If you are going to leave your new 20-150ft/lb wrench set to 120ft/lbs and out in the rain for a month or two, THEN use it as a hammer because it's handy to drive in that last nail, then DO buy the HF tool.

Well... there was the calibration paper in it that said passed!

We have to calibrate our torque wrenches 4 times a year and a tech
had a 20 year old craftsman in his box that was 1% off.
That was a pretty big suprise.....

I agree that calibration of a torque wrench is a good thing to do..and they can certainly need it.

I know that 'cuz of getting my Craftsman back from having been calibrated...and it was all screwed up.

RH/LH was different..not threads..but applying torque from 3-4 o'clock was not the same as from 8-9 o'clock. My elbow worked better'n the wrench did.

I told them (Sears) to do it over..and to NOT send it to the same place they did prior. They did, they didn't, and it came back all better.

I've had that wrench for over 30 years.

When I took it TO Sears, they said torque wrenches were warranted for only two years. I hadn't taken mine out of the box yet (OEM box..still got that, too)..but replied, 'No. It has a lifetime warranty.'

'Only if it's got a metal handle!' was the response.

I took my metal-handled torque wrench out of the box..she looked at it...said, 'Oh my. I haven't seen one of these in a long time!'

The lady knew her wrenches.



One might think this goes without saying...but NEVER use a torque wrench as a breaker bar. Just because it's probably longer than your 1/2" ratchet doesn't mean you use it to break head bolts loose!

Grassroots Motorsports Magazine (sports car mag for DIY types like us) recently tested 3 torque wrenches they had around their garage: a ten year old Craftsman, a few years old HF, and a fairly new Snap-On. None had ever been calibrated.

Results: the Craftsman was very accurate across the whole range, HF was a very close second to the Craftsman, and the Snap-On was way off throughout the lower part of its adjusment range!

Guess I'll keep my old Craftsman around.........

My neighbor is an air frame mechanic with access to a torque wrench calibrator. He bought a Harbor freight torque wrench for his son, and for grins tested it at work. It turned out to be very accurate compared to higher end wrenches they use. Now who knows how well they stay in spec, but I stripped a case bolt with a brand new craftsman inch/pound wrench due to it intermittently not clicking. when I took it back I was told they weren't under the warranty that other craftsman hand tools are. They replaced it but I wouldn't buy another one.

Buy Cheap, get cheap......Quality tools cost money, but will last a lifetime. After I stripped a couple of bolts on a street bike I had, I decided never to buy cheap hand tools again.

Also a quick story...I need a set of jack stands as I was restoring my GTO.
I went to Sears with my wife was looking at some 5 ton or so model made in China. Said to the wife I think I will get these, they are cheap should do the job, well a customer came over to me and said hey you going to buy those and I said yeah. He said I would not, his brother had them and they broke with him under the car almost killed him. After that I figured my life was worth more than the $60.00 for the stands. Went and bought a set from MAC tools. They were double the price but built in the USA!
Call it divine intervention but no more cheap tools for me.

chkdx wrote:Grassroots Motorsports Magazine (sports car mag for DIY types like us) recently tested 3 torque wrenches they had around their garage: a ten year old Craftsman, a few years old HF, and a fairly new Snap-On. None had ever been calibrated.

Results: the Craftsman was very accurate across the whole range, HF was a very close second to the Craftsman, and the Snap-On was way off throughout the lower part of its adjusment range!

Guess I'll keep my old Craftsman around.........

Another GRM reader?
I have a 10 yr scrip, and run the challenge in 2003

Yep, actually began reading GRM when it was still Auto-X magazine in the mid 80's. Never did the challenge, sure looks like fun!

Inda I have one too, a 3/8th clickter, and it's fine in the middle-upper range. On the low side--like it's first two marks--it sucks. I complimented it with a spendy in/lbs one for that range...and I don't know why because I always seem to use my alcohol-calibrated wrist torque wrend for that.

Re: '..but I stripped a case bolt with a brand new craftsman inch/pound wrench..'

They aren't what they used to be.

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What is?

From others' experience, it sounds like the HF units may not be a bad choice value-wise. +/- 4% probably isn't going to be a problem. On a KDX head stud (fer instance) what's going to matter is that the fasteners are the same...not that all of them are 15in/lbs off spec.