Titan’s Ratcheting Breaker Bar
By Benjamen Johnson
Thanks to Titan, you no longer must choose between the convenience of a ratchet and the toughness of a breaker bar. They claim that their 18″ ratcheting breaker bar offers the convenience of both, withstanding up to 376 ft-lbs of pipe-stuck-on-the-end torque.
It’s made from chrome-plated heavy-duty chrome vanadium steel, and Titan coats the head with a black oxide finish to resist corrosion. The 1/2″ ratchet head swivels 180 degrees, and you can lock the ratcheting action so it functions just like a regular breaker bar.
But it’s not the handle that fails when you overtorque a ratchet — it’s the ratcheting mechanism. And before we can really get behind these, we need a) to see one handle the claimed torque in person, and b) to understand what they’ve done inside the bar’s head to make this possible.
Of course, Amazon is offering it for $30 right now, so maybe we need to just pony up and find out.
Ratcheting Breaker Bar [Titan]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon
September 3rd, 2007 at 9:42 am
A safety issue I forgot to raise in the post: How much torque can a standard 1/2″ socket bear before it breaks? Maybe you should also use impact sockets, designed for higher torque, when you are applying 376ft-lbs of torque.
September 3rd, 2007 at 5:32 pm
They don’t call them breaker bars for nothing.
September 3rd, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Ok, I’m certainly no genius, but 376 ft-lbs seems pretty light duty to me. My Dewalt electric impact is rated to 350 ft-lbs, and decent pneumatic Impacts can be rated much higher. Also, at 250 lbs., I don’t see myself being able to hang off the end of a piece of pipe, like I’ve done countless times (damn tire change places) with my standard breaker bar.
Having said that, I think this is a great idea, but I think I’ll wait for the heavier duty model.
September 4th, 2007 at 8:11 am
To put 376 ft/lbs in perspective, if a 250 lb man puts all his weight into an 18″ breaker bar, he can generate 375 ft/lbs of torque. A SAE Grade 5 3/8-16 bolt can take 370 ft/lbs of torque (I’m not sure whether the threads fail or the bolt shears).
That said, yes there are applications that may require more torque, and yes a pneumatic impact wrench (or electric) can generate much more torque. But sometimes you don’t want to drag out the air hose, or you might be away from your garage.
September 4th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Interesting, thanks for the perspective Ben.
Question. What formula (or where did you find the formula) to figure out the 250 lb man 18″ breaker bar rating?
I’d be extremely interested in playing with some different variables.
And yes, I agree about dragging out the air hose/extension cord, those always seem to hinder my likelihood of impact wrench use.
September 5th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Craig,
T = F * d
where:
T is the torque
F is the force used
d is the length of the lever arm
So in the above example the lever arm is 18″ or 1.5′ and the force is 250lbs
T = F * d
375ft/lbs = 250lbs * 1.5 ft.
I could have used a simpler example where the relationship would have been more obvious, like a 2 ft lever with 100lbs of force is 200 ft/lbs, but I was trying to use numbers relevant to the situation.
September 5th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
375ft/lbs != 250lbs * 1.5ft
375ft*lbs = 250lbs * 1.5ft
September 5th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Awesome, thanks Ben (and m4ff3w). Wow that’s a simple formula, I’m pretty sure even I could remember that.
September 5th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Yeah, that’s what I meant….Thanks for the correction m4ff3w