Slip-Jaw Open-End Wrenches
By Sean O'Hara
It’d been a long time since I got really pumped about an innovation in ratcheting wrenches – then I saw these Ultrastar slip-jaw ratcheting wrenches on the Garrett Wade site. Schwing! You hold it in your hand like a normal open-end wrench. But since you never have to take it off the fastener, you don’t lose your rhythm — and you just keep rocking it back and forth, back and forth, til you’re done.
In the time it took to write this, both the metric and the standard sets went from “available” to “backordered” on the site. D’oh! I’m not surprised at the “backordered” status – wrenches like this don’t stay in a warehouse for long. O, why didn’t I place my order before I started fantasizing about the wrenches?!
Maybe I’m building these things up too much. For all I know, the design is crap, and I should just stick with my trusty old hand wrenches that have served me through thick and thin. If you have any experience with these slip-jaw ratcheting wrenches, please comment about it. Until they become “available” again, I won’t be able to think about anything else. Street pricing is about $40.
Slip-Jaw Open-End Wrenches [Garrett Wade]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
December 18th, 2007 at 10:14 am
I have a set of the other open types… useless. So call me a Doubting Thomas until I get my hands on these actual pieces and try them for myself. But unless the local tool outlet gets ‘em, I guess I’ll be in doubt.
December 18th, 2007 at 11:29 am
These stink - they fail under load
December 18th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
You should’ve done a Hot or Not on these. They’re crap. They defeat the basic design of the open-end wrench. That slight angle they build into the end is there for a reason, so you can get small increments of rotation in tight spaces by flipping the wrench between turns. Since these wrenches are directional, flipping them is not going to do you any good. You’re better off with a nice set of ratcheting box-end wrenches.
December 18th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
In my opinion, you’re not really better off with ratcheting box end wrenches though. I thought I had to have a set, but I rarely use them because not only do they require more clearance around the fastener (at least my set does), but they are only useful if you can get it around the nut. I was excited to use them for a while after I bought them, but it seemed every time I grabbed them I ended up having to run back to my toolbox to grab something else to use. Now most of the time I find myself back to using deep sockets or plain old ordinary wrenches and passing over the ratcheting box end wrenches thinking what a waste of money.
December 18th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Nothing new here. Craftsman used to make these, (Quick Wrench), SK still does. Like ratcheting boxes, neither is intended to break loose super tight or rusted fasteners, (C’mon guys, that’s a job for standard issue box wrenches & 6pt sockets.). I didn’t like these because the extended swing prevented their use in tight spaces. Ratcheting boxes are much handier, and while I agree with Ben J. regarding occasional clearance issues, they’re still the stuff.
December 20th, 2007 at 6:02 am
Schwing my ass.
Ever hear of GearWrench and other brands of fine-tooth ratcheting wrenches, or old-fashioned coarse tooth laminated ones? Ever hear of socket wrench sets? The point of these would be what?
By the way, just about everything Garrett Wade sells can be had more cheaply elsewhere, and often dramatically so. Overpriced and overhyped tools.
These wrenches are made by Alden, but a different company than the Alden that makes various screw extractor sets, including the Deck Out set at Sears. The wrench company web site is http://www.aldenwrench.net. The site includes a demo video.
August 4th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Don’t expect these to do the job of a real wrench!! They work great for their application. I use them after I’ve broken the nut loose and they work great for line wrenches. Try using them on a brake line fitting or any other line wrench app. They work great!