First Time Visit: Harbor Freight Tool Store

[JerseyHarold]

A couple of weeks back I heard that Harbor Freight has a retail store in Brick, New Jersey, about 20 miles from where I live. Then a few days ago, I got a Harbor Freight flyer in the mail complete with a coupon (don't know where they got my name). So, this morning my son and I took a ride down there.

It turned out to be a nice store with all sorts of cool stuff. They had a 'dollar days' circular as well, and I wound-up buying a number of small but useful items. This is one of the few stores I've ever seen where there were a lot of guys actually doing some serious shopping. I'm planning to visit them again. Sure beats the mall my wife and daughter went to!

On the way home, we stopped at 'Future Classics', a nearby collector car store. They had a red '51 Cranbrook convertible on eBay a while back (discussed here in the forum at that time), and I wanted to see it in person just for jollies. The car has a 'Duffy's' sticker on the trunk, so it migrated here from Iowa at some point. Nice clean car, but of course I spotted a number of non-original items and some questionable restoration work that I kept my mouth shut about. Kinda pricey at $27,500. on the windshield.

All in all a fun day.

Harold

[bob_amos]

Harold, Watch out for that place. It can be habit forming. I've purchased quite a load of tools from them. The people at the local Harbour Freight know me by name and even ask ME where something is in the stiore if I am there and they cannot find it. But, ya do need to determine if the tool is capable of the task or not. Some are not. They have the easiest return policy that I have ever found. But all in all, they have some good stuff there. I purchased their "earthquake" 1/2 impact gun. I actually use it at work in my shop and it beats my Snap-On gun in every way. Turns out to be an exact copy of Ingersall's "Thunder Gun". One guy even said the parts are interchangable. Welcome to the habit that is Harbour Freight Tools. (By the way, they have a web site too for those days when the weather is too rough to venture out and about.)

[oldmopar]

Harold

where is the store located what road is it on

Ed

[JerseyHarold]

Ed,

It's at 2700 Hooper Avenue in Brick, (732) 477-5300. I used Mapquest to get directions...took about 40 minutes door-to-door from Freehold. Definitely worth the trip.

Harold

[oldmopar]

Ed,

It's at 2700 Hooper Avenue in Brick, (732) 477-5300. I used Mapquest to get directions...took about 40 minutes door-to-door from Freehold. Definitely worth the trip.

Harold

Thanks I will check it out, maybe I will buy myself a present.

[builtfercomfort]

Hi guys - I like the place too but beware of the low quality sometimes. 'Butter Steel' was the term I heard for some of their tools, and the $3.00 rotary tool lasted me about 7 minutes. Other things are well made.

If you sign up for their email, you'll get store-only coupons for this and that - the store website is http://www.harborfreightusa.com - different from the online place which is http://www.harborfreight.com

[Norm's Coupe]

Don't know if you guys know it, but if you also get the mail order sale catalogs, take it to the store with you. If you show them the price in the mail order catalog, they'll also honor that price at the store. At least they do here.

[BobT-47P15]

We just got a new Harbor Freight here in Joplin, MO. Went in there a couple Saturdays ago and it was full of mostly men buying all sorts of stuff. I

got a couple small things, son-in-law bought a selection of wrenches. I

think the guys are right, there are some items of better quality than

others. Seems like there was some doubt about certain engine stands they sell.

[Plymouthy Adams]

engine stands from various places can be made better in most parts with an triangle welded in at the right angles of the uprights and outriggers..

[Don Coatney]

Tim;

The engine stand you picked up from me came from Harbor Freight. It had the engine hanging on it for the past few years. Problem I have is most commercial engine stands place the engine at a very uncomfortable work height for me. I found it easier to rebuild my engine on the work bench and flop it around as required for the assembly.

[JerseyHarold]

I have a 4-wheel, 1000# rated engine stand that was made offshore (it may have come from Harbor Freight many years ago) and my 230 flathead sagged when I put it on there. I ended-up supporting the front of the engine with a wooden stand to keep it level.

[Jim Saraceno]

We have Harbor Freight and Cummins in St. Louis. They're both about the same. My opinion is there tools are cheap and you get what you pay for. I'd never buy a tool there that I would use on the job (I'm a construction worker) I don't think they would last. I would buy tools that I don't think I'd use very often. I bought my engine hoist, engine stand and shop press there. I only planned to rebuild one engine and the hoist and stand worked just fine. The bottle jack on the shop press all but blew out while pressing the trunnion pins in my drive shaft, so I'll probably get a new bottle jack some day.

I also bought several jack stand there. I was very reluctant to do that but I went to Sears and found the same Chinese jack stands there. It's getting harder and harder to find anything made in this country.

[greg g]

One thing to remember with engine stands aside from the weight rating, is the wheel location. Do not buy the simple three wheel deal, these are very unstable. You want the front casters to be as wide as possible. I bought the 1000 pounder from HF when it was on sale, It held the Flatty just fine. didn't seem to sag and was easy to push around the garage.

[Plymouthy Adams]

I have to agree with Don..the engine stand though nice and convienent..they are a tad low for working comfortabily..I appreciate his donnation to the Big-A Garage of his 4 wheel model..besides....man of his size..don't need no stinking engine stand

[woodscavenger]

If you make your living with your tools HF may not be your place to shop but when I can buy a tool for 1/2 or 1/4 the retail price if it is something I want to experiment with or only do a few times then it's HF all the way for me! I do find you have to spend a bit more time aligning some of the tools but sometimes in life you have more time than $$

[Young Ed]

I will say we've had good luck with a few of the things we got from there. The 49.99 paint gun we bought has been doing quite well. The engine stand arms wouldn't pivot enough to bolt to the back of the 50 chev engine. Ended up using the old engine piece with the new stand.