socket and ratcheting spanners on board

sarabande

sarabande

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My onboard spanners and sockets mishmash kit has been weighed in the balance and found wanting.

The mechanic who fixed a minor issue for me yesterday uses Halfords Pro and Bluepoint sets. I was particularly impressed by the ratcheting spanner which dealt with an awkwardly placed adjuster nut for the belts; seconds rather than the minutes my fixed open-ended ones would have taken.

If I want to kit the boat out with a reliable set of sockets and spanners, what supplier or maker would the forum recommend please ? I think a 1/2 socket drive is big enough, with a 1/4 adapter for tiddly sockets.

TIA

I know about SnapOn and their prices, so No to them, sorry.
 
I've got a real mix of stuff in my toolbox, but mostly when I buy now I buy Halfords Proffesional. It may not have the kudos of snap-on etc, but I have been very pleased with it and I am a very, very active DIY mechanic.
 
I have had a Halfords set for about 10 years now, the only complaint I have is that the foam packing, which is essential when the case is closed, overboard and then until I could replace it all the small sockets kept falling out when I picked up the case. I agree the ratchet spanner’s are great. If you keep an eye on Halfords you’ll see that they often have the kits on special offer.
 
sarabande said:
I think a 1/2 socket drive is big enough, with a 1/4 adapter for tiddly sockets.
Click to expand...

1/2" is big enough for most things on a boat. But do consider a full 1/4" socket set. Mine gets used more than anything else. (It's something of a paradox that most fasteners on something 30 or 40 feet long are actually quite small. Another paradox is the recent purchase of a 3/4" drive, 1 metre breaker bar for a motorcycle 7 feet long...)

As to make, most of mine are Snap-On, a hangover from earlier times. Blue Point, incidentally, is Snap-On's 'budget' brand. But for non-professional use, Halford's better stuff should more than do the job.
 
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I have different tools on the boat than at home in my workshop. The chances of a tool going into the drink is directly proportional to it's cost so I tend to use cheaper but effective tools on board. I have a couple of sets of Lidl ratcheting spanners and Draper sockets etc. Also, when the salt water corrosion gets to one of the tools when I've been too slack to protect them, I don't have to cry too much!
 
I have a Clarke 1/2" socket set for the boat and another at home, and have no complaints. Also a separate 1/4" set - I think an adaptor from big to small will be unwieldy in a tight space.

I bought a couple of the ratcheting ring spanners on eBay for a specific job, I believe they are Silverline ones. They seem perfectly fine but Silverline is definitely a cheapy brand so this isn't a recommendation as such.

Pete
 
I am not familiar with Halfords but I do have a lot of BETA tools. They are not as expensive as SnapOn and they do have a life-time guarantee. However there is much to be said for a basic budget set as occasionally offered by the likes of Lidl for keeping on the boat for ordinary day-to-day jobs, one advantage is that when they go walkabout there is no need to weep. Professional grade are reserved for serious work when on the hard.
 
I have ratcheting spanners from both Lidl and Aldi, one set on board and the other in my garage. Both have been perfectly OK. I tend not to buy expensive makes of tool for the boat because of the corrosive marine environment. The socket set that came with the boat is Proxxon brand and good quality but if I was buying for the boat now I would look for the same half inch Aldi/Lidl set I have in my garage. I just can't remember which store I bought it from, but it was cheap enough and has proved to be good enough quality when I worked on my kit car.
 
Thanks everyone for your views and experience.

The "found wanting" bit is a cheapy set of S********e open-ended where one spanner has fractured at the neck, and another spread at the jaws.

I take the point about losing expensive tools overboard and sea-based corrosion in general, but shirley the critierion is "must work 100% when needed". The incident yesterday was a water pump which needed the belt adjusting, and the 13mm spanner had sprung the jaws and was rounding off the corners of the nut. The matter was resolved with the ratcheting spanner of the yard foreman (at no extra charge ! )

I don't want to duplicate weighty sets of tools just in case one of them fails, so I am collecting info on reliable brands and suppliers, e.g. I did not know about Beta and Bahco tools .

Keep the advice coming please :)
 
I've had a large Halfords socket set for years and it's been excellent value. On the boat, I also have a small ratchet socket and driver set from Wickes (excellent value at a fiver - https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Ratchet-40-Piece-Screwdriver+Bit-Set/p/167300) which has a useful selection of Pozi/Torx/Hex bits. Plus a giant pair of water pump pliers (big enough to tackle stubborn spin-on filters). And a cheap Halfords torque wrench, for added leverage on reluctant nuts and bolts.
 
sarabande said:
e.g. I did not know about Beta and Bahco tools .
Click to expand...

I didn’t think to mention Bahco but I’d definitely agree with whoever recommended them. I have a miniature socket and bit set in my work toolkit - I’m technically a software engineer so if it’s above 13mm I leave it to the mechanical fitters :) - which was recommended to me by a colleague because it’s very low profile for getting into tight equipment spaces. Despite the tiny size of the ratchet mechanism I feel confident to lean on it quite hard when required. I also have a Bahco knife (one normal blade, one replaceable Stanley type blade) which is nicely made, albeit a bit bulky so I ended up not including in my standard set.

If you’re collecting names, one of my colleagues, a field service technician with an electrical background, is a big fan of Wera tools. No experience myself, but the sets in his traveling case look nicely put together.

Pete
 
I bought a quality ('Professional'?) Halfords socket set going on 10 years ago, and I am still really impressed and pleased with my purchase. There are more and less extensive sets, and one or other seems to often be on an 'offer'. As Praxi says, the foam insert needs hanging on to (mine got torn when accidentally kneeling on it), but it's only a bit of thin foam and could easily be replaced by something or other.

I also bought a few weeks ago the angle-headed ratchet spanner set I'd been promising myself for years for the reasons you described. Also Halfords. They do sell some junk but their 'premium' tool sets seem really good to me. I have not actually used these spanners yet, but they look good, and I am looking forward to laughing at some of those awkwardly placed nuts that you can only get a tiny fraction of a turn at a time with conventional spanners - you know the thing: having to keep reversing the spanner for the next move, usually at arms length, out of sight, skinning your knuckles every move, and with constant threat of the spanner making a leap into the deep bilge.

If they only did away with one such instance of torture, they would be worth the money.
 
prv said:
I have a Clarke 1/2" socket set for the boat and another at home, and have no complaints. Also a separate 1/4" set - I think an adaptor from big to small will be unwieldy in a tight space.

I bought a couple of the ratcheting ring spanners on eBay for a specific job, I believe they are Silverline ones. They seem perfectly fine but Silverline is definitely a cheapy brand so this isn't a recommendation as such.

Pete
Click to expand...

Over the years I have accumulated 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" socket sets. The one that gets most use is the 3/8" drive which suits most circumstances. However, in very tight places sometimes only the 1/4" will do the job (cam cover inner bolts on Jag V8 :ambivalence:) and for use with the rattle gun or the metre breaker bar, the 1/2" drive comes into its own. :)

Richard
 
My sets are a deep 1/4” Bacho set, a full set of Draper Expert Ratchet Spanner’s and 3 Bacho adjustable. There is no need for a 1/2” set as the 1/4” goes up to 13mm with the spanner’s dealing with the few bigger jobs. One thing to remember about the cheap sets is that they are more likely to damage or round the nuts.
 
I have a Halfords 1/4 drive set which is really useful, but I also have a set of 3/8 drive deep sockets (up to 19mm) on the boat that gets a lot of use.

The 1/2 sockets only get used on the bigger jobs on the engine and being an old Perkins they include both metric and AF.

My first choice on a boat would be an 8-19mm set of deep sockets on a 3/8 ratchet.
 
About ten years ago I made a decision to buy only FACOM tools. They are French (boo sucks whatever) but very good quality and well priced. Now I have a saying on my boat of any new tool that "if it ain't FACOM it can FACOFF" I put myself forward for the Nobel peace prize and Nobel literature prize for that omni-prescient slogan.
 
sarabande said:
If I want to kit the boat out with a reliable set of sockets and spanners, what supplier or maker would the forum recommend please ? I think a 1/2 socket drive is big enough, with a 1/4 adapter for tiddly sockets.
Click to expand...

My absolute favourite spanners are a set of Halfords Professional flex-head ratchet spanners. Their stuff is excellent, but I prefer to keep a cheaper set on board and have a boxed set from Lidl. A few specks of rust, after 8 years on board, but otherwise fine. Unless you have hefty stuff to do, I'd go for 3/8" drive, which is smaller, lighter and quite happy up to cylinder head bolt levels of oomph.

What I really want is a set of Snap-On toggle spanners, but they are fifty flipping quid each ...
 
Ric said:
About ten years ago I made a decision to buy only FACOM tools.
Click to expand...

Guess who makes Halfords Professional.

A few years ago I broke a Halfords Pro 8mm spanner doing something most unwise with it. I took it to my local Halfords, showed it to the chap at the till and before I could say anything he had called a colleague and asked him to fetch me a replacement. That was a lifetime guarantee taken seriously.
 
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