I've always bought Craftsman for home use, but when somebody else is paying (at work) I'll go with Proto or Mac.

While my Craftsman stuff has been pretty reliable, I do occasionally have to return one. Up until about a year ago, I've been satisfied, until I recently returned my 20 year old 3/8 drive ratchet and received a "remanufactured" replacement. The quality was much worse, with a much courser and stickier ratcheting mechanism. It's made me rethink future Craftsman purchases.

I much prefer my Snap On rachets to the corresponding craftsman, right up until I have to get the socket off the rachet. That release button is hard to beat, but I guess the patent is still in effect. I also like the new craftsman with the large size designations on the side. Not being a mechanic by trade, thus knowing the size by sight, and additionally having older eyes, being able to read the sizes easily is a plus. I also still have a 40yr old set of SK Wayne sockets that have withstood the test of time.

Does anyone know the max torque force the ratchet can take before the gears strip? If Craftsman strip at a lower torque than a Snap-on? I would think this would be a known property that the mfg would publish and brag about.

Neither ratchet will fail unless abused severely. If you use them as intended they will both do their job.

If high torque is applied then one of 4 things coukld happen, the shaft of the bolt will break, the nut will get stripped, the socket will get stripped or the gears in the ratchet will get stripped.

The wrench can't do anything about the metallargy used in the bolt/but. The likelihood of the socket stripping is remote (I would think), so the failure point on the wrench must be the gear teeth and the one thing that would / could strip the teeth is high torque. So wouldn't you think that a company as savy as Snap-on would at least have this property understood and their marketing people figuer out how this translates into longer life and eventually more savings?

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