Do you use 3/4 inch drive sockets for light home use purposes

I have an extensive set of 3/4" drive tools by Williams -- two Williams boxes full. I used it to maintain the Cat engine and pumps, the anchor capstain gearbox, etc., on my uncle's boat (42'). Since then I've used it about twice.

BTW, anchor capstains weren't called anchor capstains, but I can't repeat what they actually were called. d8-)

I would say that I need a 3/4" drive socket 1/10th of 1/2 of 1% of the time. Maybe once every two years. Most anything else, I can break loose with a half inch and a cheater pipe, although I don't like that combination.

If a guy deals with that big a nuts on a regular basis, they are making some serious cash for heavy repairs, and the tools just follow.

Just like welding. Lots of guys have toys, but a serious welder will go buy the big machine that will start EVERY TIME, run 24/7 and ring the cash register without missing a beat.

Steve

I have a basic 3/4 drive socket set for home use. I used to use it a lot on my backhoe, now it is largely used for the lug nuts on my trucks (350/3500) which are still finished with a 1/2 drive torque wrench. Now and then I use it for items that are larger than the sockets I have in

1/4-3/8-1/2 drive. In short, it does come in handy now and then, but it doesn't get used that much.

I can't say as I've owned a 3/4 drive anything, in the years I've been fixing stuff. But, then, I've never repaired heavy construction equipment.

In about 1998, I got an electric impact wrench. Half drive, of course. It doesn't fit in small places, like under the fenders to change leaf springs. But it was excellent for lugnuts. I was about three hours drive from home one day, and it cracked, after removing the 2nd lug of a 10 lug brake job. I'd paid about $75 for it, and replaced it with a $50 one on sale from Harbor Freight. The HF one has done every bit as good a job, and came with a blow mold case. I keep two sizes of lug sockets in the blow mold case, 3/4 and

13/16. Or 19 and 21, if you like the metric equivilant.

I use them, but I have a backhoe as part of my junque.

Iggy, like others, I have used my set removing large spindle nuts from various pickup trucks. BUT the large sockets are extremely handy for pushing or driving bearing races and other sundry parts. Without them I would have to fire up the lathe and make tooling.

Ivan Vegvary

Total overkill on anything "home-owner" I worked on industrial equipment - dozers, backhoes, loaders etc and there were definitely times they came in handy. Likewize on heavy trucks. Never needed them on anything under a 3 tonner though.

I bought my set so I could take the blades off my big rotary mower for sharpening. Then I discovered how handy they were for removing the big ball from the pickup trailer hitch. Then discovered they worked great on the tractor rear wheel lug nuts.

So, about once a year I need to use something from the set.

Paul

Not too many of you seem to have had an older VW Vanagon. When I had them I had a 3/4' impact socket 3/4" drive breakover bar with a 3' 1" pipe to loosen the lug nuts. They seemed to gall and I was not about to get a hernia trying to loosen them.

Chuck P.

I've had to buy individual sizes from time to time.

One was when I was helping a female friend change the brake shoes on the rear of her VW Beetle. One big central hex nut there to take off the brake drum. (36mm IIRC.)

Another (and much more recent) was when I got a used DiAcro 24" metal shear and discovered that one of the two big nuts securing the side columns to the base casting was missing. Apparently whoever used it during that time did all their cutting near the other column. :-)

So -- yes, I've needed them from time to time. Whether this officially counts as "light home use" remains to be seen. :-)

Oh yes -- I also have a 3/4" drive torque wrench picked up in a surplus sale perhaps twenty to twenty-five years ago, along with several smaller sizes, 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" square drives. Kept them all and glad that I did.

Enjoy, DoN.

Somewhere, I have ONE 3/4" socket and a 3/4" brake bar. I don't remember for sure what I needed them for. I want to say the front axle nuts on a 1951 Cadillac, but I could easily be wrong, and I think it was only because at the time I couldn't find a 1/2" socket large enough, not because I needed the power.

well, I use a 3/4 drive socket to tighten the rear axle nuts on my 356 (and old VW) and to tighten the flywheel nut on those cars - with a 6 foot length of pipe and me jumping up and down on the pipe I can get to the required torque.

I've been doing automotive work for eons, and can only remember a couple of times where 3/4 drive stuff might have been nice.

However, years ago I bought a 1/2" drive 24" $nap On breaker bar... it was about $50 bucks IIRC (probably $175 now). Even it doesn't get 'that' much use, but several times a year, it leaves a big cheery grin on my face.

For a home use example... a couple of weeks ago, a neighbor had a leaking pipe nipple behind his toilet... rusty, tight like hell, limited access, they'd been messing with it for hours. Went over there with the

24" breaker bar, 20" extension, 1/2" easy out and 1/2" drive 8 point socket to match. Said nipple was out in less time than it took to type this paragraph.

I wouldn't blow money on 3/4" stuff unless your really sure you'll need it, and then only get what you need.

Good Luck!

Erik

PS, now that I think about it, my local equipment rental place rents

3/4" socket sets... yours might too. I'd sure ask around before I'd buy. E

I use them occasionally, but seldom for Light Home Use

Gunner

"First Law of Leftist Debate The more you present a leftist with factual evidence that is counter to his preconceived world view and the more difficult it becomes for him to refute it without losing face the chance of him calling you a racist, bigot, homophobe approaches infinity.

This is despite the thread you are in having not mentioned race or sexual preference in any way that is relevant to the subject." Grey Ghost

I bought a cheap set to loosen large rusty vehicle bolts, but have only used it on the heater elements of a neighbor's "lifetime" Sears water heater, and then only because of the large Proto socket we bought to fit them, IIRC Sears didn't have it that day.

The plugs on these elements are solid brass, to conduct heat for the thermostat out of the plastic tank. The elements cost over $50 and burn out as fast as cheap ones. I save the brass to make fittings for my solar energy projects.

Think of the socket set as planting a seed to grow your own front end loader some day. Around here they are status toys, along with an equipment trailer and a pickup that can tow 10,000 Lbs.

jsw

Hey! I'm VERY serious about my welder working for that 15 minutes/ month I need it!

Dave

You didn't discover axle grease, or never-sieze for the threads?

Many years ago, a farmer friend of mine had a farm wagon with rusted on lugs. He ended up take them to a guy with a cutting torch, who cut the lugs off and threaded for smaller lugs. The new lugs were so loosely threaded, they kept loosening. I can't remember if he went with threadlock, or tack welded them on.

I had a similar thing with the front hub of my 89 Chevrolet Blazer. Turns out the auto parts has a specific socket for that -- and in half inch drive.

Can't say as I've ever owned, or needed 3/4 drive. Not having owned a VW, or a bulldozer, or backhoe.

My breaker bar is from Horrid Fright, but I use it only once a year or so. I've found an application where it broke a bolt off, where impact wrench removed the nut (rear shocks on rusty pickup truck).

Sounds like you were the man with the proper tool. I've had that moment once in a while when a friend or neighbor is doing car repairs in the driveway. My next door neighbor had been trying to remove the 18 MM bolt to change his brake caliper, and had broken a couple box wrenches. Black socket, and breaker bar did the job.

Renting probably cheaper than buying, even at HF prices.