3rd gen Specific Tool kit.

The price is definitely up there, but it seems justified with the quality of tools in there. My personal situation can't see that spending for a kit that lives in the car, but if you can and are on the fence, I'd say go for it.

+1 on Wright. I have a set of their metric wrenches for my cars and I've been really happy with them.

They also OEM for a lot of "Made in USA" hand tools.

 

So the Origin story starts with trying to find something like this for my Wifes GX that she bought about 18 months ago and finding nothing. Then digging into my own kit that I had just shoved a bunch of odds and ends into and called it good. Once we did the research and testing we realized that what I had carried for years was woefully inadequate 90% of the stuff would be useless. I got lucky in that time period I never had to do anything where I wasn't able to throw it on a lift and use my "real" tools.

I bought several bags, broke 2 of them on 1 trip down to the Grand Canyon, wore a hole and shattered a zipper slider on one and blew a seam on the other. These were name brand bags too...Ace and a work line brand that's escaping me. Additionally I didn't like the organization of the existing options on the market, we started working on a design to address those concerns and give us a solution to put tools of all kinds in, and this is the child of that. The "heavy kit" above weights 22 lbs and still fits in behind the rear seats, doesnt rattle at all. And due to the double lining, tight wrapping and some other really nice matierial choices we haven't damaged a single bag yet we beat the crap out of them.

 

To my knowledge Wright does not OE, could be wrong and would love to know the secrets if you have em. We don't see this as just a contingency item, I don't even bother running to my box anymore I just pull this kit out and get done what I need to, I should say for most things, some stuff there just isn't a way to justfiy having it in the kit, mostly for space reasons, like impacts and a cordless impact gun.

 

Off the top of my head, they produce Rigid's made in USA pipe wrenches. IIRC they also OEM some tools for MAC, but I can't remember which ones.

 

Seems like an little known and underrated profession, we have done a couple of basic kits for bush pilot friends, we have some very trick lightweight tools in our lines. Aluminum handle rachets, wrenches that are thinned for weight savings, titanium sockets (we haven't used them yet).

 

Interesting they do carry other lines for us as well I wonder if they don't just carry it (rigid), with Mac and Matco it wouldn't surprise me at all if they are an OE for sockets or something, the stuff is nicer than a lot of the Snap On finish wise that I see these days.

 

Definitely understand the liability angle.

Any more specific detail on retrofit? I get the "replace OEM jack with a real jack" angle but the brackets in my two RC's are very specific to the Toyota jack and space is quite tight. I do see some nice extensions listed so I'm thinking that perhaps there is some way to swap the OEM ram with a safejack compatible one which would then safely take extensions? That would be appealing to me.

 

Yeah it can be very underrated for sure. Also very high demand for licensed mechanics in the commercial world right now. It use to be 5-10 years experience to get hired at a major airline and now it’s pretty much right out of school. Just a shortage of people that are willing to turn wrenches and be on nights and weekends.

 

Yeah Mac basically produces nothing in house and Matco isn't too far behind. With Craftsman truly dying this time there's a market that wants quality USA-made tools.


Speaking of, I really like the roll design and layout. Do you sell them separately? I don't see an option on your site for it, but I'm on mobile right now and just might be missing it.

 

So we quoted out a Tiawan kit through one of our tool lines, got the tools, and were just unimpressed with the quality. I understand where you are coming from. We have a product out now that's at 350ish that you could easily add the basic hand tools you would like with the sockets rachet and wrenches extensions and screwdrivers that are awesome, kind of a best of both worlds deal. We also have another product in dev that will be a kind of a convenience or console kit, for airing down, swapping a battery, stripping and cutting wires, grapping hose clamps, taking interior pieces apart. That should land somewhere depending on tools in the sub 300 category.

 

Yes we do, just like the tools, its US made, with US materials here in Montana, we sew it ourselves:

Here is the link:

https://steadfast-systems.com/steadfastsupplyco

I felt the same way, you either deal with Big Red (Snap on/Williams) or you have to go over seas and at least on the wrench front no body outside of the US build a wrench like we do, Sockets and Ratchets are a little different.

We also run the trusty cook line who makes literally everyone's deadblows and deadblow ballpeins. Joel Trusty is one of the most cool people I have ever met, family held and run still.

 

Yea I can imagine the quality would be subpar. I’ll keep an eye out for the upcoming tool kit!

 

I'll have to look but I believe I saw a fella on either expedition portal or I8mud building a saddle and base to make the OE jacks safer. I will look when I get a chance.

 

One thing that we try to do is explain the value of the bundling, I think people would gasp at the amount of 30 dollar last minute tool purchases they've made and paid way more for a crappy tool because it was present.

 

https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/land-cruiser-safe-jack-adapter-a-must-have.937460/

I would venture a guess that he might be able to build what you are after. I also believe one of the knock off Max trax boards doubles as a jacking platform...

https://safejacks.com/products/universal-bottle-jack-stabilizer this might be close to what you are after for a platform

 

I read the other day that its 7 people retiring out of the trades for every one coming in. Try to find a kid coming out of any program or school as a proper machinist. Lots of CNC techs, but someone who can yield a manual machine is pretty rare.

 

Ohh nice, from a glance I thought those were replacement pieces.

I've had decent luck with the Tekton stuff I've bought recently. It's just a rebrand that Michigan Industrial Tools underwent a few years back, but to their credit their tool quality increased substantially within a few years of the rebrand.

Haven't heard of Trusty Cook before, but I'll check them out. I've just bought Estwing hammers forever.
If you want a really nice prybar source, check out Wilde Tool. Also Gedore vice grips are great, but if you want a Made in USA alternative check out Snap-On's OEM Malco and the Eagle Grip locking plier.

 

Unfortually the Malco/Eagle grip plant was just liquidated like a month ago. And is slated to close in October I believe. Gedore's and Knipex lockers are as good as my Malco's. Its a sad deal with Malco, I hope they can get the company reformed and beat the current situation.

Trusty at one point OEM'd for Estwing deadblows. If you find something on the TC site that suits your fancy let me know, If i have it in stock I can surly beat TCs online prices.

I have no Beef with Tekton, they are trying really hard to bring stuff back to the states too. They seem to run pretty tight QC, however, they also tend to be an outlier, and being D2C leave no room for people like us. People got used to HFs tools, and haven't been exposed to the rest of the world of tools.

 

Well damn that news is a disappointing way to start my day. My Eagle Grips are a couple years old and still look brand new, they're a great product. Guess I'm spending a few bucks today to stock up.

Appreciate the offer on deadblows! I'll let you know.

 

Yeah I think it’s anything that requires manual labor. More people want tech jobs these days so the manual labor job force is hurting. I guess for those of us in it, we are in higher demand so hopefully that means more money which will perhaps attract more younger talent to the hiring pool!