What happened to Snap-On Trucks?

[2strokeNorthstar]

I'm not sure if this varies by franchisee or not, but I've heard some formerly loyal Snap-on users say they stopped buying because the warranty got worse, so the element of service (truck showing up and swapping your broken tool for a new one without issue) that they expected was taken away and the price no longer made sense just for the tools alone.

I'll echo what others have said. Cheaper alternatives like the HF Icon line, Tekton, Gearwrench, Sunex, etc have taken a huge bite out of Snap-on and MAC for offering competitive enough alternatives for half the price. And that's just for hand tools. With the toolbox market, is anybody paying $10,000+ for a Macsimizer anymore? There are more large toolbox options than ever before, and many of them are very nice and for a fraction of the price of a tool truck box. I can't imagine Snap-on/MAC/Matco sell nearly as many boxes today as they did 15 years ago.

The government is doing their part. Snap On gives a nice discount but I ordered 4 nice big SO boxes at work for the fleet mechanics. $30k+ IIRC. I was jealous.

 

[853okg]

I can't speak for him but I have both the slip joint and the plain needle nose and both are much better than anything else I've had. One thing I see commonly about the SO pliers that it seems most miss, the teeth last much longer than cheaper brands, at least in my experience.

Knipex. Worth a look.

 

[MattPersman]

Knipex. Worth a look.

They are good but snap on has a much larger offering and they are all very good and USA made

 

[The Critic]

Knipex. Worth a look.

Knipex is pretty good for most items, but their needle nose pliers are not tailored to the needs of Neanderthal North American mechanics.

 

[Chris142]

My hand tools are mostly snap on with the exception of my long metric wrenches. Those are Matco.

I bought my stuff years ago when they were priced high but not absolutely crazy priced like they are today. I also bought mine on sale. Buy the metric set at the regular price and get the sae set free kind of deals they used to have .

One thing Is that the imported impact sockets from HF,A-Zone etc are just as good as the truck brands for 1/10 the price.

My snap on box was also on sale because it got scratched on the truck.

 

[JWC86]

Knipex. Worth a look.

I have lots of Knipex, their needle nose aren’t even in the same league as Snap-On.

IMO knipex has some items they do really well(cobra, pliers wrench, twin grips, mini bolt cutters) and the rest aren’t much better than channel lock(sometimes worse). That’s just my experience.

 

[Dave Hess]

Based off data https://fred.stlouisfed.org/release/tables?eid=259515&rid=249 most of the experienced dealer techs in my area are making more than that median household income by themselves.

It’s a brutal unappreciative career. Yes. Lots of trades are. But support the trades. Support blue collar. These people keep stuff going

Yep, blue collar trades keep the country running.