Recommend me a good tool kit / socket set for a D1 300Tdi

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Originally Posted by Young Angus

Can someone recommend me a good tool kit or socket set to have with me on the road and also for working on her at home. Just a good range of sizes I guess and brands, different tools, etc.

All I've got is a nice little modest socket Sidchrome set which is okay but there is nothing big in there and I don't really have any spanners either. Basically I want to make a good tool kit which will be great for most things, a start of a tool kit anyway, then I'll just build from there.

What do you guys mostly use?

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Angus
Depends where you go and who with. Here is my basic travelling on my own in isolated areas kit:
- Canvas tool bag - RTM $14.50 (less rattle in canvas)
- 1/4 drive socket set -Stanley brand
- 1/3 drive socket set -Stanley brand
- 1/2 sockets various with a breaker bar - I take various ones from my 1/2 Stanley set
- set of metric open/ring spanners, every size. I carry a Total Tools ratchet set (lifetime warranty)
- screwdriver set
- vice grips (only vice grip brand)
- multi grips standard and large ( Bunnings sell a good quality blue handle pair made in the USA)
- screwdriver set
- pliers, standard, long nose and diagonal cutting ( good quality especially the cutters.
- hack saw plus blades 18 and 24 tooth. A demountable one is best, easier to pack
- mini hack saw
- 4lb lump hammer plus a 2 lb ball pein hammer and/or claw hammer
- tapered drift punch about 12mm at the bottom
- small cold chisel
- two tyre levers.
- set of driver bits. Jaycar sell a comprehensive set in a red case for about $26. You’ll need a driver handle for these. I purchased another small kit with a small ratchet handle, which I use a lot.
- multi meter
- bush bead breaker. (A short piece of 4X2 hardwood you can place near the bead on its edge, put a log up on it then run up up the log with a car
- panel saw. About $8 from Bunnings. Won’t fit in bag though
I take a fair bit of other stuff too, eg Matgas, small gas soldering iron, various other spanners
Have fun in the bush
Regards
Ron

Depending on where you are, Kinchrome in Caribbean Gardens Victoria has a nice little factory outlet at the side entrance of their factory/warehouse and you can get full sets missing a couple of items or damaged etc etc for very reasonable discounts. Also if you go there and are not in a hurry to purchase keep going back for a look over a couple weeks to a month or 2 and you will be surprised on what bargains you may pick up. I would say 50% at least.

Damned Kingchrome!
Never really had a problem with them .. until they were needed to fix a stoopid toyota!
My 3/8 ratchet just committed suicide! :bat:

.. and as an aside, I won't curse Landrover designers as much as I used too either, having just tried to do the serpentine belt on a my sisters '04 Rav4!
What a shambles!
Tensioner had obvious signs of having pooped itself too, and the ratchet broke trying to remove it.

I'm going to pull it apart to see if it's salvageable in any way.

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Originally Posted by AK83

Damned Kingchrome!
Never really had a problem with them .. until they were needed to fix a stoopid toyota!
My 3/8 ratchet just committed suicide! :bat:

.. and as an aside, I won't curse Landrover designers as much as I used too either, having just tried to do the serpentine belt on a my sisters '04 Rav4!
What a shambles!
Tensioner had obvious signs of having pooped itself too, and the ratchet broke trying to remove it.

I'm going to pull it apart to see if it's salvageable in any way.

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Ratchets aren't designed to undo tight nuts, that's what breaker bars are for.

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Originally Posted by oldbloke

Ratchets aren't designed to undo tight nuts, that's what breaker bars are for.

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Spot On [thumbsupbig]
A bad workman Always blames his tools [bigwhistle]

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Originally Posted by oldbloke

Ratchets aren't designed to undo tight nuts, that's what breaker bars are for.

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LOL!

only the one bolt was excruciatingly tight on the Rav's tensioner, and that was a 150mm long monster.
The ratchet broke on the easier to undo but still tight, but not impossible, shorter bolt and nut.
They were only 14mm head sizes too, so you wouldn't have expected them to be so tight as to require a breaker. In the end the really tight long bolt was removed with a ring spanner with another looped over the open end as an extension tho.

The other issue is getting a breaker bar or a non ratcheting handle in there too, just not enough swing room in there .. and hence my comment re the mad design on the thing, even by Rover standards.

But I did find that at least Kingchrome have a repair/maintenance kit available for the ratchet, being the Kingchrome K2957 .. so I retract my earlier disappointed comments.
They do have a good selection of repair kits for most of their handles

The rest of the tool kit is nice quality, and I have used it quite heavily on the D1, in fact it's my go to set of tools for most jobs, and I only get something else if I don't feel it's the right one for the job.

now I just have to locate the spare kit(K2957RK), or maybe go for a drive out to Scoresby.

Anyhow, I think it highlights another reason to get good quality, and/or well known branded tools too, and Kingchrome is now back in the nice list again this coming Christmas.
I pulled the ratchet apart and a small corner of the selector rocker inside the mechanism snapped. The design in itself is a flaw, as there is a hole with a spring loaded pin that holds the internals tight that allow the action it produces.
The hold and pin are too close to one edge, so excessive force won't be evenly distributed across the entire selector rocker thingie .. hence why a small corner snapped off this cast selector mechanism.
I put it back toghether again with the pin located fine, and while it's working, it's dodgy in terms of applicable torque. All that happened was the pin wedged between moving parts and jammed up the internals. The ratchet simply became a breaker bar :D

ps. being a breaker bar AND a ratchet don't necessarily have to be mutually exclusive items either, and as would be implied by Kinchrome themselves by having repair kits for breaker bars available as well, a breaker bar isn't immune to failure either!

Being a tradesman I was thinking about the statement "a poor tradesman aways blames his tools" but of course a good tradesman knows that you don't buy poor tools (I learnt long ago that if you do they come back and bite you in the bum so to speak)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Earlieron

Angus
Depends where you go and who with. Here is my basic travelling on my own in isolated areas kit:
- Canvas tool bag - RTM $14.50 (less rattle in canvas)
- 1/4 drive socket set -Stanley brand
- 1/3 drive socket set -Stanley brand
- 1/2 sockets various with a breaker bar - I take various ones from my 1/2 Stanley set
- set of metric open/ring spanners, every size. I carry a Total Tools ratchet set (lifetime warranty)
- screwdriver set
- vice grips (only vice grip brand)
- multi grips standard and large ( Bunnings sell a good quality blue handle pair made in the USA)
- screwdriver set
- pliers, standard, long nose and diagonal cutting ( good quality especially the cutters.
- hack saw plus blades 18 and 24 tooth. A demountable one is best, easier to pack
- mini hack saw
- 4lb lump hammer plus a 2 lb ball pein hammer and/or claw hammer
- tapered drift punch about 12mm at the bottom
- small cold chisel
- two tyre levers.
- set of driver bits. Jaycar sell a comprehensive set in a red case for about $26. You’ll need a driver handle for these. I purchased another small kit with a small ratchet handle, which I use a lot.
- multi meter
- bush bead breaker. (A short piece of 4X2 hardwood you can place near the bead on its edge, put a log up on it then run up up the log with a car
- panel saw. About $8 from Bunnings. Won’t fit in bag though
I take a fair bit of other stuff too, eg Matgas, small gas soldering iron, various other spanners
Have fun in the bush
Regards
Ron

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Thats a GOOD list .a very good list.

I would add

Tie wire
Rope
Cable ties- small,med, large and extra long - best get them from electrical wholesalers like TLE,Cetnaj, etc ....they are actually more usefull than you think, but **** cable ties are worse than useless


You would be surprised at how little space your tools will take if you stash them well

Don’t forget electrical. Crimps, stripper, some connections, some different wires, digital MM, jump leads, electrical tape etc. I forgot to mention before, i have three tool boxes. One is for electrical stuff. They all fit in my rear draw along with 4wd recovery kit, hose for compressor, winch controller, rope, first aid kit and a few other things. Fire extinguisher was in there but now it’s easier to get to.

Bahco make a set of 3 ratchet ring spanners, that cover 8 to 19mm metric for about $100.

These have been handy for most of the common stuff, as well as things like the steering box and banjo fittings.
If I leave home with nothing, I leave home with these.