I have mentioned Harbor Freight in a number of posts. That is not because I receive any sponsorship or compensation from Harbor Freight, it is just because I have some experience with the products involved and have found them to be useful and cost effective and thought my readers might too. They have lots of hand tools, power tools, garden tools, and other items that are useful to campers -- like tie downs, towing products, tarps, hardware, and even wheels and tires that fit some small tent trailers. I became really familiar with their products when my wife worked as a rebuyer for their purchasing department.
You can find lots of Youtube videos about Harbor Freight tools. They will include both positive and negative opinions. Be sure to consider the background, qualifications, and bias of the reviewer together with both their intended use of the tools and your intended use. You may need professional quality tools if you use them regularly on your job but less expensive options may be adequate for home or DIY use.
I have found Harbor Freight to be an excellent source for many tools for my RVs, OHVs, boats, and camping as well as for my mechanics and home maintenance tools. You will sometimes see negative comments about the quality of tools from Harbor Freight. While it is almost certain that high end name brands like SnapOn, Husky, and Craftsman will most likely last longer in professional use, I have pretty much found Harbor Freight tools to be more than adequate for my do it yourself projects. The lower cost also allows me to purchase specialty tools that make jobs easier and sometimes allow me to do tasks that I could not otherwise do at all. It also lets me afford duplicates to create convenient specialized tool kits for my motorcycle trailer, camp kit, RV, and boat. Harbor Freight also offers a lifetime guarantee on just about all their hand tools. In more than twenty years of buying and using their tools I have only had to utilize the guarantee a couple of times and both times they were very quick and friendly about replacing the damaged items, no questions asked.
Harbor Freight offers about the biggest selection of tarps I have seen anywhere. They include light weight blue "poly" tarps, green farm tarps, more heavy duty silver tarps, and even real canvas tarps. The selection and reasonable pricing always makes them my first stop when I need a tarp. The normal prices are usually pretty good but keep an eye out for coupons and sales for even better savings. Of course you an also find really light clear plastic painter's tarps too.
Another pretty complete category of useful items for RVers is the towing section. You will find hitches, couplers, ball mounts, towing balls, lights, hitch pins, tie downs, safety chains, towing straps, anti-sway bars, tongue jacks, just about everything you need for towing trailers and even hitch-mount racks for carrying additional cargo and mounting winches.
Harbor Freight offers a variety of jacks and jack stands that can be useful, ranging from small bottle jacks to 10-ton floor jacks and tall farm jacks like the ones often used off-road by 4x4 users.
Harbor Freight has a large selection of hand tools -- wrenches, pliers, screw drivers, sockets, ratchets, hammers, clamps, and pry bars. They also provide a lifetime warranty on almost all of their hand tools. I have had to use the warranty a couple of times. One time I twisted a socket completely off of a cross-bar lug wrench trying to remove a stuck lug not on a 3/4 ton off-road truck. Another time I twisted a T-handle allen wrench until the flat sides were twisted from tip to handle. I was impressed with the strength of the plastic handle! In both cases I was clearly exceeding the normal application but received replacements on the spot without any hassle.
The reviews of Harbor Freight power tools are mixed. If you look for Harbor Freight on Youtube you will get a variety of videos listing the "10 Best" or "10 worst" Harbor Freight items. Sometimes they may tell you what to buy or not to buy at Harbor Freight. Remember, all of these videos are personal opinions of the people who made the videos and they may or may not have their own bias and they may or may not have any real qualifications for evaluating the products. My own experience has been mostly positive. I have found things like cordless drills and even cordless impact wrenches to be well worth the modest price. Did they hold up as long as brand names like Dewalt? No, not usually. But the prices were significantly less and usually the performance was similar or at least adequate while they lasted for my DIY projects. In general I have found most DIY reviews were pretty positive while many of the negative reviews were from professionals who normally use expensive, high-end tools and use them a lot. An inexpensive cordless drill was a welcome addition to the tools in my enclosed motorcycle trailer.
Harbor Freight offers a wide assortment of portable generators, ranging from small "tailgater" units to large ones that provide enough power to run your whole house in an emergency. I have seen Youtube videos that both praise and criticize Harbor Freight generators. Generally the ones from Harbor Freight will be considerably less expensive than well know name brands and may still be a good value even if they don't meet the same performance or longevity of the higher priced brands. I have a 4500 watt unit I use frequently due to power outages in my rural area and in the two or three years I've had it, it has performed flawlessly. It cost way less than half a "brand name"generator of the same size.
Harbor Freight is offering a line of winches that is an extraordinary value. I have personally used a couple of their 2500 lb ATV winches and been very satisfied with them. I have been eyeing the 12,000 lb Badlands winch for my 4WD truck. At a regular retail price of $599 it is about 1/3 the cost of a similarly rated name brand winch and I have seen several very favorable reviews on Youtube from highly qualified professional users. I have even noticed that a couple of popular off-road recovery teams uses the 12,000 lb Badlands winch. I recently saw the 12,000 lb Badlands winch on sale for just $319! And they have a hitch-mount rack specifically designed for it for just $75. A similarly sized Warn brand winch typically retails for around $1800!
Harbor Freight has recently introduced some higher priced hand and power tools. These might be of particular interest to professionals or those whose budgets can accommodate the higher prices. Supposedly they will be closer in fit, finish, and quality to the high-end name brand tools but still less expensive. When purchasing hand tools, especially things like pliers and wrenches and sockets, I look at the fit and finish and prefer those with precise edges and a smooth, shiny finish. I have seen wrenches that looked like they had been cast in sand molds and avoid them! Most of the hand tools that have failed me in the past would not have passed my current fit and finish selection criteria. A lot of the wrenches and socket sets at Harbor Freight have a very nice fit and finish.
Harbor Freight often offers a variety of hardware you won't find any place else. I find their "storehouse" offerings particularly appealing. These are collections of small parts (nuts, bolts, fasteners, o-rings, nylon clamps, hitch pins, cotter keys, etc). They usually come with their own plastic storage bins to organize them for ease of use. A quick glance at my supply cabinet shows o-rings, hitch pins, cotter keys, metric nuts and bolts, SAE nuts and bolts, hose rings, hose clamps and cable clamps. Having an assortment of commonly used hardware on hand has saved many projects and many trips to town! They also usually have a good assortment of cable ties, ranging from tiny little ones handy for controlling phone charger cables to huge ones big enough to secure tents and sleeping bags. On a related note, I figured out a way to keep the little plastic tubs in my dirt bike trailer nut and bolt storehouse from sliding out when traveling: I cut some pieces of thin welding rod to match the height and width of the cabinet, then heated the ends and suck them into the plastic frames so they crossed in front of the drawers. It was a quick, cheap, and easy way to keep things from getting tossed all over the place towing the trailer to off-road locations.
Garden tools. There are a surprising number of garden tools that might be useful for campers as well as for home use. Axes, wedges, rakes, bow and pruning saws, and shovels are among the most appropriate camping choices as well as chain saws. Harbor Freight offers gasoline, electric, and cordless chain saws. Bow saws and folding pruning saws are especially well suited for camping. Folding saws are handy if you are hiking or backpacking. Bow saws are a little stronger, cut faster, and are easier to use if you have a place to carry them,
Harbor Freight also has a wide assortment of gloves: work gloves, garden gloves, welding gloves, mechanics gloves, latex gloves. I rely almost exclusively on work and latex gloves from Harbor Freight for my home improvement, yard, RV, boat and car maintenance projects. Their regular prices are usually very reasonable and they often have coupons that make them even more affordable. I have noticed a dramatic increase recently in the cost of latex and nitrile gloves, thanks to COVID-19!
I have found many uses for foam anti-fatigue mats which Harbor Freight has at a good price . Be sure to watch for coupons for even greater savings, sometimes as low as $4.99 for 4-6 mats! I have them in front of the workbench in my garage and in my motorcycle trailer. I have also used them for a comfortable, anti-skid deck around and under my inflatable spa. They can also be used to insulate the inside of boat cabins and are especially nice around the v-berth so you don't rub up against the cold fiberglass or metal hull in the middle of the night. In addition to insulating the hull, the pads also reduce condensation inside the boat.
Harbor Freight stocks a good supply of safety items, such as goggles and face masks. You will also find lot of other safety products, some you might not even have thought about before. It can be educational just looking through the safety section. I picked up some non-skid tape that has been useful on my RV, my motorcycle trailer, a utility trailer, and my sailboat as well as around the house.
Harbor Freight used to regularly offer coupons via print ads in many publications but has recently switched to online coupons. Their coupons often provide substantial savings on their already low prices. Use your favorite search engine to look for "Harbor Freight Coupons" to get the best prices on things you need. Sometimes I peruse the coupons and take advantage of them to get items I might not even have an immediate need for if they are at a good price if I think I might have a use for them someday. I like to be prepared. They usually have a 20% off any item coupon that is especially useful when buying higher priced items at regular price. Coupons are often a way to get customers into a store in hopes they will buy other things. That being said, I have never had any negative experience buying coupon-only items at Harbor Freight.
They also offer an ''Insider's Club'' that gives additional discounts on selected items from time to time. There is a modest annual fee to maintain your Club status but you usually recoup the cost quickly, especially if you purchase more expensive items where the Club savings on one purchase can often offset the annual fee.
Many Harbor Freight stores have side-walk sales from time to time. These an be an especially good time to get excellent bargains. Sometimes the inventory includes returned items offered at substantial savings. When we lived in southern California we were even close enough to take advantage of the large side-walk sale at their warehouse in Camarillo, California.
In summary, I generally find Harbor Freight tools and hardware to be a good value. As always, you should examine anything you are buying to make sure it meets your personal needs. I would look to their higher-end offerings or maybe even defer to brand names for ongoing professional use but do-it-your-selfers may be able to expand your tool inventory at reasonable prices from their standard lines, allowing you to add many tools that would be way outside your budget if you bought professional brands and they will more than likely hold up well in occasional homeowner use.
Tool up!
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