Customer Reviews

Fulton Corporation TW36WB 36-Inch Long Wrecker Pry Bar

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I had 18 Hardened Masonry Cut Nails 16D, which were holding a 2x4" framing onto my garage's concrete floor. The nail holes into the concrete were predrilled, then the nails were hammered to a depth of 3/4" to 1" into the concrete. The framing was the foundation for a 3/4" plywood, emergency, hurricane garage enclosure (I live in Florida), that went through three hurricanes in 2004. Now I had to remove it, and wanted to save the framing intact. HOWEVER, I HAD NOT BEEN ABLE TO EXTRACT THE HARDENED CUT NAILS.

I used a Stanley 36" FatMax Wrecking Bar on one nail, and the first nail chewed up the edge of the claw, and the bar didn't even budge the nail. Apparently, the FatMax is not hardened/forged/alloy to handle hardened masonry cut nails. I had hammers that had also dented. However, I had a 30 year old all steel Estwing hammer that did not dent, so, I thought I had hope for a nail puller that would not break.

I wrote to Estwing, asking them for a recommendation for a bar of their manufacture that could do the job, and they replied as follows:
"Estwing has nothing that would give different results in terms of hardness to remove your cement nails. The Rockwell hardness readings on the cement nails are greater than anything we have to deal with them. We would think you need to cut the nails out with a carbide saw, etc. or approach the problem from a different way. I am sorry we could not be more help to you."

I contacted Fulton Corporation, the manufacturer of Fulton TW36WB 36" Long Wrecker Pry Bar, with the same question, and they responded more positively, as follows:
"I don't know what will happen, for certain, if you try to pull out your nails with our Wrecker Bar. I will tell you this, however. The only claim we have ever denied was in the case of a user who admitted the bar broke when he put a 10" long "persuader pipe" on the end of it and tried to move an extremely heavy object. If you buy one of our 48" Wrecker bars and use it for your nails, without additional "persuasion" attachments and you are unhappy with its condition when you are done (i.e. the nail claw chips), take it back to your dealer and have him replace it for you."

That said, I bought the TW36WB 36" Long Wrecker Pry Bar (because I had restricted room to work, and the 48" might be too long).

THE RESULTS:
I received the TW36WB today from Amazon.com, and I put it into action immediately, the results:

The nail claw, on the greater angled side of rocker head, pulled out the cut nails with some effort, however, much less effort than the less angled side (Fuller's ad says "Rocker head for more power" and great leverage". I say, that's true!). I have to say that all things considered, it worked great on the more angled side (more leveraged side), however, I was only able to reach five of the 18 nails that I needed to extract with that more leveraged side. Of the remaining 13 nails, which I had to pull out with the less angled side, about nine came out with some more effort. The other four, were HELL to pull out, mainly because by then the claw had bent some at the point of contact with the nails. It became difficult to get a good hold onto the cut nails from there on (for the last four nails), since cut nails barely have much of a head to grab anyway. There wasn't much room to hammer the cut nails back and forth to help lessen their hold, however, that's what I had to do to be able to finish the job with the wrecker bar, since there was not as good claw left by then.

BOTTOM LINE: It did the job, but the claws were damaged in the process. The claws won't work anymore for the job I used them (cut nails with little head), however, the claws will work fine with common wire nails. I think that the damage to the wrecker bar claws would have been negligible, had I had more room to use only the more leveraged side.

A TOUGH JOB! I don't think there's another bar that could have done the job as well as Fulton TW36WB 36" Long Wrecker Pry Bar, mainly because of the greater leverage of the rocker head, the dual claws, the alloy and girth of the steel, and it's Made in the USA (I don't buy products made in China). The bar saved me from a lot of labor!

ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS:
The hardened cut nails were only embedded a little under one inch, amazing the hold they have! Hardened nails are harder than the claws (and they'll make the forged steel of the claws look like soft metal. The Fulton TW36WB claws tackled the job about as well as it's going to get.), so, DON'T USE HARDENED CUT NAILS IF YOU INTEND TO EXTRACT THEM!!!!!!

It is hard to justify a $40 pry bar, but Fulton made it easy for me. These bars offer the most comfortable hand positioning, and are the strongest on the market. These bars will handle all the abuse you can throw at them with a smile. There is no better way to remove subfloor either. Just ram the business end under the floor as far as you can push it, and pop whatever fasteners are holding it down. It's still hard work, but these bars will greatly improve the chore.
They also offer incredible leverage when necessary. If you can get the forks of this bar between two objects, you OWN them. Great for construction as well. Lifting the edge of your already sheeted wall, or convincing the gable truss to move where you told it to. They are awesome!

This bar is the only bar you will ever need. I have used this bar for over 10 years, it has the strength of ten men. Once you own one you will wonder how you ever worked without one. I also own the 48" version.

Been using this style of bar for years,and have them in all sizes. Crew cannot live without them for demo, stonework and timber framing. Have thrown out all of the old fashioned crow bars and only use these.

Not quite as good as the original which was stolen but, with a little grinding, is almost identical!! Works great for remodeling old houses!