Customer Reviews

Gorilla Automotive Power Wrench Socket

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

So the Gorilla wrench telescopes to give you much more torque. It's like a traditional lug nut wrench that comes in the trunk of your car, only it has a cheater rod attached to the end of it. It really comes in handy if you get work done to your wheels or tires at a shop and they use those compressed air guns to tighten the living daylights out of your lug nuts. Then one day you're stuck on the side of the highway and can't crack those bolts off by hand. This product gives you a little extra power to avoid having to call for a tow when you have a spare in your trunk!

However, the sockets fit a little tight and I caught myself rounding off a couple of my lug nuts. You MUST make sure you get a good fit over the lug nuts as if you don't have it all the way on, you will cost yourself some money. Seat the socket over the nut and bang it in good and plenty with the wrench, then plug the wrench into the socket while it's on the wheel nut. Because you've got the extra power, it is ridiculously easy to round off a lug nut. I'd say this only doesn't deserve 5 stars because the sockets are too small and fit very tightly, AND because it doesn't come with a reasonable case. My car's lug nut wrench came in a little felt pocket that held up, this comes in one of those vinyl cases that rip apart at the seems. The velvet case that came with my car is too small for this and now it has no real case to keep the sockets and the wrench together in the trunk of my car.

In short, this product IS worth the money. But it calls for a different use than what your traditional lug wrench calls for. The one that came with your car fits your lugs perfectly! This one might take some finagling. Also, its keeping is difficult as it's case is practically non existent. Still, it increases your torquing if you had a shop tighten your lugs for you and therefore will save you a ton of misery at the side of the road.

The wrench came quickly after ordering and it is as described. It is a solid tool and normally, I'd give it a full 5-star review. BUT, READ THE DESCRIPTION carefully before you order. The description from Amazon/Gorilla is misleading. It says that it fits ALL. It kinda does, but the 21 & 23 mm sizes are actually NOT METRIC. They are, of course, close, but 13/16" and 7/8" are not 21 & 23 mm. If you have metric's with fancy chrome finish on your lugs, the advice that one previous reviewer gave that you have to be sure to hammer the socket on to assure a good fit is going to scar the fancy finish. It also makes removing the lugs from the socket VERY difficult. And, remember, you have to do this process many times in changing a tire.

If a gorilla is changing your tire and/or you HAVE to get on with your drive, then you may not be so choosy if your lugs get scarred. But if you have the time, go for a socket that is the correct size. Unfortunately, this means you might want to avoid this product. Just keep a length of pipe (junk pile or hardware store) in the trunk with your car's wrench to get the added torque.

I received my new lug wrench today and I am very impressed with its high quality. After trying to change a tire with the factory supplied lug wrench I knew I needed something better. And, believe me this is something better. I immediately took it out and rotated my tires. It made the job much easier and I am completely satisfied by the quality,the design and the price. This wrench is worth what I paid for it!

If you have ever struggled with an over-tightened lug nut on a wheel, this is the tool for you! Let those tire monkeys bring on their impact sockets, with the Gorilla Wrench, you can break the nuts easily. I liked it so much, I bought another one to put in my wife's CRV. Simple, solidly built, and very effective.

After decades of fighting with lug wrenches which have a poorly-fitting socket that ruins the lug nuts, insufficient leverage or are made of such cheap metal that I can bend the arms of a 4-way wrench with my bare hands I discovered the Gorilla Bar quite by accident and I'll never use the OEM or 4-way wrenches again.

For me, one of the biggest advantages of the Gorilla Bar is that the drive handle uses a standard 1/2" socket drive. This means that you can use the exact, correct socket for your particular car without worrying about damaging your lug nuts or the wrench. I found that my Ford truck's lug nuts work best with a deep, 22mm socket which was not supplied with the Gorilla kit so I simply purchased a single socket from the hardware store and added the sockets supplied by Gorilla to my general tools as they won't be needed for the car. Getting the unneeded sockets out of the tire kit will hopefully reduce any confusion when changing a wheel by the side of the road on a dark night in the rain or snow. At times like that, you want simplicity and ease to get the job done fast. ;-)

Even if you rotate your tires regularly and rarely or never run into 'frozen' lug nuts that require huge amounts of strength and leverage to loosen, having a "secret weapon" tool like this in your trunk will give you peace of mind that if you're ever stranded with a flat tire and perhaps not feeling your best you can still deliver an overwhelming amount of leverage against a stuck lug nut and perhaps save yourself from a difficult, unsafe or dangerous situation that might not be possible to deal with without this tool. Having the Gorilla bar will help you to be confidently self-sufficient in matters of changing your tires and getting to where you need to go. The price of this tool seems, to me, a small one indeed when compared with a scenario of being stranded in an unsafe area in dangerous weather with a flat tire. If such a situation were to arise, I know I'll be very happy to have the Gorilla Bar with me. The rest of the time, I'll simply appreciate having a good tool that fits correctly and saves me from having to work harder than I need to. :-)

I used this wrench to remove the wheels on my boat trailer. It is very solidly built. One thing I particularly liked was after I broke the lug nut free I could then retract the handle so it could spin the nut off without interference from the ground as I turned it 360 degrees. There are four sizes of sockets, two each back-to-back in one single socket. I'm able to keep this in my SUV and remove the original equipment lug wrench from the car. That way I have one wrench taking up space and adding weight to the car but it fits both the SUV and the boat trailer. At full extension it provides a lot of leverage for tight lug nuts, and it still feels solid. I expect this to last for a very long time. I highly recommend this wrench.

Excellent ordering process and quick delivery. Item was as described and functioned well. Didn't seem to be designed to handle extreme pressure on wheels with extra tight lugs. Needed a standard wrench on those real troublesome lugs. Once loosened then this item did well finishing the job.

This tool is priced very well and is a very nice package over-all. Coming with 4 different popular lug-nut socket sizes, so far I've been able to work on any car I've needed to with this. The extendable breaker bar is very strong and sure makes removing lug nuts much easier. The sockets themselves seem very strong and haven't shown any signs of wear. I've used this many times since buying it for a variety of purposes and it has easily paid for itself. I highly recommend it for the Do-It-Yourself people and anyone who is on too tight of a budget for the 'high end' tools.

I only removed 1 star due to the 'bag' or 'case' that it comes with is pretty flimsy. Coming with a solid plastic case with sections for the sockets would be much better than just a pouch with a snap on it.

Easier than a 4 way to loosen lug nuts.. Works with custom wheels that require a thin wall socket. Have one I purchased locally several years ago, extreamlly satisfied, needed one for another car with custom wheels, could not find locally.. with amazon free shipping I orderd 2. recived in a couple of days.

Last Spring, when I replaced my winter tires with my regular ones, I over-tightened them, using the wrench that came with the car (~12" long). A month ago, when I tried to install the winter tires again, I found that some lugs would not come off. I tried standing on the wrench, or even bouncing a little bit, for extra torque (this method had never failed me before), but the only thing I got is a bent wrench. I tried putting some lubricant around the lug, but it didn't go inside. I tried using a power wrench, thinking that the impacts would loosen any rust that might be responsible for the problem. No way.
I considered several options for a new wrench (I had to buy a new one for my car, anyway), and the Gorilla 1721 offered both a long handle (21", extended) for extra torque and a small size (since the handle is telescopic) to be able to place it inside the spare tire in the trunk. I wasn't very sure the wrench wouldn't bend, as the other did, with the extra torque.
However, when I tried it on the stuck lugs, despite the fact that I had to stand on the handle for more torque (about 335 lbs. per foot), the Gorilla wrench didn't bend, and the lugs finally came off.
So, I'm very, very pleased with this wrench, which saved me a lot of $$$, avoiding me a trip to the garage.

PS: This time I made sure I didn't tighten the lugs too much :-)