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Husky vs US General tool chest?

Dubbington

Dubbington

Slamdunk Champion
Joined
Jul 15, 2007
Location
East Yay
Moto(s)
EX Street Triple ;(
Name
Dubs
I’m looking to upgrade To a larger top/bottom combo tool chest.

Any experience with Husky vs US General (harbor freight)? I have a 15% of Home Depot that should work. I like the depth of Husky (my sockets can fit standing tall).

Also, the top of Husky is helpful for me being 5’6. I can keep power tools at the ready. The US General is thicker steel but I’m not in an commercial setting where I’d likely notice that.

Pic of Husky here.

 
I got a similar size from Costco that I’m happy with. Based on looking at ones in HF and HD iid say it is higher quality
 
US General tool box is pretty nice and i would but it again,

but i made a mistake in also buying their 6 drawer cart/tool box. The drawer locks are a pain and are placed wrong on the cart....pain to put together as well...

Bottom line, i would only buy their tool box.... both, top and bottom are nice.
 
somesuch said:
US General tool box is pretty nice and i would but it again,

but i made a mistake in also buying their 6 drawer cart/tool box. The drawer locks are a pain and are placed wrong on the cart....pain to put together as well...

Bottom line, i would only buy their tool box.... both, top and bottom are nice.
Click to expand...

Seem a lot of positive reviews for the US General line. After checking it out, I wasn't blown away.

I just got back from HD and there are 3 lines of the 50" combo. There is a regular shiny, a heavy duty, and then an industrial which is this one below.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-Industrial-52-in-W-x-21-5-in-D-15-Drawer-Tool-Chest-and-Rolling-Cabinet-Combo-with-LED-Light-in-Matte-Black-H52CH6TR9HDV3/309210140

18ga steel. Seems to be perfect box for me and for my height. The price of the 56" US General upper and lower is over $1k and the top would be hard to access. Changing the casters would be silly.

The 44" combo would work but sadly they dont sell side locker that could attach to the side and provide shelving etc.
 
I got a us general 56" open box for about 500. It's great. Don't think I'd pay more than that though. Do you need storage or a work surface? Mine is my bench as well. Only annoyance is the locking latch is only on the right side, so you need to reach the right side on order to open the drawers. They're robust and slide nicely. However, for a residential garage, between the husky and us, I'd get whichever is cheaper I think.
 
tossup imo

read the HF coupon super close, it's rare that toolboxes are included. either the "brand" is excluded by name or they say something like "excludeds toolboxes and tool carts and rolling cabinets" or somesuch
 
Helpful (mandatory) measurement for you: the top long drawer is 4.5" deep. This is the minimum to store all my sockets, including 1/2" drive deeps, upright on their organizer.
 
I have a really old US general tool box it has stood the test of time but it now just starting to show some paint peeling away and rust but considering that it has been over ten years in the garage with non-stop humidity I think it has done pretty good. It also handles my heavy air tools with no issue and it still slides in and out like new with no sag. When I get my new workshop built I am definitely going to look at getting a new one for in there.
 
There's nothing wrong with a USGeneral toolbox for home use. Husky quality is just a little bit better.
 
About 10-12 years ago, I bought a new tool box at Lowes and it has held up very well. It is very similar to this one and I also have the bottom chest to go with it:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-300...s-Steel-Tool-Chest-Stainless-Steel/1000380363

I have looked at the US General line at HF and they look ok. I also have an older US General lower chest that is a lot lighter weight construction than my Kobalt boxes.
 
Funny - I'm hunting a new box too and have been checking them out.

Husky stuff at HD actually seemed pretty cheap to me. Felt like the Yukon / General HF stuff was better quality. I've had a rolling 4 drawer tool cart from HF for a while and it has actually been pretty amazing for the price. (Think I paid $130-140 three or four years ago?)

I checked out the Craftsman stuff at Lowes and was unfortunately not impressed. Sad because it's at least partly 'Made in USA', though that gets really grey these days... Can basically ship in a whole box, slap on a sticker, and call it 'Assembled' in the USA.

I'm really just looking for a single rolling cart to supplement my existing cart. Don't have THAT many tools and have a lot of other storage options available already for saws / power tools etc.

I've heard hit or miss things with carts & cabinets from Costco. Apparently if they show up damaged, it's a total PITA to get that replaced.

Keep us posted.
 
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I have a US General, now about 15 years old.
No complaints, been moved multiple times and held up well.
All slides work just fine, just not as precise as something like a Beta or Snap-On, better than Craftsman that my Father in law has.
DT
 
After spending nearly 40 years wrenching in dealerships I finally brought my Snap-on roller cabinet and top chest home. It sure does look cool in my garage but it's admittedly total fucken overkill for my current needs now. None the less, it's in it's final resting spot....for at least as long as I'm around.
If I was starting from scratch I would take a long, hard look at some of the Kobalt options at Lowe's. I concede I'm fond of the color blue but that's not the only reason I'm attracted to those boxes.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-41-in-Blue-BLK-Combo-Chest/1001465140
 
I had some time to kill today so I went over to harbor freight and looked at their higher end tool chests. I think they call them icon but I'm not positive of that.

I was pretty impressed with the build quality. And their pricing is considerably higher than their standard US general brand but the quality and capacity and capabilities are much better as well. I'm not sure they have icon chests in the size that I would buy because I don't want anything bigger than about a 42 or 44-in long chest and roll around bottom box. It seemed like all the icon boxes were a lot bigger than that.
 
I recently combined two smaller Craftsman rollers into this:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-6...binet-Set-in-Gloss-Black-H61CH6TR12/304016203

It's ok, steel seems a little thin but essentially exactly the same build quality as the small HF rolling 4 drawer I take to the track. I've beat the stuffing out of that too so maybe i'ts my perception. I opted for the residential quality and bought the matching 48 inch mobile workbench for the same price as the heavy duty. I looked at that in the store and didn't feel the price warranted the upgrade.
 
TBH I was pretty impressed with the harbor freight icon boxes when I checked them out at the store.
 
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