Red Dog Tools Question...

[Gabby]

Has anyone gotten the Red Dog Tools kit for the Bronco? I see they use Gearwrench and Steelman Pro, and I'm not terribly familiar with either brand, but they don't list the actual tools in the kit. Are the quality of the tools? Is the kit a one-and-done or do I need to pack additional tools?

Right now I'm sharing my Triumph Tiger's mobile tool kit from Adventure Designs, and it works for 75% of my needs.

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[PWillette]

Not familiar with Red Dog but I do have some Gearwrench tools...pretty good quality stuff.

Not sure what you carry in your kit but Tricky Motorsports has a kit specifically set up for replacing the tie-rods on the trail.

 

[Gabby]

Not familiar with Red Dog but I do have some Gearwrench tools...pretty good quality stuff.

Not sure what you carry in your kit but Tricky Motorsports has a kit specifically set up for replacing the tie-rods on the trail.

Thanks for the info on Gearwrench! I used to be a Craftsman girl but w/o the old warranty

I'm really looking for something to do regular maintenance and lite modding.

I'm familiar with his kit, and as yet I haven't done any overlanding or placed my tierods in more danger than a Costco parking lot or Milwaukee roads.

 

[PWillette]

Thanks for the info on Gearwrench! I used to be a Craftsman girl but w/o the old warranty

I'm really looking for something to do regular maintenance and lite modding.

I'm familiar with his kit, and as yet I haven't done any overlanding or placed my tierods in more danger than a Costco parking lot or Milwaukee roads.

Used to be a Craftsmen guy myself, couldn't beat the free replacement! The Gearwrench stuff is probably a little bit better quality and I do believe lifetime warranty.

For regular maintenance and modding a good selection of metric wrenchs and sockets say 10mm thru 18mm will get a lot done.

 

[RagnarKon]

I was looking at Red Dog Tools myself but the fact they don't actually list the tools they put in the kit is a big turnoff honestly. From what I can tell, the company is just a couple of guys in Utah doing their thing, so I'm not surprised the info on the website is sparse, but I'll admit it the lack of info has prevented me from buying it.

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Gearwrench itself is some of the better tools on the market these days. Obviously not Snap-On quality, but for the average DIY user they're fantastic.

If you are looking just for a general purpose mechanics toolset that you can use both at home and on the trail, I'd take a look at the Gearwrench 243 piece 12-point Toolset (Part No. 80972). If you combine that kit with a Torx Plus bit set, and some screwdrivers/pliers, you'll be able to do 95% of the maintenance on the Bronco.

The only two jobs that comes to mind that you won't be able to do is wheel bearings and the oil filter housing on the 2.7L EcoBoost. The wheel bearing nut is 36mm if I remember correctly, and the oil filter housing is 27mm. The kit only goes up to 24mm. But for the select few sizes above 24mm, you can just buy single sockets (like this 27mm) and/or a crecent wrench.

 

[Gabby]

I was looking at Red Dog Tools myself but the fact they don't actually list the tools they put in the kit is a big turnoff honestly. From what I can tell, the company is just a couple of guys in Utah doing their thing, so I'm not surprised the info on the website is sparse, but I'll admit it the lack of info has prevented me from buying it.

---

Gearwrench itself is some of the better tools on the market these days. Obviously not Snap-On quality, but for the average DIY user they're fantastic.

If you are looking just for a general purpose mechanics toolset that you can use both at home and on the trail, I'd take a look at the Gearwrench 243 piece 12-point Toolset (Part No. 80972). If you combine that kit with a Torx Plus bit set, and some screwdrivers/pliers, you'll be able to do 95% of the maintenance on the Bronco.

The only two jobs that comes to mind that you won't be able to do is wheel bearings and the oil filter housing on the 2.7L EcoBoost. The wheel bearing nut is 36mm if I remember correctly, and the oil filter housing is 27mm. The kit only goes up to 24mm. But for the select few sizes above 24mm, you can just buy single sockets (like this 27mm) and/or a crecent wrench.

Yeah the lack of BOM is annoying. Overland Outfitters has a kit for the Toyotas made of Tekron tools that runs a ~1k. The tools themselves are ~800 from Tekron and the roll separately is ~200, so they're pretty on the nose.

I'm just looking for a Bronco-specific toolset. I already have my mechanics box and I'll admit I was spoiled with that one, it has prewar and WWII era Proto & SnapOn that were my Dad's "cast off" tools.

So I may just order one of the Toyota ones and sub in what extra I need.

https://overlandoutfitters.shop/products/toyota-off-road-tool-kit?_pos=5&_sid=4cde5a234&_ss=r

 

[RagnarKon]

I'm just looking for a Bronco-specific toolset.

Gotcha. That's exactly why I was looking at Red Dog Tools, wanted a Bronco specific tool set.

Most of the kits I found had SAE sizes, but the Bronco is entirely metric, so didn't make sense to buy SAE sizes. The toolkits I did find that were metric were extremely expensive for what you got, and ultimately I'd have to spend another $100 or so on top of it to get the Bronco-specific stuff. So.... meh, wasn't crazy about it.

I've given up on finding a kit, and just decided to just build my own kit out of largely Tekton tools. My kit is nearly complete, though I've said that 3 or 4 times now before I realized I forgot something I needed. But I'll post the contents once I stop adding stuff to it.

 

[MNBigfoot]

Do the community a favor a buy the Red Dog kit and let us know what in it.
That said, the idea of sockets in their own individual pockets seems silly.

 

[Gabby]

Do the community a favor a buy the Red Dog kit and let us know what in it.
That said, the idea of sockets in their own individual pockets seems silly.

Maybe.... maybe.....

 

[Oldhippie]

I have a couple rollaways full of real tools In the garage from my mechanic days so I just went to Harbor Freight and got a bunch of metrics to make up a “trail” kit and filled in the missing stuff off the internet…pretty heavy tool bag I hope never to use…

 

[Searchdawg]

Has anyone gotten the Red Dog Tools kit for the Bronco? I see they use Gearwrench and Steelman Pro, and I'm not terribly familiar with either brand, but they don't list the actual tools in the kit. Are the quality of the tools? Is the kit a one-and-done or do I need to pack additional tools?

Right now I'm sharing my Triumph Tiger's mobile tool kit from Adventure Designs, and it works for 75% of my needs.

Check out BOXO USA TOOLS. They have an off-road tool kit and a UTV tool roll. They just dropped the price of the off-road kit (no doubt, one week after getting the UTV kit ) I picked up the 66 piece UTV roll . I added other brand 1/2” ratchet, 21mm deep well, an extendable, indexing pry bar, test light, side cutter, snap ring pliers, zip ties, electrical tape. All for less than what RedDog has listed. Check it out.

 

[KABQ]

Gearwrench is solid. I'm an aircraft mechanic and some of my coworkers use (and abuse) them. If they're not complaining, that's all the endorsement I need!

 

[615_Bronco]

https://motleyind.com/products/ford-bronco-tool-kit

No idea how good the tools are, but for the pricing vs what tools you get, I’d probably go with the Motley.

 

[Tricky Mike]

Gearwrench is ok, but I stopped using them because it was too much hassle to warranty them, they wanted me to ship the tools to them. No experience with Steelman.

Right now I use a Craftsman cube on the trail. Yeah Craftsman is trash now (in another life I used to rebuild their ratchets and I watched the quality deteriorate in real time) and yeah the SAE stuff isn't too useful (although I end up around old Broncos enough that maybe they'll get used), but they store nicely and I caught hem on clearance for dirt cheap.

If I were to start over again building a Bronco kit I'd just use all Pittsburg. Cheap, easy to find, easy to warranty, and hold up surprisingly well.

 

[HighVelocity]

Tekton are good tools and are taking over the Craftsman void. Good warranty service - just take a pic of the broken too, send it off and they ship you a new one.

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