Gearheads, recommend me an automotive torque wrench

matco or snapon if you can afford it. i have an eastwood, a craftsman, some old dial torque wrenches. it depends. you could get by with a cheap harbor freight wrench. their icon brand is pretty good. i use mainly tekton, craftsman, and milkwaukee for automotive use. never had a problem with those brands. hope this helps.

Snap-on

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Are those dead on balls accurate?

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You don't need dead on balls accurate for a truck.

Check out the reviews on harbor freights new high end line of tools including their torque wrenches. Seen some metrics where there were consistently beating snap on in precision.

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Are those dead on balls accurate?

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None are. They are, like all measuring devices, accurate only to a standard measurement. A torque wrench has to be initially calibrated and re-calibrated periodically to be accurate to whatever standard it is calibrated to. If it used or not makes no difference. if it stored improperly or receives a shock of some sort it must be recalibrated. This is true of any measuring device if accuracy is important.

If all you need is for one to use rebuilding a truck and the occasional auto repair a Harbor Freight torque wrench or any other than a flea market one will be sufficient. I work in the nuclear industry and snap ons and Matcos are common but they are tested and inspected monthly and calibrated quarterly and they always need some tinkering to calibrate.

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Don't buy crap made in China.

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Mine is German. I set it to goodentight

Unless your rebuilding an engine (heads, intake manifold, cranks shaft, cam, ect) the harbor freight one will work for most DIY guys. About the only time I use a torque wrench other than engine rebuilds is axle nuts, one time use to torque to yield bolts, oil and transmission pans.

Understood. This is the first project of this magnitude that I’ve undertaken, so there’s been some tools here and there that I’ve had to get. I plan on doing more in the future, so I was looking for something reputable, made in the US, but not necessarily $600-$1k+ in cost. My rebuild is involving front and rear axle swaps, engine, the works. So there’s quite a few things I’ll need it for. I appreciate everyone’s input, I’ll get to shopping

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here is the thing, it has good reviews but i personally have never heard of that brand. i dont often use a torque wrench but the way i base my tool brand choices is how often im gonna use that tool. the more often i use the more im gonna pay for quality. i buy cheap tools for once in a time projects. torque wrenches arent something id necessarily cheap out on but you dont have to go buy snap-on. if you are a total gearhead like i am then you will end up having multiple sets of the same types of tools as you find what brand works for you. its just trial and error man. ive never had harbor freight tools, tekton, craftsman, kobalt, husky, dewalt, milwaukee, ryobi or any brand break on me because im not a moron and i use my tools properly and clean them.

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I have broken cheap tools and I have broken Snap On and that caliber tool.....and I have done it using them the way they were meant to be used but more often when I have broken them I was doing something with them they weren't meant to be used for....usually a cheater bar was involved but occasionally a hammer and rarer a hydraulic press or jack. They will break.

I buy harbor freight hand tools. Easy to get, good selection, cheap and good warranty.

I'll say it again. Don't buy crap made in china. Those sumbitches just gave the whole world the freakin china flu, on purpose. Don't buy anything from them.

My 3/8" and 1/2" are Precision Instruments split-beam clickers. Excellent tools and you don't have to "zero" them after use like micrometer-style units. I have their 1/4" micrometer clicker that does need to be zeroed but I rarely use it since I also have a very nice NIST-traceable torque-driver for the small stuff. For the 3/8" and 1/2" flex-head wrenches you are going to be in for about $450 total but you'll have them for life.