NEW!! U.S. General SERIES 2 30" Tool Cart -vs- BLUE POINT (HARBOR FREIGHT -vs- SNAP-ON)

[Music] hey everybody today I'm gonna do a side-by-side comparison video with two different 30-inch professional-grade tool carts I have the Blue Point which I purchased from snap ones website and after tax and shipping I spent over nine hundred dollars on it and then I went to my local Harbor Freight and picked up the brand-new US general series two for under two hundred dollars during their parking lot sale what I'm gonna do in this video is give you some side-by-side shots of both of these I'll be able to show you exactly what makes them different and show you features that might be very similar and you can make your mind up as the which one's gonna be best for you they both require assembly and with the timer running you can see exactly how long that should take you the Blue Point comes in a much larger box and this is because it's about ninety percent assembled once you remove the packaging just bolt on the bracket for the folding side tray install the large metal panel on to the side add the main handle above that and then using a small screwdriver install the small handle onto the lid the last step is to install the rubber protective bumpers onto the four legs and then you're completely done start the finish it should take you somewhere around thirty minutes the us generals box is about half the size so it is easier to move as well as loaded to your vehicle but there's also more assembly required now after you lay out the parts flip the bottom tray upside down and install the casters tightening those nuts and bolts fully everything else during the assembly process should only be hand tight until the very end next you'll attach the side legs center support braces as well as the side tray then remove all the drawers from the top portion this greatly reduces the overall weight and it makes lifting it into place much easier once you set the top in place reinstall the drawers being very careful to insert both sides back into the slides evenly this does take patience so don't force it and bend anything attach the main side handle and if you opt for a folding side tray installed also at this time once everything is together with the nuts and bolts only hand tight start at the top of the unit and tighten them up fully one by one the US General took me just under one hour to put together which is roughly twice as long as the blue points 30-minute assembly time side by side the overall design and dimensions are very similar with the two cards and after the accessories are installed both carts measure 41 inches high 36 inches wide in just over 22 inches deep the Blue Point has four drawers which lock when the lid shut however they do not lock in place when it's open it has a total storage capacity in those drawers of 4430 toothed cubic inches which is slightly less than the Harbor Freight the US general has five drawers which lock when the lid shut and with the lid open each of them also has a spring-loaded tab which keeps them shut until you push that tab over to release them it has a higher total storage capacity in the drawers coming in at four thousand five hundred and seventy two cubic inches they both come with a full set of pre-cut drawer liners including large ones for the top section as well as the bottom tray and remember locking up your tools when you're not around is definitely a good idea and both carts come with keyed locks in order to keep things secure the Blue Point uses a standard lock cylinder that includes two matching keys the US General has an upgraded design from the standard key which was used in the original cart to now a 7 pin tubular lock with four matching keys but the drawers however are physically locked when the lid is pressing down on two separate plungers near the hinge and when those are pressed down bars hidden inside the rear of the box actually pressed down on the back of the drawers locking them in place if your drawers are not pushed in fully the bars cannot engage them and even if the lid is shut and locked the drawers will remain unlocked and accessible each cart uses five inch heavy-duty greasable casters and the Blue Point has two noticeable upgrades over the Harbor Freight it's using four swivel casters to being locking versions and then to non locking which makes maneuvering it around a tight shot very easy the negative here would be a tendency for the cart to wander as you're pushing it around because of the four swivel casters the cart will not track straight and requires more effort to steer it also has to zerk fittings per caster and just like the Harbor Freight it can be greased around the top bearing which will allow the caster to swivel but it also has a secondary fitting which allows you to grease the axle the Harbor Freight has two locking swivel casters and then two standard fixed casters right out of the box it's not as easy to move around tight areas as the Blue Point since only one side is gonna pivot but moving it around is more stable and it steers just like a shopping cart however there is a simple upgrade that's fairly inexpensive if you want the same setup as the Blue Point you can swap out those two fixed casters with some replacement swivel versions and I bought two of these non-locking five inch swivel casters for 18 bucks each they bolt right up using the exact same hardware and it's a direct replacement for the ones you'll take off the bottom section underneath of the drawers is good for larger and bulkier items such as shop fluids car parts or jack stands and if you notice the Blue Point has more room since the frame is spot welded together versus being bolted together like the u.s. general due to the additional metal support framing underneath the top of the US general there's less overall storage capacity in that area coming in with a total of 4.9 cubic feet the welded design of the Blue Point does not utilize additional framing in its storage area is roughly 14% larger coming in at 5.6 cubic feet two other features which are only found on the Blue Point are this metal side panel and the rubber bumpers on all four legs now originally I thought the side panel was a metal pegboard however it turns out it only works with their included shelf and side tray as far as I can tell and regular metal pegboard pegs unfortunately don't work with it snap-on sells replacement parts on their site and I actually bought a side panel and a full set of rubber bumpers for under $60 shipped meaning you can easily buy them for a US general cart and add them if you want those features and it's not gonna cost you a lot of money now after looking at it I would prowl avoid the side panel since it's not a metal pegboard and just stick to the rubber bumpers the set of eight of those only costs about 30 bucks and snap-on has free shipping on their website although they aren't a perfect fit for the US general because they are made of rubber they can be trimmed very easily and then the back of them has pre-installed adhesive strips that you peel off and then press them into place I'll put a link down in the description so you can check those out and when I bought them it said that they were backordered but they were delivered to my house in less than a week each cart has the large side handle for moving it around but the US General has put more thought into their design because when you notice how high up those handles extend the US General is still below the surface of the lid with the Blue Point slid shut you can see that the handle actually extends above it now this might not seem like a big deal at first but let's say you lay a longer tool or item on top of your cart the blue points handle will actually prevent it from laying flat where the US General does not hit the same item and it rests securely against the lid one of my biggest complaints with the Blue Point is the included folding side tray it does not permanently attached to the cart and literally has three small tabs that fitted into slots with only gravity holding it in place if you bumped into it or had too much weight on one side it could pop right off of there and let's say you drop an expensive tool or part because of that trait could cost you a lot of money it's 13 inches wide 15 inches deep and it has a total surface area of 195 square inches the US Generals tray is 47 percent larger it comes in at 18 inches wide 16 inches deep in its total surface area is 288 square inches along with that the tray is bolted to the side of the box and cannot accidentally pop off like the blue points modular design both side trays fold down flat against the side when not in use and they're painted to match the carts now on the left side underneath of the handles I have small storage shelves installed on both carts the US generals is bolted in place and cannot move and the blue points is that same modular design being held on with those three small tabs there's no way to permanently attach it just like that folding side tray but for small cans of let's say wd-40 brake cleaner or spray-paint this is a very good place to store those out of the way if you remember late last year I released my top 5 picks for the best automotive tools at Harbor Freight and my number 1 pick was the original red 30-inch cart with really only one major complaint and that was the fact that the lid did not open to a true 90 degree angle and was leaned forward slightly I was concerned that over time the struts would prematurely fail due to this added weight that was being applied from the lid and had mentioned the same concern to the product design team at Harbor Freight early in the spring of 2017 I completely forgot about it but to my surprise a few months ago they released these new series 2 carts and the lid issue has now been fixed and they're selling them in three different colors red black as well as blue the updated lid stands at a true 90 degree angle which prevents unnecessary stress on those struts and the weight of the lid is now being placed on the hinge keeping the struts working well over time the Blue Point shares this design and its lid also opens to a full 90 degree angle one minor difference here is that the Harbor Freight has nylon lock nuts attaching the struts to the lid while the Blue Point has quick-release pins allowing you to disconnect those struts and then fold the lid back against the rear of the box alternatively if you wanted to have the same feature in the u.s. general simply remove the nylon lock nuts and install standard wing nuts in their place you can spin them on and off by hand you can easily remove that strut and fold the lid back and then to reinstall it just put the struts back in place and tighten the wing nuts back up now I don't see a use for this in my garage so I'll be leaving the lid permanently attached to the struts using those nylon lock nuts lastly taking a look at the top storage area they're almost identical except for one minor difference the Harbor Freight side areas where you would place longer tools such as ratchets extensions or screwdrivers is that the same depth as the middle section coming in at 4 and 3/4 inches the sizes of the holes in this area may be too small for some of your larger tools such as a breaker bar so you would need to widen those using a step drill bit if needed the blue point has a deeper recessed area on both sides coming in at 7 inches and would allow for longer handles to be placed there however any tool over ten and a half inches long not including the handle will only fit in the very center hole on either side this is due to a secondary metal section which is underneath so for things like a longer ratchet they would actually hit that metal and then stick up versus hanging freely like they would with us general considering that both of these carts are made in China which is clearly shown on the outside of each of their packaging and the fact that they have very similar dimensions and functionality as well as upgraded features like ball bearings slides and five inch casters it's very surprising to me the huge difference in price I paid over 900 dollars for the Blue Point and under 200 dollars for the US general after factoring in the upgrades such as an add-on side shelf rubber bumpers replacement swivel casters and a side panel you'd still be under 300 dollars for the US general and would have almost the same card as the Blue Point at a small fraction of the price now what I'd like to know is what do you think of these two cards which one would you buy in which one do you think is a better deal and if you've ever owned or used one of these how are they holding up in would you recommend them leave a comment below this video with your thoughts our experience with each of these so as people are researching professional-grade tool cards your comment might really help them out if you like this video please click like if you like my channel please click subscribe and thanks for watching

Channel: Real Tool Reviews

Views: 707,318

Rating: 4.9132094 out of 5

Keywords: harbor freight, us general cart, us general, us general 30, us general series 2, new us general, snap on, snap-on, snap on cart, blue point, blue point cart, harbor freight vs snap on, harbor freight vs blue point, snap on vs harbor freight, snap on vs us general, us general vs snap on, tool cart, best toolbox, best tool box, best tool cart, realtoolreviews, chrisfix, KRBC10TBPES, KRBC10TB, KRSC33APBO, 64061, 64060, 64031, KRSC33APCM, KRSC33APOT, 64133, KRA4813FPBO, ave, boltr

Id: 1swTDW8JQXU

Length: 12min 48sec (768 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 26 2018