Which Serpentine Belt Tool Brand Wins?
We compared 11 serpentine belt tool options head to head. ABN came out on top. See the measured results, the runner-up, the budget pick, and a link to the full test video.
Some figures on this page were transcribed from the test video and have not been independently re-verified. Treat the numbers as a close guide and watch the full video for the exact readings.
ABN
Price shown in test: under $50 (exact price sentence appears to be missing from the transcript; this bound comes from the narrator's closing recommendation)
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GearWrench
Price shown in test: $200 or you can buy it elsewhere for a lot less (stated verbatim, unusually high versus the rest of the field, kept as spoken)
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Scroll sideways to see all measurements. Products are listed in the order they finished.
| Product | Inner Diameter Mm | Test 1 Torque Ft Lb | Jaw Stretch Test 1 | Ratchet Tooth Count | Ratchet Passes | Backdrag G | Clearance Mm | Tensioner Slot In | Real World Truck Test | Subjective Ratchet Rating | Test 3 Torque Ft Lb | Socket Test Torque Ft Lb | Overall Average Finish | Weight G | Drive Failure Torque Ft Lb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1ABNunder $50 (exact price sentence appears to be missing from the transcript; this bound comes from the narrator's closing recommendation) | started at 13.25 mm, wider than average with a larger outer diameter than average | 35.56 ft-lb, third place at that point in testing, edging out the Performance Tool | 0.04 mm, tied for second best (with GearWrench, ICON, OTC per the closing recap) | around 128 teeth | 11.2 right to left passes per full rotation, best of all ratchets tested | 204 g, best (lowest) of all brands tested | 3.28 mm stated in transcript for the ratchet and socket clearance; this is roughly 10x lower than every other brand's clearance figure (21 to 34 mm range), so it looks like a dropped digit, flagged rather than corrected | 1 and 5/8 in, best of the three brands given a number in this bench test (Pittsburgh 1-7/8, DNA Motoring 1-3/4) | success, two-piece handle adjusts to provide plenty of access swing on the Toyota 4Runner | best possible rating of 1, the only brand to earn a 1 | 123.4 ft-lb, third place in the 14 mm Allen socket durability showdown behind Powerbuilt (first) and an apparent second place brand (see videoNotes) | 276.50 ft-lb, survived the 15 mm socket torture test | 1.9, first place overall (best average finish of any brand) | not tested | not tested |
| 2GearWrench$200 or you can buy it elsewhere for a lot less (stated verbatim, unusually high versus the rest of the field, kept as spoken) | 13.15 mm, width 6.08 mm, outer diameter 27.3 mm | 31.798033099999998 ft-lb as rendered in the transcript, a clear floating point corruption artifact; fifth place at that point in testing | not tested | 72 teeth | 14.5 back and forth passes, tied for third with ARES | 396 g, second place behind ABN | not tested | not tested | success, two-piece ratchet isn't quite as precise as the ABN but releases belt tension | tied for second place with a rating of 2 (with Bilitools and ARES) | grew by 0.71 mm of jaw damage in the 14 mm Allen socket showdown; no clean torque figure survived in the transcript for this brand at this test | survived the 15 mm socket test at over 277 ft-lb | 4.1, second place overall (explicit from the closing recap) | 3311 (transcript renders as a run-on integer; likely 33.11 g given the dropped-decimal pattern seen elsewhere in this transcript, flagged not corrected) | 3/8 in drive and ratchet survived at 280 ft-lb |
| 3Powerbuilt$42 | 13.3 mm | 73.1 ft-lb, first place with no jaw stretch or damage at all, the best performer in this test | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 26.9 mm, second place behind Bilitools | not tested | failed on the Toyota 4Runner, not enough swing space, grouped with Pittsburgh and AllTooetools as insufficient | not tested | described as first place in the 14 mm Allen socket showdown but the transcript cuts off exactly where the number should be ('so the power built finished in first at'), so the figure itself did not survive; separately the wrench handle failed with about 0.22 mm of jaw stretch | not tested | not tested | 53.78 g, by far the heaviest crowfoot wrench tested | 162.475 ft-lb, wrench broke but the ratchet mechanism kept working |
| 4Bilitools$40 | 13.1 mm, tightest fit of the field at that point, width 6.6 mm, outer diameter 25.15 mm (smallest yet) | 26.4 ft-lb, third place at that point in testing | grew from 13.1 to 13.24 mm, by far the most jaw stretch of the brands tested up to that point | 72 teeth | 11.7 right to left passes, good start but ultimately beaten by the ABN | 616 g | moved into the lead at just under 26 mm before later being passed by Powerbuilt | not tested | success, two-piece handle adjusts to provide plenty of access on the Toyota 4Runner | tied for second place with a rating of 2 | just over 100 ft-lb, 10 ft-lb better than the Pittsburgh, heavy damage and the jaw grew by almost a full millimeter | survived the 15 mm socket test at over 280 ft-lb | not tested | 31.5 g | 2011 ft-lb as rendered in the transcript, likely a dropped decimal for roughly 201.1 ft-lb given every other value in this test clusters between 128 and 280 ft-lb, flagged not corrected; described as not too bad for a budget tool set |
| 5Performance Tool$44 | 12.98 mm, narrow wrench with an average outer diameter | transcript renders '35.496922' which is corrupted; the narrator's own line introducing the ABN says 'the ABN barely edges out the Performance Tool at 35.56 ft-lb,' implying a value just under 35.56, but the exact figure is not reliably recoverable and is flagged rather than asserted | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 21.03 mm, best (lowest) clearance value in the field at that point, described as very difficult to beat | not tested | success, adjustable two-piece handle offers ample access on the Toyota 4Runner | not tested | just over 104 ft-lb when the lower jaw broke; the lower jaw piece was never found and the upper jaw also showed damage | ran out of performance at 29.7 ft-lb in the 15 mm socket test, the wrench is described as run | not tested | 33.2 g | not tested |
| 6ARES$55 | 13.12 mm, narrow wrench at 5.9 mm width, 26.84 mm outer diameter | 29.68 ft-lb | not tested | 72 teeth | 14.5 back and forth passes, tied for third with GearWrench | 534 g, third place | not tested | not tested | success on the Toyota 4Runner but not as efficient as the ABN for maximizing wrench positioning and swing | not tested | transcript renders '9834 ft-lb' right after the narrator says it trailed the ABN (123.4) again in this showdown; likely a dropped decimal for roughly 98.34 ft-lb, flagged not corrected. Jaw stretch of 0.86 mm, described as made of a much softer metal than the ABN | skipped in the 15 mm socket test since the ratchet had already broken; the transcript's '24.3 ft-lb' here is a garbled repeat referencing the earlier 240.3 ft-lb ratchet failure, not a new result | not tested | 3044 as rendered in the transcript, likely a dropped decimal for roughly 30.44 g given the pattern elsewhere, flagged not corrected | 3/8 in drive survived, but the ratchet broke at 240.3 ft-lb |
| 7DNA Motoring | not tested | 50.3 ft-lb, second place; this figure only survives via the closing recap since the raw mid-video introduction for this brand's own test1 number is missing from the transcript | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | 1 and 3/4 in, second best of the three brands given a number in this bench test | success but less efficient than a ratcheting wrench, works if you can keep it seated on the socket | not tested | transcript renders '148.16156210 ft-lb,' a floating point corruption artifact, described as barely beating a reference the narrator calls the 'Harbor Freight Warrior.' No brand called Warrior is in this video's product list; Pittsburgh is this video's Harbor Freight entrant and was tested just before this passage at 90.48 ft-lb, so 'Harbor Freight Warrior' most likely refers to Pittsburgh, but the comparison itself does not cleanly resolve given the corrupted number, and is flagged rather than asserted | 165.7 ft-lb, described as the super soft socket and wrench destroying each other | not tested | 42.8831694 as rendered in the transcript, a clear floating point corruption artifact | 141.5 ft-lb, moved into last place in this test |
| 8ICON$70 (same price as OTC per the transcript, recovered from OTC's own introduction line rather than a direct ICON price statement) | not tested | 27.94 ft-lb, eighth place at that point in testing | 0.04 mm, tied for second best per the closing recap | 21 teeth, by far the lowest tooth count in the field | 21.5 back and forth passes, worst of all ratchets tested | 1552 g, more than twice as much as any other brand, by far the worst | not tested | not tested | failed on the Toyota 4Runner using the ratchet alone (not enough swing space); works with an extra handle attachment, though the 21 tooth mechanism makes it more of a challenge | not tested | 97.29 ft-lb, heavy damage, jaw grew by 0.8 mm | transcript renders '5589 ft-lb,' far outside the 24 to 280 ft-lb range of every other brand in this same test and described as catastrophic ratchet damage from the previous test; flagged as an unreliable figure rather than corrected to any specific value | not tested | not tested | ratchet jumped off the 3/8 in drive on the first attempt with no usable number; on a second attempt it failed at 128 ft-lb |
| 9OTC$70 | 13.16 mm, width 5.79 mm (more narrow than ICON), outer diameter 26.99 mm | transcript renders '2716 ft-lbs' as a run-on integer, likely 27.16 ft-lb given the decimal-mangling pattern seen throughout this transcript, flagged not corrected | 0.04 mm | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | not tested | success, two-piece handle can be adjusted to provide plenty of swing space on the Toyota 4Runner | not tested | 87.9 ft-lb, last place in the 14 mm Allen socket showdown, heavy damage, jaw grew by 0.7 mm | not tested | not tested | 31.8 g | 174 ft-lb, finished just behind the $20 Pittsburgh, another light duty result |
| 10AllTooetools$28 | 13.19 mm | 25.63 ft-lb, described by the narrator as about 2 ft-lb less than the Pittsburgh's 28.74 (the video's own approximate framing, not independently verified arithmetic) | 0.09 mm, more jaw stretch than the Pittsburgh at that point | not tested | not tested | not tested | 27.4 mm, about 7 mm better than the Pittsburgh, no ratcheting wrench included | not tested | failed on the Toyota 4Runner, same insufficient range of motion issue as the Pittsburgh | not tested | 105.1 ft-lb, wrench snapped | not tested | not tested | 32.4 g | 156.43 ft-lb, failed the same way as the Pittsburgh |
| 11Pittsburgh$20, the least expensive tool set in the video, sold at Harbor Freight | started at 13.17 mm | 28.74 ft-lb | grew to 13.224 mm, 0.07 mm of stretch | not tested | not tested | not tested | 34.43 mm, no low profile sockets, the worst clearance figure in the field | 1 and 7/8 in | worked fine on a couple of Chevrolets and a Buick, but failed on a Toyota 4Runner, not enough range of motion to release the belt tension | not tested | 90.48 ft-lb, wrench expanded to almost 15 mm, heavy damage | not tested | not tested | 31.2 g (13 mm crowfoot) | transcript renders '1868 ft-lb,' roughly 10x higher than every other brand's result in this same test (which cluster between about 128 and 280 ft-lb), so this looks like a dropped decimal point, but is flagged rather than corrected per the rule against silently fixing a lone 10x outlier |
How it was tested
- crowfoot wrench maximum torque before rounding a soft coupling nut, plus resulting jaw stretch
- wrench and socket clearance/low profile measurement
- ratchet efficiency: right to left swings needed for one full rotation
- ratchet back drag force in grams using a fishing line and scale
- subjective ratchet swing efficiency rating (1 is best)
- tensioner pulley slot access bench test measured in inches
- real world access and release test on a Toyota 4Runner tensioner (pass or fail)
- 14 mm Allen socket crowfoot durability showdown, torque to failure
- 3/8 in drive breaking-free torque test
- 15 mm socket torque test after removing the 3/8 in drive
- overall average finish rating across all categories
“the ABN ran circles around the competition in most categories with the best average finish of 1.9 considering the price of under $50 that would definitely be my choice”
Data notes and caveats
This transcript has unusually heavy numeric corruption: several results render as clearly broken floating point strings (e.g. '31.798033099999998', '148.16156210', '42.8831694', '35.496922') and several other values look like dropped decimal points producing 10x outliers (Pittsburgh's 3/8 drive test at 1868 ft-lb, Bilitools at 2011 ft-lb, ICON's 15mm socket test at 5589 ft-lb, ARES's weight at 3044 and test3 torque at 9834). All are kept verbatim and flagged rather than silently corrected, per the extraction rules. ABN and DNA Motoring both have missing or corrupted price-introduction sentences; ABN's price was recovered only as a bound ('under $50') from the closing recap, and DNA Motoring's price could not be recovered at all. ICON's own weight, dimensions and country of manufacture appear to have been lost, merged into the preceding GearWrench paragraph, with only its price (shared with OTC at $70) and its test results recoverable. Several brands (Powerbuilt, Performance Tool, OTC, DNA Motoring) are missing from the ratchet-passes/backdrag sub-test and/or the initial 3/8 in drive breaking test with no explicit skip statement given, which may be a genuine omission (e.g. some may lack a ratcheting wrench) or a transcript gap; treated as an unresolved gap rather than assumed either way. The overall average-finish leaderboard in the closing recap only names the top two (ABN 1.9, GearWrench 4.1); no average finish figures survive for the other nine brands. Two Harbor Freight brands appear in this video (Pittsburgh and ICON); a reference late in the video to a 'Harbor Freight Warrior' does not match any brand in the description's product list and most likely refers back to Pittsburgh's own 90.48 ft-lb result stated just before it, but this is flagged rather than asserted as fact. The Matco Tools brand was never tested; the order was placed on indefinite backorder and cancelled, so it never appears in products[].