Harbor Freight Just Dropped 5 New G2 Ratchets







Harbor Freight is known for its affordable selection of private-label tools, including a line of Icon ratchets that compare favorably to Snap-On’s offerings. Now, Harbor Freight is expanding its range of Icon G2 ratchets with five new offerings.

The cheapest of the new G2 tools is the 1/4-inch drive 2-5/8-inch stubby ratchet, priced at $29.99. This chrome-moly steel body ratchet has a sealed head, 72 teeth, and a five-degree arc swing. It has split-pawl technology for a firmer grip, a 2-piece switch lever, and a compact design for working in tight spots. The G2 1/4-inch drive 4-5/8-inch short ratchet sells for $32.99 and shares many of the same features as the stubby. The biggest difference is that it’s a bit longer. The $39.99 G2 1/4-inch drive 6-1/2-inch standard ratchet follows the same pattern, being even longer still.

Harbor Freight also has a new G2 1/4-inch drive, 6-1/2 inch standard ratchet with comfort grip, which is nearly identical to its older counterpart beyond the grip. That grip is designed to help reduce fatigue and is made of tough, chemical-resistant material. This model retails for $39.99. The biggest ratchet of the five is the G2 3/4-inch drive 26-inch long ratchet, which has 90 teeth, higher torque, and a four-degree arc. This ratchet is also the most expensive, selling for $119.99.

Ratchet warranty and customer reviews

All five of Harbor Freight’s new Icon G2 ratchets are now available and come with the company’s lifetime warranty, which covers material and workmanship defects. If you have issues with your ratchet that fall under Harbor Freight’s warranty, the retailer will replace it with the same ratchet or a similar one if necessary. You can get more details about Harbor Freight’s lifetime warranty on its website.

As of this writing, most of the new ratchets don’t have any customer reviews. But we can turn to reviews for other ratchets in the G2 lineup to get an idea of how they might perform. For example, the 1/2-inch drive 26-inch long locking flex ratchet with comfort grip has 4.9 out of 5 stars based on 418 reviews. 98% of customers recommend the tool, and it’s rated 100% in top categories that include quality and durability. The 1/4-inch drive, 9-inch version has identical scores across the board.

That said, it’s worth noting that the established Icon G2 ratchets aren’t quite the same as the new models. The specifications are different, and the tool lengths vary as well. Plus, each product may have quirks that aren’t present across the range. You’re still taking a small risk if you choose to buy any of these new ratchets before the reviews start coming in, but the warranty should at least offer some reassurance.





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A new class-action lawsuit, filed on Monday by three teenage girls and their guardians, alleges that Elon Musk’s xAI created and distributed child sexual abuse material featuring their faces and likenesses with its Grok AI tech.

“Their lives have been shattered by the devastating loss of privacy, dignity, and personal safety that the production and dissemination of this CSAM have caused,” the filing says. “xAI’s financial gain through the increased use of its image- and video-making product came at their expense and well-being.”

From December to early January, Grok allowed many AI and X social media users to create AI-generated nonconsensual intimate images, sometimes known as deepfake porn. Reports estimate that Grok users made 4.4 million “undressed” or “nudified” images, 41% of the total number of images created, over a period of nine days. 

X, xAI and its safety and child safety divisions did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The wave of “undressed” images stirred outrage around the world. The European Commission quickly launched an investigation, while Malaysia and Indonesia banned X within their borders. Some US government representatives called on Apple and Google to remove the app from their app stores for violating their policies, but no federal investigation into X or xAI has been opened. A similar, separate class-action lawsuit was filed (PDF) by a South Carolina woman in late January.

The dehumanizing trend highlighted just how capable modern AI image tools are at creating content that seems realistic. The new complaint compares Grok’s self-proclaimed “spicy AI” generation to the “dark arts” with its ease of subjecting children to “any pose, however sick, however fetishized, however unlawful.”

“To the viewer, the resulting video appears entirely real. For the child, her identifying features will now forever be attached to a video depicting her own child sexual abuse,” the complaint reads.

AI Atlas

The complaint says xAI is at fault because it did not employ industry-standard guardrails that would prevent abusers from making this content. It says xAI licensed use of its tech to third-party companies abroad, which sold subscriptions that led abusers to make child sexual abuse images featuring the faces and likenesses of the victims. The requests ran through xAI’s servers, which makes the company liable, the complaint argues.

The lawsuit was filed by three Jane Does, pseudonyms given to the teens to protect their identities. Jane Doe 1 was first alerted to the fact that abusive, AI-generated sexual material of her was circulating on the web by an anonymous Instagram message in early December. The filing says she was told about a Discord server by the anonymous Instagram user, where the material was shared. That led Jane Doe 1 and her family, and eventually law enforcement, to find and arrest one perpetrator.

Ongoing investigations led the families of Jane Does 2 and 3 to learn their children’s images had been transformed with xAI tech into abusive material.





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