Buy once, Cry once thread. (list of cheap crap you wish you hadn't bought)

[swapmeet]

This thread is about all the stuff you bought trying to save a little money, just to realize that you spent more because you had to buy the right thing after the cheap thing didn't work.

For me, this thread is to remind myself to stop buying cheap crap!

Lately, my indulgence has been lights.
First I picked up the CBI ditch light brackets (which have been great btw)

I bought these to put on them, because I wanted a "spot" light that was round, and LED. Roughly 4" lights.
They are crap IMO. Its a flood with a hot spot in the center.

I cut the plugs off when I wired them up, and filled the voids around the lens with silicone because none of the cheap LED's are very waterproof. For these reasons I feel like I "own" these with no opportunity to return them, despite my displeasure with the performance. (I did give them a scatting review on amazon.)

So... $82 pretty much wasted.

So, I replaced those with these (link is for amazon, but same lights) 7" HID "Euro pattern" Spot's from eBay.

They work okay, output is decent, but the vertical adjustment is very crude and I can't point them where I want. It's either 2' too low, or 3' too high. Also, they're too heavy for the ditch light braket. They move a lot from wind resistance, and hitting bumps make them shake as well. Annoying.

I think I paid $125 shipped.

Since they're too big for my ditch light brackets, my plan is to buy the light bar that mojave mad man is making for the 4th gens (another $150) and stick them on the front, and bend the tabs to account for the lack of adjustment.

So i've spent $82+$125 and anticipate spending another $150. Thats roughly $350 on lights.
I just found out about a deal on Tacoma world where i can get Rigid Dually's for less than $170/pair. I could have bought one pair of actual RIGID Dually Spots and achieved EXACTLY what I wanted in the first place, spot beam, no wobble.... AND still had enough money to buy a second set of Dually Floods to point off to the sides as an actual "ditch" light.


Now lets talk about HID kits.
I bought a Xentec HID kit off eBay from OrangeMika for my low beams. $30 shipped. Can't beat it right?

What a pile of junk. Thankfully I didn't cut anything on this kit.
The output is literally half of what the halogen's are. The color of the bulbs don't match. Its garbage.

I just ordered a Xenon Depot kit for $169 with Phillips Bulbs. I will be returning the ebay kit.



I kinda want to throw up a little.
The only good thing I can say is... finally people are getting what they pay for. I can remember a time that wasn't always true. Finally the quality level has gotten so low that people need to consider weather its worth it to save that $50, $100, $200...

Please feel free to share your regrettable purchases so that we can all learn from each other. Or at least laugh at ourselves.

 

[Jernik]

Tools. Cheap tools are fine for light duty, occasional work, but if it's going to be used hard pay the man up front.

I was trying to put some under seat spacers in my old Wrangler, to remove the seat required a larger Torx bit to remove one of the bolts. Off to Orscheln to buy a cheap bit! It broke. I returned it, thinking it was just a bad one, and broke another one. Returned it, and went to Home Depot for a "Husky" brand torx bit. Broke that one too. Made the trek into Sears for a Craftsman one, and that one held. If that had broke, I'd have been on a search to find Snap On.

At the time, I was in an area where the nearest Craftsman retailer was 30 miles away. Snap On, I could have found but it would have been more difficult. That's why I was trying the cheapies - those places were close to me, 5 miles. With all the time and aggravation, I should have just drove the 30 miles and spent the couple extra bucks for Craftsman to begin with, and I'd have come out ahead - I burned more gas than what the dumb things were worth. Heck, I burned more gas than what Snap On would have cost me.

 

[m85476585]

Tools. Cheap tools are fine for light duty, occasional work, but if it's going to be used hard pay the man up front.

I was trying to put some under seat spacers in my old Wrangler, to remove the seat required a larger Torx bit to remove one of the bolts. Off to Orscheln to buy a cheap bit! It broke. I returned it, thinking it was just a bad one, and broke another one. Returned it, and went to Home Depot for a "Husky" brand torx bit. Broke that one too. Made the trek into Sears for a Craftsman one, and that one held. If that had broke, I'd have been on a search to find Snap On.

At the time, I was in an area where the nearest Craftsman retailer was 30 miles away. Snap On, I could have found but it would have been more difficult. That's why I was trying the cheapies - those places were close to me, 5 miles. With all the time and aggravation, I should have just drove the 30 miles and spent the couple extra bucks for Craftsman to begin with, and I'd have come out ahead - I burned more gas than what the dumb things were worth. Heck, I burned more gas than what Snap On would have cost me.

Even worse is when a cheap tool damages something else, such as rounding off a bolt, or shattering sending shards of metal towards your eyes. I don't buy tools from Harbor Freight any more after seeing a couple of them shatter like a piece of glass.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Oh man... I have shelves of parts that I never used...

 

[mikey's2010SR5]

My light motto is you get what you pay for. If you buy a cheap light, be it HID or LED, that is what you are going to get. Best bet is to look for the deals on the good stuff and pay for the light once.

I guess that motto goes for everything I have done on my rig. Dang money pit.

 

[swapmeet]

Oh man... I have shelves of parts that I never used...

come on now... tell us a story!

 

[Pauly Walnuts]

Anything from Harbor Freight, ever.