We’ve all seen stress tests before, but this one’s…a bit different. What happens if you drag the Fireball 510 Hardtail Vise behind a pickup truck down a rough summer dirt road, up to 12 miles, hitting speeds of 60 mph? The good news is I made a video about it.
The 510 isn’t your average vise. It’s 100 pounds lighter than the 614 we tested previously and was designed to be mounted on the back of service trucks that live outdoors in all weather. So I wanted to find out just how much punishment it could take when things get extreme.
Here’s the Setup: We strapped the 510 to the hitch with a rope, then hit the road literally. This isn’t a smooth path. We have washboard roads, potholes, mud puddles, and steep hills. Some of the ruts are 10 inches deep. My prediction? I think the rope will give out before the vise does.
This might be the stupidest thing I’ve done all week, but it should be fun. My prediction. The rope will break. Time to break something. Hold on back there.
Oh, we broke it. Maybe a little bit of a softer launch next time. That might have been a little too
aggressive.
Let’s wrap it up, and let’s do it again.
Well, that thing’s flopping around like a fish back there!
Okay, straight away. Let’s go a little faster now. These bumps are crazy. That vise is taking some punishment. But I need it to break.
Mile number five. Big hills. It’s taking some serious punishment. I can feel that vise tugging on the truck. Feels like a boat anchor back there
Okay, there’s some water coming up. Here we go. We’re gonna splash suspension. It’s gonna be full of mud when we’re done.
Another mud puddle just over seven miles. Sheesh. Let’s go see how the vise did. Hopefully, we wrecked it. Let’s go check it out.
Well, it survived, but the ropes that we’ve kept tying it to have not. I completely underestimated how much tug force this vice is providing.
But we won’t know more until we get it back to the shop. And get it cleaned up, and we’ll test to see if it stills works.
After giving it a clean, here’s how the vise looks.
The handle broke, but it’s a designed failure. The handles are meant to shear to prevent damage, and they’re fully replaceable. You can just unthread the little knob here, put it back in the hole. You can find them over at the Fireball Tool website.
Inside the vise is dirty as expected, just a little muddy water that can be easily blown out.
But it can be easily hosed out.
The elevated slide design worked perfectly. This slide has these elevated purchases right here and in the back. So that if any water that does get in here, it sits down below the slide. It doesn’t sit there and rust. There are weep holes right here for the water to escape. So even if water were to get inside of this, the dynamic jaw doesn’t sit there and just swim in it. It has a little island to keep it up out of the water, and then the water will eventually drain out, and no problems.
This paint is roughed up, and the jaws got a nice polish from the drag, but there were no cracks or structural damage.
The swivel base looked solid. No bends. No breaks.
Even the meatball, although scratched and dinged, looks really cool.
Honestly, I expected more damage. The 510 vise held up like a champ. Structurally, it’s as solid as when we started, just with some trail-earned scars.
Here’s what’s next: We’re going to clean this thing up, reassemble it, and throw it into more brutal tests soon. Until then, I’ll see you guys in the next video.
