That’s right, I said “Grip-O-Licious”, which is short for deliciously grippy. Duluth Trading sent us a box of Lumb-R-Grips to review right when I happened to be tearing apart cleaning the garage. This turned out to be perfect timing. I was constantly shifting junk prized tools around in order to access the darker corners of the man-cave. The Lumb-R-Grip made quick work of letting me hoist my bicycle and other bulky things up and out of the way as I worked.
Pretty much everyone has seen those vinyl covered hooks for garage storage that you can get at any hardware store. In fact, I use several of those myself for things like ladder storage. Here’s how install for those goes:
- Drill pilot hole
- Get carpenter’s wrist syndrome from manually twisting the giant hooks into place
- Cry, when you realize you actually prefer the hooks in a different spot.
Pretty fun, huh? Well, the engineers at Duluth are in your corner. Here’s how install for the Lumb-R-Grips goes: Rotate wrist! Boom, you’re done! What’s that? You changed your mind and want to move the hook? No worries. Rotate wrist the other way and you’re uninstalled. Seriously, these are insanely easy to install and remove.
Despite being wicked fast for installation and removal, these hooks are very strong. I’m no contender for the World’s Biggest Loser, but I was able to install a hook, hang my full weight off it, and then remove it in about 5 seconds (and most of that was hang-time). The Lumb-R-Grip is rated for a 200 lb load capacity per hook. Pretty amazing.
Two little things to be aware of: If you’re a vintage home aficionado and your 2×4, 2×6 or 2x whatever really is two full inches wide, the Lumb-R-Grip jaws will not fit around them. The Lumb-R-Grip will work with any modern 2x material (which actually is about 1.5″ wide). Also, there’s a little tooth in the lower part of the hook (the side that really bites into the wood). Whenever you install a hook, that tooth will bite into the wood and leave a small hole there when the Lumb-R-Grip is removed. Of course, the tooth hole is a tiny fraction of the size of the hole you’d make if you had to pre-drill for a traditional garage hook. If you’re worried about a hole that small tainting your joists, you probably shouldn’t be hanging anything from them.
If you have an unfinished garage, basement, attic or shed and like hanging storage and flexibility, I’d definitely recommend giving the Lumb-R-Grips a try. Just $16.50 for a set of 8 Lumb-R-Grips at Duluth Trading.
