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The Portland Design Works 3wrencho is a simple design done well, a heat treated steel 15mm wrench on one end and a tire lever on the other each providing enough leverage and a reasonably comfortable grip to get the job done. The pictured $25 coated version has a hard plastic shell to protect your rim when working a stubborn tire off, a welcome addition as the bare metal version could leave some marks behind. When I need a tire lever, I need a tire lever—this one works great, but people should be careful not to put too much pressure on the tire bead or rim itself, a big metal lever like this can be dangerous in a gorilla’s hands. 
The 15mm box-end wrench is offset just enough, and the tire lever itself provides a good grip to break a stubborn axle nut loose. All told it’s 4.5″ inches long and weighs a solid feeling 95g, which may be the one drawback to carrying this in the tool bag. Then again, I don’t get the feeling the wrench is going to break or round out anytime soon.
Merchandise
my only issue with the tire-lever end is, when I have to break out the tire levers, I rarely can get by with just one, so I would still need to carry around at least another lever in my kit… or two.
“I would still need to carry around at least another lever in my kit… or two.”
So, carry one, or two. They’re light. They’re skinny. They’re cheap.
$25 for a single lever isn’t cheap. Of course, this one does more than skin tires off rims, but I’m with Brian: when I do need a lever, one is not enough. I suppose I could carry one of these and a couple of cheapies to back it up.
Is the plastic coating on the 3wrencho vegemite-approved? How ’bout Nutella?
i have one of these. it works great.
I guess the fact that tire levers are indeed light, skinny and cheap is the whole reason why I’m wondering why a lever was chosen as the opposite end of this tool. Considering the price, and especially considering the multitude of other combo tools that feature a 15mm on one end and (insert tool here) on the other, I think I would opt for a set of dedicated levers and either a simple 15mm wrench, or another 15mm combo tool.
Then again, there’s probably lots of folks out there who have been waiting for a tool such a combination to round out their tool kit.
Brian,
The idea for the wrencho was born after I snapped a plastic lever off and peeled back my thumb nail on the rim. That was a real treat, as you can imagine. I never wanted that to happen again. The 3Wrencho is a flat fixing tool, that is why we made it with a lever and a 15mm, as those are the tools you commonly need. I agree, it cannot get all tires off, but I’ve been surprised how well it works where plastic levers have bent and broken.
Thanks for sharing the origin of the idea!
“I snapped a plastic lever off and peeled back my thumb nail on the rim.”
*shivers*
I prefer to use large levers over the cheap skinny ones. I own the park tools SS-15 single speed wrench which also has the 15mm wrench and a spoon tire lever in addition too a 15mm pedal wrench and a bottle opener.
I will probably pick up the PDW wrench to supplement my park tools wrench since my two favorite tire brands, specialized and continental, are a bitch to mount and unmount and I need the extra leverage of these two levers together. Plus I also need two 15mm wrenches since I struggle every time to remove the front lugnuts and its damn near impossible with one wrench.
As far as the cheap plastic levers I no longer purchase those. Instead I use the small aluminum alloy levers made by Lezyne to finish removing the rest of the tire so I dont destroy my expensive tire or the delicate inner-tube.
I also spend a good amount of money on my acrylic nails every month so I am not going to risk destroying a fake nail and the natural nail underneath it because I snapped another plastic lever in half.
why is it on a slice of rye toast?
So instead of re-inventing the wheel, they re-invented the Campagnolo “Peanut-Butter” wrench. Clever.