Cordless electric impact wrenches?

[MikeDeuce]

Hey, what are all you guys using on track? I see a lot of folks with the cordless electric impact wrenches and I'm tired of mounting my wheels like a chump.

I was taking a look at a couple of models from sears (only because I have a sears CC that I can use, no other way to afford one of these currently):

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=TOOL&pid=00926825000

and

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=TOOL&pid=00926887000

Both 18v... the milwaukie advertises higher torque specs and comes with two batteries, so I'm sort of leaning that route. Would be nice to use this when I'm wrenching on the cars since I can't run air tools at my apt.

Any advice? Also, I use mcgard wheel locks and splined lugs... can those and the lug keys take the abuse? They seem kind of thin. Maybe I should buy some spares. Naturally I'll do the final torque down by hand with a torque wrench, but I would like everything else with one of these guys.

Thanks
mike

[Stock-S13]

I will take the moment to post, as I currently sympothsize with your dillema.

I had this rather perplexed look on my face as my 250ft/lb impact gun (air, not battery) couldn't remove a single bolt from my 5 lug swap a weeks time ago, it seems that these low powered guns will do much of nothing and are hardly practical, it would be in you best intrest if in fact you are using them for removing and placeing lugs to invest in a torque wrench; this will give you enough leverage to do a job and yielding better pressure than said gun. If you are inclined for a more intense job perhaps breaker bars or wrenches with cheater pipes?

I will try to imbue this notion though-- if you are unwilling to front the cost for a decent impact gun, in my opinion (the on i currently have my eye one) 400+ ft/lbs, it isn't worth buying. What wasn;t too bad is that mine were a vastly delayed B-day gift. With that said i will allow you to draw your on conclusions with what i have said, perhaps this will further aid you in your investment.

[MikeDeuce]

Might I ask what torque specifications you had previously applied to your autotransport? I spied comments on interweb retailer amazon.com where one discontent character received subpar performance from said product, but with lug fasteners previously torqued to 100+ ft/lbs. On the other hand, I am a proponent of approximately 85ft/lbs.

With respect,
Sir Mike of Deuce

[hurleyboi514]

alot of autox guys use them, and they love them. i usually gank one to use! :)

[Replicant_S14]

Both of those look nicer than the one I have but generally speaking, a cordless impact is a pretty cool tool. You'll dig having one after you use it a few times.
My brother bought me one of these --> Harbor Freight 19.2v (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=46701) I was skeptical of its quality and usefullness at first but I use the thing all the time and it hasn't given me any trouble. I only use it to take stuff off tho.

[MikeDeuce]

Yeah -- doesn't look like I can go wrong. Sears has the satisfaction guarantee where I can return it hassle-free anyhow. Plus there's a rebate with the milwaukee apparently, where I can another battery on top of the 2 it comes with.

Thanks for the opinions.

[Stock-S13]

79ft/lbs in all corners via, Torque wrench.

I honestly fail to see the gain with this mediocre device, I understand the simplicity but the same can be achieved with 12 seconds of your time and a torque wrench. But by all means if you find the product to be suitable and meet your needs who am I to deny a person of such wants?

Just to rid any confusion it was not my Lugs that i said i could not remove- not that a gun would ever touch my lugs to begin with. It was the bolts from the hub, various arms. In my personal experience I have removed 3 seized Lugs and 2 removed studs from my hub, frankly one is too many. What didn't strike me until recent reflection (i.e. me drilling a stud/lug out) was that they had all been applied with an impact gun.

[MikeDeuce]

I offer you the sincerest of apologies for my incorrect assumption that we were discussing lug nuts. The gain lies where once may be exchanging multiple wheels throughout a day. During a delightful motoring event I might end up extracting and installing wheel fasteners a minimum total of 64 times (and if I'm driving in a particularly spirited manner, that number is closer to 96).

My primary (75%) use for the tool would be for wheel fasteners.

Surely a strapping young lad could repeat the task a hundred times with mirthful ease, but alas, I am both decrepit and rotund.

[MikeDeuce]

Ordered the milwaukee... I love debt! I'll let yall know how it holds up. Time to practice my nascar style lug removal.

Also picked up a 80 ft/lbs torque stick from torquestick.com.

And if by any chance it can actually break the the top nut on struts or flywheel bolts, bonus.

I'll have to mess around with my spare parts motors. See what it can do.

Thanks
mike

[Rezlo]

We use a SnapOn 18V at our muscle car shop, on average we go threw 3 fully charged batteries a day with it, i have yet to find anything that it wouldnt undo or snap. been working there for a 8 months and its still perfect after being droped i dont know how many times and getting used probably to do about the equivelent of 40-50 sets of wheels a day.

Very nice item, very practical

[Kouki]

Yeah, I also have the Snap-On 18 volt 1/2" cordless impact. Not cheap($450) but definitely the best tool I've ever bought. I bought it about 2 years ago. I use it every day at the shop I work at, and don't know what I'd do with out it. 2 years of hard use and abuse and still has way more power than our Snap-On 1/2" air impact. Matter of fact about 2 weeks after I got it, a friend with a plumbing company decided to get his 1970 dump truck running that has been sitting on a farm for 4 years. It had 2 flat tires and he took it up there and it took off the super rusted lug nuts off of both wheels with out hesitation! :cool:
Definitely worth every penny.

[sykikchimp]

I have the harbor freight unit too. Wonderfully useful at the track. My only gripes about it is battery life, and how long it takes to charge batteries. If the battery is fully charged it will pop any bolt on the car loose. Including the 200+ ft lb axle nuts on the rear axles. I think the 19V is better, I have the 18.5v one they used to sell.

GREAT tool. Very useful.

Oh, and fyi on the McGards.. I use the same lugs, and I have used my electric, and air impacts on the keys and have not had a single bit of trouble.

[crioten]

it would be in you best intrest if in fact you are using them for removing and placeing lugs to invest in a torque wrench; this will give you enough leverage to do a job and yielding better pressure than said gun.

um, using a torque wrench as a breaker bar isnt a good idea, it messes up the calibration of it making it pretty useless over a few years of doing this... plus you run a good risk of breaking the internal parts applying that type of force

plus breaker bars are cheaper :)

[SirWarrior]

Given those choices, I would consider the Chicago electric, but only because its less than half the price.
But if it was between the 2 of the sears ones, Milwaukee would be the obvious winner.
I have used my buddies Snap-On and its awesome. But for mounting and unmounting wheels, I got a cheap one that I got from some crackhead for 30bux. It takes off lug nuts fine, its 14v and 1/2 in drive and weighs next to nothing.
I dont see any of these having too much trouble for lug nuts.

[Stock-S13]

Considering that there is an atrophy in applicatited torque (i.e why we retorque after designated miles) it is safe to say that I am in no way applying any more than 75 or so ft/lbs, safe to my standard. Also years also create a sort of intutive sense, I can now sense how much is, "too much" when torqueing my wheels, its just a matter of time i suppose. I too also have a breaker bar, 3 foot one actually, but as i have said prior to this given my experience I believe my current antics to be suitable.

Years?
Well if I manage to get, "years" from my harbor freight torque wrench I will have a grin ear to ear and another 40 dollars and a trip to, as jay said it, "the best store in the world" (harbor freight.) In all honesty there is a room for error when applying torque, being in the perdicament i have been/seen several times (stripped threads), it yielded this notion-- 10-15 ft/lbs below fsm specs and you should be fine. It is when gross force is applied from an often inexperienced person with a powerful tool that this becomes a problem, thus why I refuse to use my newly acquired impact gun, or anyone with one, to get near my lugs. But i will let you make the choice soley on your descresion.


Regarding the price, I believe my torque wrench was actually less than my 3 foot breaker bar, I could be wrong as it has been a bit over a year ago but i recall shelling out close to 38 or so for my breaker bar. Believe me i thought i needed the tool immediatley, but as it turned out it took me close to 6-7 months to actually piece everything together and acttualy finish it up, still not done. Oh and just becuase i remembred this as i was typing this last sentence.
BH: "FUCKING TITS!" HAHAHAHA! Hey dude!
um, using a torque wrench as a breaker bar isnt a good idea, it messes up the calibration of it making it pretty useless over a few years of doing this... plus you run a good risk of breaking the internal parts applying that type of force

plus breaker bars are cheaper :)

Not calling you a lier nor implying some kind of fallacie in your arguemnt, they have been quite valid; i used your walk-through for my 5 lug process. Its just that I'm having trouble believe that somthing that only exerts an expected 240 ft/lbs could remove said nut, i had my 3 foor breaker bar and tried to go at it, but it wasn't until the 4-5 foot pole I to it attached that i got results. What is even worse is that my impact gun which is rated at 250ft/lbs couldn't remove any of the arms attached to the rear spindle, my experience limits my acknowledgement.


I have the harbor freight unit too. Wonderfully useful at the track. My only gripes about it is battery life, and how long it takes to charge batteries. If the battery is fully charged it will pop any bolt on the car loose. Including the 200+ ft lb axle nuts on the rear axles. I think the 19V is better, I have the 18.5v one they used to sell.

GREAT tool. Very useful.

Oh, and fyi on the McGards.. I use the same lugs, and I have used my electric, and air impacts on the keys and have not had a single bit of trouble.

[Replicant_S14]

By the way, I was just at home depot and they have a Ryobi 18v Impact. It looks decent and it's $70. You have to get a batt and charger if you don't already have them so, it's another $55. It's still a little less than my harbor freight jobbie.

[krustindumm]

I have a 9.6v 3/8" makita electric impact. I dont know how i got along without it. It only makes 45lb/ft peak, but for the price ($50 with 2 bats & a quick charger) I love it. Use it for everything. I even use it on my lug nuts, break them loose then grab the impact to spin them off, or spin them on then use the torque wrench.

[skatanic28]

I even use it on my lug nuts, break them loose then grab the impact to spin them off, or spin them on then use the torque wrench.

exact same way i use mine. my lug nuts had a warning on the package saying not to go over 70 ft-lbs so i use the torque wrench on em.

[MikeDeuce]

Well the Milwaukee came in and it owns me. It's a big heavy mother (15lbs) but it really did effortlessly spin off my 85ft/lb torqued lug nuts. I didn't play too much cause it was late and the thing is pretty loud when the ram/anvil strikes.

Whenever I get a chance I really want to try it on my spare motor that has the flywheel still on it and some of the top strut nuts that have given me shit in the past.

I also picked up one of these on ebay... apparently they were sold around 1990. $10 NIB :D

http://www.pixelstorm.net/temp/bdratchet.jpg

Weak as hell (18 ft/lbs advertised), and unfortunately 1/4" drive, but I tried it on my rollbar camera mount, which has these long ass bolts x 4 with 4 locknuts. Taking it off by hand would have taken a while due to the length, but the little black and decker is going to save my arms on those long wrench jobs.

Sucks not being able to run a compressor at home, but these two cordless jobbies should help a hell of a lot... And the impact is definitely going to kick ass at events.

[skatanic28]

good stuff....did you pick up an impact set as well? i think i got the complete set of metric and standard on ebay for like 30 bucks.

[MikeDeuce]

$30! whoa. I only have the 21mm impact socket so far... The sears kits were like $60 just for the a 10pc metric (and of course there was the 20pc 6 point "deep fractional impact" socket set for $706 :faint: ), but I might have to check out ebay and harborfreight now. Thanks for the idea.

[NZO]

I have the harbor freight unit too. Wonderfully useful at the track. My only gripes about it is battery life, and how long it takes to charge batteries. If the battery is fully charged it will pop any bolt on the car loose. Including the 200+ ft lb axle nuts on the rear axles. I think the 19V is better, I have the 18.5v one they used to sell.

GREAT tool. Very useful.

Oh, and fyi on the McGards.. I use the same lugs, and I have used my electric, and air impacts on the keys and have not had a single bit of trouble.


What he said. I was originally going to get the $300 craftsman one but then I came to my senses and realized i could get the HF one + sockets + torque sticks for way less than $300. I mainly got it for changing wheels at events but obviously it also comes in handy when working on the car. My friend has used the same one for a year and no problems so far.

[skatanic28]

yeah the first time i needed one i spent 16 bucks on just one for the wheel bearing nut.

this was the place i picked up mine from:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=43993&item=4539785572&rd=1

[MikeDeuce]

OK I've put it through its paces now... changed multiple lugs at a drift event, used the same charge at a junkyard a week later and went spare wheel/tire hunting. If you've ever tried to pull wheels off junkyard cars you know that sometimes the ebrake doesnt work, sometimes the brake pedal does nothing, can't put it in gear, etc etc, and basically you have an elevated car with no way to steady the wheels. It was so great to have there... not to mention it was hot as shit that day. And the day after that used it for all the higher-torqued fasteners and of course lugs when I pulled the axles and diff out of my corolla. Absolutely one of my best purchases yet.

Ended up checking out the HF retail store in Newark, not as impressive as the catalog, sadly. But they did have a "14 piece" metric impact set with case for $15 or so.

Gotta pick up one of these now: http://store.autotoolexpress.com/ra1drprcoprf.html

The black & decker is great as long as its charged, and as long as you break the fasteners first by hand, but I need something with a few spare batteries.

[Inland180]

Good to hear !! Ebay has some good tools sometimes

[240silvia]

I bought a 6 piece Dewalt kit at Christmas.... and i got a free tool. Well I ordered the Dewalt 18V XRP High Torque Impact Wrench.... I'm waiting for it in the mail now.... Should be TiTe yO!!!!