Let's talk impact guns!

Klutch 24v from Northern Tool … comes with 2 batteries … I'm on my second one in 12 yrs

first stopped being able to reverse direction … haven't gotten around to taking it apart and fixing the switch (lazy)

Junkyard_Dog wrote: Skip the air, get an 18v Milwaukee fuel. Leaves all others in the dust with a 5 year warranty on the tool and a 2 year on the batteries-3 on the XC batteries. I have a demo unit I loan out and make a lot of money selling them to professionals in shops. If you want a used SnapOff look on Craigslist as that's where all of my guys sell theirs to the uninformed.

^ This, I ponied up for this impact and it takes care of everything. It sounds like the big cordless IR is great too, but I've bought into Milwaukee's system at this point. The M12 Fuel 3/8 impact is great too but marginal at lug nuts IME.

I will be getting the dwalt 20v one soon. I am also heavily invested with their 20v line

Opti wrote: For professional use, pneumatic, I like IR's titanium line, its light, quiet and strong. The 3/8s will do almost everything required in a normal shop, and I think Ive only had 1 or 2 things the 1/2 wouldnt take off.

This. IR + Air. Do it right and spend the money once.

I am really pleased with the 18v Kobalt I purchased from Lowe's. Two batteries (lithium ion) and a five year warranty. I have yet to run into a lug nut it won't remove, and it even does an excellent job on suspension components.

I bought the HF one with two batteries last year.

My track car at the time was 5 bolts per wheel at 75 foot-pounds. Even with a fully-charged battery, there was usually at least a couple bolts per wheel-swap or pad-swap session that it couldn't break free.

Surprisingly, I disassembled a rusty '79 project car with it pretty well.

After about 6 months of use, it stopped running in the clockwise direction. So all it does is loosen bolts. Sometimes.

YMMV.

I used to work in the tool industry and was involved with several competitor evaluations relative to our products.

Bosch usually has the best stuff for the price; the sucky stuff we would find out was licensed and not directly engineered/built by Bosch. Their dominance is mostly due to the German Government assistance they get to use higher quality materials and more of it while still hitting price point targets. I remember one teardown where we reverse engineered a part and couldn't figure out how they could do it that cheaply, like a LOT cheaper, 10% our cost, until we found out their material costs from a fellow German supplier were far cheaper to ours. But C'est la vie. So if you want the best Cordless Impact go with the big BOSCH.

IF you are only taking on and off lugnuts on the go then you might not even need a big impact depending on your lug nut torque. At around 100N-m of spec lugnut torque you can go with the lighter weight impacts that hover around 200N-m maximum capacities. The lighter ones also can be used to run down the lug nuts after hand starting them without worry of snapping off lugs/studs. If you are changing while the wheels while hot, the expansion of the wheels can increase the release torque requirements over those little ones.

That said the pneumatic IR impact wrench will do the best work on any suspension bolts that are old. Just realize that depending on the suspension designs, any rubber in your bushings will do their job of reducing impacts from your impact wrench. Sometimes the constant torque of a big breaker bar is best.

At home IR Impact wrench. Worth it!

At the track or autocross go with a smaller Makita or Dewalt Li-ion or if you want the big boy Bosch Li-ion.

In reply to Opti:

Yeah I think we took a look at those Chinese ones and they have a large amount of quality variation. The biggest plus with them for us GRMs is that they targeted a more torque versus speed with their gearbox. I owned the Goodyear tire branded one until the batteries went south. Most of the other manufacturers lean more towards speed of running down lag bolts into wood or lag bolt/nut systems into concrete. Time is money in construction. That is why they make these tools, not for automotive.

mad_machine wrote: I will be getting the dwalt 20v one soon. I am also heavily invested with their 20v line

Dewalt is doing a trade-in program right now with NAPA: http://knowhow.napaonline.com/check-out-napas-dewalt-tools-trade-in-program/

The 20V 1/2" impact is $259. I'm fairly sure that will break almost anything loose you point it at. There are a few more discounts too. I was thinking of going to Goodwill to get an old cordless drill kit, then trade it in for a discount on a DeWalt 20v Drill for $100 (a $25 discount).

As for corded, I stand by my HF 1/2" impact. By far worth the $40 I spent almost 10 years ago. I used it the other day to bust the retainer nuts off my lawn tractor blades.

I have a snap on 18V I love, although when it couldn't do the job my buddy's IR did. I also use a dewalt 20v impact tool with a 1/4 or 3/8 mandrel for small jobs in tight spaces. not enough power to overtorque anything on assembly.

I think the negative reviews for the HF air impact are misplaced. You must purchase the upgraded impact in the red package. We abuse our 3/8 drive daily and have ad zero problems

I've got a HF Earthquake (red body) 1/2 air impact that just won't quit. It's about 9 years old now, basically an old IR knockoff. When it dies i'll probably get another one.

I'm in the market for a cordless electric, specifically to use on top strut nuts on the 330Ci, which I will be doing away from home. I'm hoping the Ryobi will be adequate because all my other cordless stuff is Ryobi, which means I don't need to buy a battery or charger. And I have many batteries on hand.

Junkyard_Dog wrote: Skip the air, get an 18v Milwaukee fuel. Leaves all others in the dust with a 5 year warranty on the tool and a 2 year on the batteries-3 on the XC batteries. I have a demo unit I loan out and make a lot of money selling them to professionals in shops. If you want a used SnapOff look on Craigslist as that's where all of my guys sell theirs to the uninformed.

Big second on the Milwaukee fuel cordless line. I am a professional mechanic. I bought mine a couple months ago and it's been worth every penny. I find the batteries last 2 - 3 days of full time use.

It's got just as much if not more power then my IR Ti. 1/2 gun.

Went to Home Depot with the One-Day sale 25% off coupon and the Ryobi unit in hand. I want it because I already have 3 batteries and two chargers for it. It's only $119 regular price. Guy at the register manually input the coupon and was about to tell me the total and he says " just one second..." Walks over to the other cashier and comes back to say they don't take HF coupons no mo. Crap. I left without it.

On the ride back home I called every HD store in the vicinity. The only competitor coupon they'll take are from Lowes. I'm going to scrounge one of those up and head back. I'm a cheap bastard.

Having owned some Ryobi tools in the past you couldn't pay me to own one, even if I already had 100 good batteries in my stash.

Guns chatter and damage lugnut finishes and don't torque well. Just buy an extra long breaker bar from EBAY for breaking loose and snugging up. Any cordless gun will do fine for spinning. But choose only lithium ion battery models. Far superior to NiCad for life and reliability. I use the mini Makita's.

ScreaminE wrote: Went to Home Depot with the One-Day sale 25% off coupon and the Ryobi unit in hand. I want it because I already have 3 batteries and two chargers for it. It's only $119 regular price. Guy at the register manually input the coupon and was about to tell me the total and he says " just one second..." Walks over to the other cashier and comes back to say they don't take HF coupons no mo. Crap. I left without it. On the ride back home I called every HD store in the vicinity. The only competitor coupon they'll take are from Lowes. I'm going to scrounge one of those up and head back. I'm a cheap bastard.

Did the same thing, with the same gun, except they took my coupon. My cashier was a younger guy who greeted me warmly when we walked in. As I understand it, the individual cashiers have the ability to give discounts/take coupons up to a certain point without requiring a manager. I'm batting about 8/10 for using HF coupons at HD. The girls are usually the ones who deny the coupons.

PS I was able to pay using Paypal at the register, enter in your ph# and Paypal PIN. Was way cool.

I've had the HF cordless impact for a year now. I've never had the battery die on me during work, including 2 transmission swaps.

It's also loosened the VW axle nuts each time I've asked it to, and those are torqued to 'break your ratchet, + 1 turn'.

The reason you hear such varying results is, like all other cheapo cordless things, the charger is 'dumb' if the manufacturer admits it or not. Charge for 4 hours or so after use and that's it. Leaving it on charge is a death sentence.

Have the Craftsman C3 19.2V impact. Worthless is my best single word description. It generally cannot removed properly torqued lug nuts on clean lubricated threads.

When looking at pneumatic, you've got to have the air flow so the gun has power. Restrict the flow through a small fitting or long hose, and the power of the impact gun drops like a proverbial rock.

foxtrapper wrote: Have the Craftsman C3 19.2V impact. Worthless is my best single word description. It generally cannot removed properly torqued lug nuts on clean lubricated threads. When looking at pneumatic, you've got to have the air flow so the gun has power. Restrict the flow through a small fitting or long hose, and the power of the impact gun drops like a proverbial rock.

Dude, you may have just saved me $100. Sears has that impact on sale for 89.99 online, I was just about to order it when I saw your post. It's rated for 200 ft-lbs but if it can't manage lug nuts then it's pretty worthless for what I want it for. Guess i'll save up for the Milwaukee..

foxtrapper wrote: When looking at pneumatic, you've got to have the air flow so the gun has power. Restrict the flow through a small fitting or long hose, and the power of the impact gun drops like a proverbial rock.

3/8" air hoses FTW......add into that, most impacts are rated at something pedestrian like 125psi or so(most pathetic little compressors put that out), but they'll make even more with higher pressures.

Like others have said, I am also invested in Dewalt 18V stuff, drill, reciprocating saw, little cut off saw, etc. I've got 5 batteries of various age, all still in good shape. So Dewalt seemed like the best bet for a cordless impact.

So, I got the BIG one, the 1/2" drive 300 ft lb, one. It's handy, and goes to the Pick-n-Pull with me, but it is not a replacement for my Craftsman 1/2" pneumatic impact gun. The Dewalt has been bested by countless fasteners that my Craftsman has laughed at.

I still use the Dewalt some, but if I know I'm going to be working on old, rusty, heavy stuff, I don't even bother to get the Dewalt out, and just use the Craftsman.

When I am using the Dewalt, it's on stuff that I reasonably expect it can handle. Then I realize just how big, bulky, and heavy it is. I bought the big one for it's power, but since it lets me down so often, I kind of regret it's size, since I wind up dragging the Craftsman and air hose out for a job anyway, I often wish I had gotten one of the smaller, lighter, 3/8" or maybe even 1/4" drive Dewalts.

YMMV

I've got the Ryobi 1/2 electric.

This one...

http://www.amazon.com/Factory-Reconditioned-Ryobi-ZRP260-Cordless-Impact/dp/B004G27J1Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1428603736&sr=8-2&keywords=ryobi+impact+driver+1%2F2

Works fine for the limited projects I have put it to including removing lugs. The Li-Ion batteries last long enough for my uses, never really drained one, but again I'm not doing continuous work. I have two of the compact batteries. I can use one of the compact batteries to remove and swap wheels at autocross and swap back at the end of the day without it running out.

I bought this one: Craftsman HD C3

It's on sale now for $149 with a high capacity LiON battery. I used a $15 off $100 from retailmenot.com as well. It seems beefily rated at 300 ft-lbs removable torque but I'm skeptic. It couldn't break loose a cam bolt this morning on my Focus. It may be going back to sears.