I've already got a set of Makita 18v drills. Now I want something to do wheel nuts when I change the summer tyres for winter and take the caravan wheels off. All wheel nuts are correctly torqued even after a visit to the tyre place so I shouldn't need anything extreme.
A bare Makita 6936 with an 1/2" adapter on would use batteries I already have; is it worth looking elsewhere? I've got £100ish to spend.
Your comments gratefully received.
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Snap-on would be my choice for battery type.
I use air from home and the gun is Ingersol Rand.
Plenty of choice in the battery range if you go to Machine Mart they have plenty, not for me air works best but you would need at least a 50ltr tank or higher the better, mine 150ltrs.
Don't forget impact sockets and if you can get a reducer socket to 3/8 drive makes life easier for the smaller bolts.
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In the fine forum tradition of not answering the question, spending £100+ seems a lot when a wheelbrace or cheap torque wrench would do the job.
If it has to be a power tool, buying a Makita to make use of existing batteries makes sense.
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You dont need an impact wrench for wheel nuts/bolts. Your torque wrench does the job just nicely.
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Shouldn't use a torque wrench to undo stubborn fixings, ruins the calibration.
This was given a good review on here a while back:
tinyurl.com/bpwdskv
Wired though - but likely to outrun anything battery powered (except perhaps the Snap on one that was discussed somewhen on here that was awesome - price as well I expect!).
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Bigtee; I won't do air, if the tool's going to have an umbilical I might as well have the mains beastie in Richard's post.
Iffy, Zero; never mind not needing it, if I said it was going to be a Christmas present, would that help? This isn't about need, it's about want, and making life easier in my fast-approaching dotage.
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What size wheel nuts is this to remove ie what size is the socket?
19mm / 3/4 or under all those battery ones at the likes of B&Q will be fine, for the larger sockets like 21mm above ideally snap-on or similar.
In the air range i know you don't want but snap-on have a sister line called Blue-Point worth a look very good guns had them in the past, if Ingersol Rand do Battery ones have a look, as they make guns for Mac Tools.
If this is occasional use which i think it is for £100 you will get something decent to help out, but a strong bar with socket would be mine in the boot as the foot on the bar undo the nuts no problem.
NOT TORQUE WRENCH for undoing bolts if my service manager caught us doing that he's whack you around the head!!
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>> NOT TORQUE WRENCH for undoing bolts ..
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No no. I've got 2 lengths of ally scaffold for difficult ones. I try not to practice tool abuse.
In answer to the question, caravan 19mm, cars 17mm.
Going to borrow one of these;
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190573709843?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
Will it really kick out 258 foot pounds of torque? That's twice as tight as I do the towball bolts. Wow!
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...NOT TORQUE WRENCH for undoing bolts ...
Agreed, although I would expect this Snap-on torque wrench to come to no harm if you used it for undoing bolts.
The ratchet works both ways, and if you set it to a high torque setting, it wouldn't click on a wheel bolt.
buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=&tool=all&item_ID=55265&group_ID=954&store=uk&dir=catalog
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It works both ways for left and right hand thread bolts.
But not the tool for undoing wheel nuts use a strong bar.
If your a cowboy use a torque wrench & get a horse.
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That's one of the reasons for buying Snap-on - you can get stuck in and use the tools.
And as I said, it wouldn't even click on a wheel bolt.
And if you broke it, which you couldn't, the Snap-on man would replace it.
Don't get a horse - get real.
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>> And if you broke it, which you couldn't, the Snap-on man would replace it.
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I don't know what Snap-On torque wrenches cost nowadays, but the one I bought 30 years ago was over £100 then. I can. however, vouch for their impact wrenches being an excellent piece of kit and my tool of choice (thankfully borrowed fron a friend) on the rare occasions when I have to undo a Harley engine sprocket nut, which is set at a higher torque than even HGV wheelnuts.
Snap-On won't replace torque wrenches which have not been used correctly, or in fact any tool which hasn't been used for its designed purpose; read their small print.
Power bar and short scaffold tube should remove all but the most stubborn wheelnuts on the stuff most of you drive.
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...Snap-On won't replace torque wrenches which have not been used correctly, or in fact any tool which hasn't been used for its designed purpose; read their small print...
Happily, the Snap-on man I used to deal with didn't bother reading the small print, or if he did, he ignored it.
Spoke to a Snap-on man at a garage near the caravan earlier this year.
He confirmed they still usually change broken tools without question, even if the break looks to be caused by misuse.
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Couldn't try the RAC one in the end; it had been lent to someone else.
Rejected the Makita 6936 as it needed an adaptor and could only muster a rather weedy 135 Nm.
Settled on this with buttons to select the torque required.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/270724073250?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
Wasn't prepared for the rather unexpected odd action where the flywheel hammer thingy spins up then whacks the drive mechanism with a clonk about once every second.
Untightens anything I've shown it and seems to tighten wheel nuts to similar tightness as my conventional torque wrench. Feels pretty well built but curiously unsatisfying to use.
Thanks to those who contributed.
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That should be ok for occasional use.
Whack the socket with a hammer if it struggles to shift awkward studs as this spreads the threads, air guns drop to bits with constant vibration from awkward bolts so avoid these crack them off first with yours if thats the case.
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Wow - that is a serious amount of torque. Be interesting to hear how it goes.
I just use a breaker bar to loosen the nuts and a torque wrench to tighten them. I do have an air gun but wouldn't bother getting it out of the drawer just to change one set of wheels
Last edited by: Tigger on Sat 10 Dec 11 at 08:09
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Recommend me a 1/2" impact wrench - Bigtee
