Tire changes are safer and easier with a cordless impact wrench
**A contributed post as written for The Safe Driver.
As a kid, we loved taking our cars to Grandpa’s shop to work on them. He had all of the best air impact wrenches, and we could make short work of tasks that would takes us all day to do with our ratchets.
Recently, my wife surprised me with a new gift: a cordless impact wrench. I was super gracious about the gift, but, frankly was a little skeptical. It is a lot bulkier than the pneumatic wrenches which means it won’t fit into the tight spots.
So I didn’t envision myself using it much.
But, when your husband has every cool tool out there, the wife has to try to get him something he doesn’t have. I made sue to be super gracious and excited about the gift and found a place for it in my shop.
Over the past few months, I’ve been surprised at how much use it is getting. It truly makes my life easier and I get downright giddy whenever I get a chance to show it off.
30 Minute Brake Job
One of the first jobs I used it on was when one the wife’s girlfriends got an outlandish
quote for a brake pad replacement job at the muffler shop. I told her to bring the car over and I’d do it. While my wife and her friend sipped wine, I grabbed the new wrench and went to work.
Within 10 seconds I had all of the lug nuts removed and the tire off. Using my old-school ratchet, I then loosed the caliper, popped the pads off, compressed the caliper with my massive C-clamp and slipped some caliper grease and the new pad on. Done.
Buttoning up was just as fast. Slip the tire on, and zip the lug bolts back on in a star pattern. I was conscious to not over-tighten them in case she ever gets a flat, and even pulled out a four-way lug wrench to test how tight I was getting the nuts.
The entire job took me just under 30 minutes. You don’t realize how much time you spend fighting with those lug nuts until you have the advantage of a cordless, powered, lug wrench.
Installing A TV
The next task was installing a new TV mount. The mount came with a massive, ½ lag bolt that needed to be threaded into a stud. Drilling the pilot hole for the lag bolt was easy enough, but the lag bolt itself proved to be too much for my cordless screw driver.
So, in a stroke of inspiration, I went for the impact wrench. Of course, it drilled that lag bolt in like a knife in hot butter. I had to be careful to go gently with it, or it could have easily turned into a sheetrock job.
Tire Change On The Side Of The Road
Now, drilling a lag bolt into a stud wasn’t what Makita had in mind when they were designing their wrench, but it really impressed me with how versatile this tool is.
The last time I used it was when one of my wife’s sisters called and said they had a flat tire on their way home from work (See a trend here?). I grabbed the impact wrench and my bulky floor jack and ran out into the freezing rain.
Side of the road tire swaps are not my favorite scenario. It’s so dangerous to do anything on the side of the road. But with a good jack and the wrench, I had her going in about 10 minutes. (And yes, I know there’s going to be comments about her sister should learn to change her own tire. Or how we should invest in AAA roadside assistance. Both are great ideas. The wrench was way faster and got her off the side of the road.)
Buying a Cordless Impact Wrench
So I’m pretty sold on this idea of a cordless impact wrench. It doesn’t lack for power, and it is extremely lightweight and portable. Battery life hasn’t been an issue for me since most of the jobs I do are one-offs.
There are a lot of brands to choose from. Makita, Dewalt and Milwaukee all make incredible cordless impact wrenches. Sites like ToolTally.com seem to do a pretty good job reviewing them, if you want to get into the specifications and details (I’m a Makita man, so that’s what the wife bought for me. She recognizes that teal-blue color). It looks like Ingersoll Rand even makes one, now. I guess the air tools really are going electric.
There is a difference between electric tools and their air-powered forefathers. Pneumatic impact wrenches definitely are stronger and can regularly do 1500 foot-pounds of torque. These wrenches can peak with up to 1000 foot-pounds of torque when on a full charge.
That’s enough to remove the flywheel off of your car (one of the biggest jobs you could do with an impact wrench).
But most of the jobs you do will only need 100-600 Foot-pounds of torque, making these more than adequate.
The only problem is that they are way bulkier than the slimmer pneumatic wrenches. So if you are working in a tight spot, it is definitely going to be too large to use. But the upside is that you don’t need an air compressor to use them!
Disambiguation With Impact Drivers
One final note is that impact wrenches are different from “impact drivers”. Impact drivers are basically cordless screw-guns with little internal impact hammers that deliver INCH-pounds of torque. So the power difference is much greater.
For example, these drivers can deliver close to 2,000 INCH-pounds (possibly enough to loosen a lug nut), while the impact wrenches deliver 12,000 INCH-pounds.
Also, the impact drivers accept bits similar to how your screwdriver does, and don’t come with that ½” socket driver like an impact wrench does. Just a couple of difference to be aware of.
Cordless Is Cool
Bottom line is, I didn’t think I’d use the tool much, but it turns out that it is a life-changing piece of equipment for some of those car repair jobs.
I’m inclined to put mine in the back of the car anytime we do long road trips. It might just save our lives by reducing how long we have to be broken down on the side of the highway.