mooty

sears here in nor cal are bad, sales ppl have no clue how a hammer differs from a wrench.

you are right about snap on. i bought a bunch of stuff, THEN i saw the bill

i use a 18v snap on wrench. had it 5 years, use it every weekend, replace two batteries, other than that, it does the job no matter how hard i dropped it or how far i threw it to the other side of the garage.

LlBr

I prefer Ferrari toolz. (Yeah, right )

sjjon

I too have one of the electric impact guns for wheel changes from Pep Boys, works great, my only suggestion is don't do what I did and leave it in the car or out in a cold garage, went to use it about 2 months after I got it and the battery went bad and wouldn't take a charge, keep it indoors when not using it and it'll work great. Definitely check the lugs by hand afterwards though, sometimes the torque isn't quite consistent.

brendo

i also have a dewalt cordless impact wrench - 14.4v because i had other dewalt tools with the same batteries and chargers. with that, i use a standard breaker bar and mac tools torque wrench.

generally, i think you do less damage to wheels etc with an impact wrench than spinning the breaker bar around,etc. YMMV.

for air in my tires, i use an accumulator tank (longacre aluminum). i had the basic sears/craftsman version but one of the valves failed in the middle of the first season. if i have to refill the accumulator tank, theres always a compressor somewhere at the track.

oh, and i have a really nice snap-on tool bag which puts me right into poseur territory

mooty

facom and matco are both as good as snap on.
but i prefer snap b/c of the cool girls on their free calendars.





in all seriousness, i didn't know anything about matco when i bought snap on. since i have snap on now, i like to keep it all snap on. hey once you start throwing money out the window, what's another 100 here and there

facom i knew, but it's not readily available as snap on. i like to have my tq wrench recalibrated often. on sometimes the long sockets i use on impact gun gets "worn out" (they dont have hardened long sockets with thin wall). my snap on guys told me just to use it, and when it cracks (it will) he always swap me a new one no questions asked. with facom, i will have to find the rep and mail things in. with snap on, i just chase down a truck LOL.

mooty

you NEED to ALWAYS tq the wheel bolts/nuts with a tq wrench, do not just use impact gun. it will be too tight if you have a good 18v gun. and god forbids if you have a weak 14v gun, the nut/bold will not be to tq and i have seen MANY wheels falling off car on track b/c of that. chk tq with tq wrench, no way around it.

Sadiq

if spinning manually, cant you get it pretty close just by feel? i.e., tight, but not too tight

brendo

i doubt it. used a torque wrench. 96 ft-lbs or 130Nm

simrohor

For a compressor, I use a Peak Portable Power 450 Plus that I got from Pep Boys last year. I charge it every other month and use it to inflate the tires if necessary. We have four cars in the family and I check the tire pressures in three other cars at least once a month.

I check mine every day. Just the other day, I had a slow bleed, about 2 psi a day, and after raising the cold temp in the front left to 34 about 3-4 times, I took it to my tire specialist at La Cienega and Venice and sure enough there was a small nail.

Today, my son called and told me his car battery (2007 Honda Civic) was dead (listening to music while cleaning it) and I jumped the battery in 5 seconds.

It also converts 12v to 110v if needed. Nice piece of equipment well worth the price.

Hope this helps.

LlBr

That works only on lesser ordinary cars like Honda or Chevrolet.

George from MD

mmmmmmmm.....Snap On.

I use a longacre 24 volt impact wrench and have a small Sears AC for the track and a bigger Campbell Hausfeld for the house. But you do need a breaker bar and a torque wrench- the impact wrench is only for loosening and tightening. Mine is overkill but it was a XMAS present.

but I really want the Snap On Classic 96 in electric yellow....maybe one of these days.....

lawjdc

You guys are all talking wimpy impact wrenches. You need a Milwaukee cordless impact wrench to really get the job done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spSfTkUfF6A

Tom N

Hilarious

He must used red locktite instead of antiseize compound on that lug nut

LlBr

Gee Thanks a million! That was a good laugh.

I emailed it to about six of my gearhead friends and I'm sure every one of them will crack up and LOL too! FUNNY!