Couldn't help myself, the deals were just too good. Specially once you include the lifetime warranties on ALL the things. Tool, Battery, Charger.

Picked up the Rigid Octane 3/8" and 1/2" electric impacts for about $290 to my door. Included the 2 chargers, a 2Ah batt for the 3/8th, and a 4ah battery for the 1/2".

The 3/8th" one has built in auto-torque limting. 15-50-100 ft-lbs. Would be interesting to see just how accurate it is.

If I were doing a wheel I'd probably set it to 50 ft-lbs, then final torque with actual wrench.

 

Seems like a decent deal to me! I’ve had a couple 1/2” drive Masterforce impacts from Menards. First one worked decent but didn’t have a ton of torque. Took 7 years to burn it up. Still actually works just has a spot where something isn’t making electrical contact and you have to rotate it. Newer updated one seems to be a little better quality but expecting same performance and quality. Came as part of a deal with about 6/7 other tools for $300 and much like you couldn’t pass it up.

On a side note, I have a friend that has a Snap On 1/2” drive. Believe it ran around $400 when he got it but that thing will remove lugs, mine will not lol

 

I have a cheap Harbor Freight corded 1/2" impact. It was very helpful, but like the one you have, really doesn't have any power to it. And the added pain of having to run a 100ft long extension cord out to the car when I want to use it. Physically its huge, and heavy. And while it can remove lugs, it has to try pretty hard. And barely makes enough torque to tighten lugs down. I've had at times to let the gun take multiple breaks to cool down so I don't melt the communicators.

These guns should make the twice annual seasonal tire changes a breeze on the RS, and the 3/8th should come in handy for smaller jobs too. Like breaking the bolts on a brake caliper loose.

For about $300 I decided I couldn't pass them up, especially with the lifetime warranties on all of the parts.

 

Definitely. My routine is usually to go around vehicle with a breaker bar and break loose all lugs. Then when vehicle is up I can use it to run them off and back on with a final torque from a wrench. Beats having to take lugs off by hand with a socket lol

 

Should also make it easier to deal with getting the spacers off the front of my GTA. Its otherwise impossible as one has to hold the brake down so the hub doesn't spin freely. Thinking the impact will be able to loosen those lugs.

 

Or, ya know, stick a pry bar between the lugs and rest it against the ground to stop it from spinning

 

Can't do that on the spacers since the lugs are recessed into the holes.

 

What about the lugs that you bolt the wheel onto

 

nice, I share your joy. picked up battery powered 3/8 and 1/2 from Milwaukee tools, they are my new best friends. hardly ever turn on the air compressor anymore.

 

Me too. The M18 Fuel stuff will twist your arm off. I was used to working with 20 year old Ryobi gear. I couldn't believe how much torque you can get from something battery powered. Milwaukee is running a deal right now where you get a free 5.0AH battery when you buy specific "tool only" models. I've got my eye on the super sawzall next...

 

A sawzall would be good to have for somethings.

I haven't had a reason to use the new tools yet besides pointing them at the dogs and cats and squeezing the trigger. They just look at me funny and blink at the LEDs.

 

I have the 1/2" love it. For the money it's hard to beat. Make sure you keep checking when you register them online they are super picky with the warranty. Mine took like 2 months to get approved after signing up

 

I haven't checked up since I registered them. Will have to login and make sure they processed it.

But when I registered, I also uploaded copies of the receipts. So that should help avoid issues if I need to do anything warranty wise.

 

So, today, with the unseasonably warm weather I decided to make the swap to the Winter Tires on the RS figuring who knows what kind of weather I'll get.

Dear LORD, where has this electric impact been all my life! It has two features which make life so much easier.

Obviously, you can use the impact to remove the lugs in a snap, duh.

And obviously, you shouldn't use the impact to torque them down again. Especially when the impact MFG says it can do like 1200 ft-lbs lol. On the best case, you'll never be able to remove them by hand again. On the worst case you'll snap something.

But, it has an "Auto" mode, which is a god-send! It'll automatically stop as soon as it it hits a point where the hammer engages. So as soon as it hits a point where it has to hammer, it stops dead. This means that to run the lugs down all I need to do is hand thread them all 5 lugs so I know the threads are engaged fully and then run them all down with the impact till it stops.

Using AUTO mode I found that it got the lugs like decently snug. Probably 40-50 ft-lbs. And all it took was another 15° turn with the torque wrench to hit 100 ft-lbs.

Life was made SO MUCH easier today.

Still don't have a torque stick, but I'lll probably pick one up that's just shy of the 100ft-lbs so I can finish manually with the wrench.

It literally cut at least 45 minutes off the time I takes me to change the tires.

Also, looks like I'll be able to about 1 to 2 seasons more out of the Super Sports on the RS.