I thought I'd provide another update. It's early days for the new toy, but it will give a few of you some idea.
Some of you know that I have a Kielder. For the money it's not too bad. In short:
-It's light. I probably use this around the car alot for this reason.
-The rattle action can prevent breaking things off I've noticed.
-The batteries last an age
-It seems to be built well as well! Maybe not quite as nice as the old man's Makita, but not miles off either.
Now for the not so good news
-The torque doesn't seem to be near what Kielder say. On wheels where I have torque up the wheel bolts between 90-120Nm myself (and on the Citroen to 54Nm), it will struggle a little. If they are left for a while it will take a good minute or two of rattling around before it moves.
-The rear hub nut on my 2CV is 44m and done to 350Nm. This should be within the realm of the Kielder. It couldn't touch it.
-A friend's corded Silverline 350Nm machine seems to have more ease with doing the above than the Kielder. One differance I have noticed is that the Silverline 'builds up the torque in increasing blows.
-They're noisy, but that's expected.
-At £200, I'm not sure it's the bargain it once people felt it was. At that money, you're into Makita and even Milwaukee territory, which I reckon might be superior. At £160 it was fine.
I know it sounds like I am criticising mine, but I have used mine all over most cars now, as it does speed things up as
jiminwatford said.
I have bought a DeWalt DCF899P2 kit. I did wince when buying it, but at that time, I was running out of options. I had tried a wheel bearing retainer to remove on the 2CV
3/4" breaker bar with some tubing on it
1/2" Breaker bar ; it was bending like crazy, so I chickened out.
Kielder as above. It didn't touch it, but it couldn't touch the less torqued up hubnut, which the 3/4" bar took off with relative ease.
The Dewalt initially wouldn't touch it on the 1st setting. On the second it move it around at a slow and steady pace. The third? It almost wizzed it off but it still struggled ; that retainer was on tight! I've seen Youtube videos of people using some brutal stuff to remove them, and people do sometimes destroy the retainers after struggling to remove them.
So, I've not used it much, but what can I say?
-I miss the battery level indicator that my Kielder has
-I also miss the lightness! At 3.3kg, it does weigh more. When I picked both up, it didn't seem that obvious mind you.
-Wheel bolts are not really a problem anymore
-It has a slow torque buildup function
-It seems fairly well made, and the LED is as good as the Makita's It's much brighter than the Kielder's which to me now makes a great difference. The light will stay on, which also helps.
-It does what it says on the tin.
-At £350 it seems pricey. For the above, my only other choice was to give the drum to a specialist, send it off etc. and pay a labour charge on top. But to be fair, it would have saved me a a few trips to various garages in the past, and quite a bit of time. It was also marginally cheaper than the Makita offering, which I initially wanted, or the Milwaukee. I wanted the Milwaukee item, but I couldn't justify £500, I could barely justify £350! It would have saved me a week of going back and forth when I was removing the Merc's crank pulley nut, which is done to 200Nm and then angle tightened a further 90 degrees.
Now, I can do a few jobs I've been putting off mind you. Wheel bearing in the MkIV Mondeo with seized and iffy wheel bearing bolts etc.
The above is a slightly unfair comparison I admit. One is £200, and the other is £350. But the DeWalt has me wondering if I should get rid of the Kielder for a 3/8" drive DeWalt now I have two batteries. But we shall see.
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