sometimes it almost doesn't make sense not to buy another tool
was looking for the larger battery I have some 1.5 and 2amp hour

$109 for a new 4.0 amp hour Rigid battery
$149 for a new 4.0 amp hour battery , a 1/2 inch impact wrench and a charge as a kit.

I spend the extra 40 I loaned my air impact to my son and I was thinking about this any way to be more portable

now that I will have a spare charger also that can just live in the truck , I charge off the inverter while driving.

been watching a lot of tool reviews lately it is amazing what they are getting for torque from these impacts now

if you want to avoid buying new tools don't watch reviews it is easier to just not know what exists

I usually wait until there's a quantum leap in tool and battery technology and then upgrade everything... just upgraded to Milwaukee M18 fuel system and never looked back.

this gets me into the Octane tool but it fits all my other Rigid 18v tools as well

my 1999 dewalt 12v ni cad to the Rigid Li on was a quantum leap several years ago rigid keeps the battery mount the same , they have some blue tooth enabled batteries and tools that monitor temp so you can get more power as I understand it.

my son is just getting started and is looking to go Milwaukee fuel

Milwaukee seems to be the cats arse now. I still have Dewalt but the boys are switching to Milwaukee. My Brother and Son really like the Milwaukee 18v Mitre saw setup.

I dumped my dewalt and went to Milwaukee. Can't believe the difference in power and run times.

I went with milwaukee acouple years ago... same battery and one charger for all the tools.

Another vote for Milwaukee Fuel.

Making me feel like a dinosaur here. Still running my Craftsman 19 volt. I have impact,3/8 drills as well as 1/2" drill. Can't bring myself to dump them as there is lots of life left in them though batteries die fast. I am going to invest in an inverter so can charge them as I dive though or in a spot the isn't a 110 outlet available.

I went with a 400 watt and it powers the charger fine the charger only says it needs 50wats my kill-a-watt meter says real draw 45 watts

the 400 watt gave me more options and was only a little more than a smaller one it also has usb ports for charging phones because it takes up the charger port on the dash

this summer we were camping for 2 weeks and it was hot so I bought a ridgid fan that can run on 120 or battery , on a med-low setting the 2ah batteries would get me about 4 hours then if woke up just slip the next battery on and go back to sleep

make sure to turn off the inverter switch when you stop , even with a battery off my tool charger it draws 0.3 watts to keep the light on so it will keep the inverter running and run down your truck battery

her is a nice comparison of the budget models , Milwaukee is listed tp see why it costs more but not in the budget category

We have a mix of dewalt and milwaukee. The newer dewalts aren't far from the milwaukee fuels in quality and charge. They are both a giant leap from the old 18v dewalt . Both of the impacts will break bolts if you are not careful , more powerful than most pneumatic impacts

they made some real leaps in air impact power also since I bought mine in 1996

Back them the manager was a big fan of 3/8 air fittings and he always ran the compressors at 150psi

and every drop line in the shop was 1/2 inch good year rubber , he swore by it , maybe because we were a Goodyear shop , when he wasn't managing the shop he managed a local racing team

here you can see some of the why

Well I have 9 drills, 2 driver drills , two sawmills, a mini skill saw etc.

4 or 5 good batteries , because of buying kits every 4 years instead of batteries

I do like my 18v Ryobi tools though

drill
driver
circular saw
flash light
fan

and now impact

5 batteries

with rigid is you register within 90 days and you battery takes a dump you send it in for repair/replace

so far none of my batteries have died , my brother used the warranty on his older 24volt batteries from around 2006

Dont buy those name brand batteries. Go to amazon and search the knock off ones. Theyre about 1/3 the price and theyve lasted me really well. Drilled a lot of holes with the ryobi one 60 dollar bare tool hammer drill and a 25 dollar 4 a/h battery this year. Batteries are about 3 years old and hold a charge fine.

it is a real mixed bag of are they good or not

here is some head to head battery comparisons some are a deal some are not.

There is certainly some junk Milwaukee fuel batteries such as the 9.0 amp battery. The 8 amp battery outperforms 9 amp in my limited experience.

I bought some China knockoffs to replace old style Milwaukee batteries I had for a set of tools. They were 50% out of the box. Of the ones that did hold a charge, they lasted less than a year. I've pretty well replaced the tools, but wish Milwaukee and all the tools companies would make their batteries compatible.

Have not had luck with them in car or tool batteries at all. I buy the new batteries everytime and have been happy the other ones are junk in my opinion you get what you pay for in batteries.

for car batteries I buy the Walmart Everstart Maxx start batteries , they had a 3 year warranty full replacement with a 5 year pro rated warranty.

it was actually the first battery to last me more than 3 years , then I think the quality went down.

I had been buying farm and fleet batteries and when I got very tired of them leaving me asking for a jump some place about 2 years in

they now have just the 3 year replacement I guess they know 5 years just isn't happening.

the last one I replaced made it 2 years 10 months then it would not let the headlights run 5 minutes and then start


a good battery will at 32 degrees f run the headlights for 15 minutes then start the car

as they get close to their 3 years run that test a few times while near a battery charger so you can get it running again. if it fails get it in to let them test it and replace it. good test to run the first time it gets cold each year