I'm already heavily invested in the Milwaukee battery platform but if I wasn't I'd be looking very hard at the Hercules line from Harbor Freight. Their high torque 1/2" drive impact wrenches are equally as impressive.
Harbor Freight Hercules Impact Driver
- Thread starter joesregalproject
- Start date
Some of their stuff is shockingly good. I recall their Earthquake XT air impact guns doing extremely good on various reviews.
You could always try and find a battery adapter between your Milwaukee stuff and that.
You could always try and find a battery adapter between your Milwaukee stuff and that.
Harbor Freight seem to be (compaired to their traditional tool lines) going leaps & bounds with the better brand lines. I'm still cautious of what I buy there cause you get what you paid for (cheap tool=cheap quality) but I'm getting hooked on the Icon wrenches & if it was for my investment into my cordless Craftsman tools I would be looking at the Hercules stuff.
When I buy tools like this, I want one to last me several years. I'm usually skeptical lf anything coming out of Harbor Freight as far as outperforming anything else on the market, but this one does seem to have promise.
While the test results show very good now, what are they when the tools were shop-used for say, a year or more? I say if you are a daily user, it may not be the best choice depending on whether it holds up. But if you only wrench on the weekend or maybe only occasionally, it definitely is worth a look. That last part of the video showing the aluminum housing moving back and forth in the plastic looks like a fatigue failure waiting to happen. Also, unless I missed it, battery survival is always a question with these things. You may save on the tool, but buy twice as many batteries really cutting into that foot-pound per buck thing.
While the test results show very good now, what are they when the tools were shop-used for say, a year or more? I say if you are a daily user, it may not be the best choice depending on whether it holds up. But if you only wrench on the weekend or maybe only occasionally, it definitely is worth a look. That last part of the video showing the aluminum housing moving back and forth in the plastic looks like a fatigue failure waiting to happen. Also, unless I missed it, battery survival is always a question with these things. You may save on the tool, but buy twice as many batteries really cutting into that foot-pound per buck thing.
HF offers a 5 year warranty on this stuff so longevity shouldn't be a huge concern. They are a lot easier to swap out for a replacement than either Milwaukee or Dewalt. The batteries are really the big catch on all of these tools. The main thing I would be worried about with these is that HF changes tool lines so frequently that battery availability could be an issue later on. However battery adapters are readily available so you could theoretically run these off of Dewalt or Milwaukee batteries should that issue arise. As far as battery survival goes, I believe HF uses regular Samsung cells in their batteries so you shouldn't really have an issue with them.
I had a Milwaukee 1/2 impact die on me recently. I purchased a HF Bauer 1/2" impact as a temporary tool until I fix the Milwaukee impact. I prefer to keep one battery setup. So I purchased an adapter allowing a Bauer tool to be used with a Milwaukee M18 battery. IOW, I am using M18 batteries on all my 18V and 20V cordless tools. My understanding is that a similar adapter is made for Hercules 20V tools.
I interoperability of batteries is always my issue. I using Makita for my weekend shade tree mechanic garage since I have multiple lawn equipment that is also Makita. They are not cheap and the batteries are expensive but I have some that are over 4 yrs old that a holding their charge time pretty well. Food for thought: If you can't afford the time and $ to work on a rounded off bolt head or broken tap going cheap will cost you specially if you are a working mechanic! I have a bunch of expensive wrenches, ratchets, extensions and tap & die sets and socket sets that I stole from my dad decades ago and are still as new as the day he got them.
Yeah, there's always the question of cost vs. quality. Poor quality will cost you, but it everyone has their own individual needs. And then there's the corollary, having the right tool for the right job can save you a ton.
That being said, I do find the cost of some pro grade tools to be absurd. Definitely out of budget for the majority of those who's livelihood don't rely on said tools.
The battery stuff is annoying. I kind of wish they had a universal battery system. I've got Rigid, Dewalt, Milwaulkee M12, Ego and SunJoe. On one hand, having a bunch of different battery platforms for different tools usually means I have a battery ready to go regardless of the tool I'm using. But on the downside, I have a shelf full of chargers. Most of it though is that at certain points when I wanted a specific tool, the platform(s) that I had didn't make said tool.
I had committed to Rigid, mainly for their lifetime battery warranty. But then wanted a cordless impact wrench. Rigid didn't make one, so I bought the Dewalt. then I wanted a cordless ratchet. Again, at the time, neither Rigid nor Dewalt made one, so it was Milwaukee M12. The SunJoe was that I wanted a hedge trimmer, which was something I only use maybe once a year so just decided to get the cheapest thing I could. Then it was a cordless blower, the Ego seemed head and shoulders above what anyone else was making, so yet another battery set.
Lately I've been thinking to get a drill/driver combo for the house so I'm not always running back and forth to the garage (a whole 60 ft from the house 🤣 ). Maybe I should get Makita now?
