How often are you changing wheels on your car? 

An impact wrench is a god send for the home mechanic, though I mostly use it to undo stuff rather than ugga dugga stuff back up. It's certainly easy enough to tighten things, just back off before it starts to snug up. Saves spinning 16 or 20 nuts up. 

I had flash (for the time) alloy wheel nuts that got delightfully twisted after the last set of new tyres. Which was annoying, steel ones now. 

robjg63:

 

Annoys me no end when they use those rattle guns and over tighten the nuts - you pretty much cant humanly undo them unless you have the same appliance, or a very long handled wrench.

 

I remember a few years ago there were some complaints (Fair Go I think) about them being so over tightened they sometimes snapped off the studs!

 

 

 

You pretty much need to use a metal bar on the end of the wrench to increase the leverage, in order to undo the nuts. And if you are doing a roadside replacement, you aren't likely going to have a metal bar with you. I am guessing they use those guns because it makes it easier and quicker for them. I wonder how many of them check the handbook of each car and check the torque settings. 

lxsw20:

 

How often are you changing wheels on your car? 

 

i have 4 sets of wheels that i want to swap around 3 cars

Linux: Unless you have a disability stopping you from using the standard tools that came with the car you should not require anything else! You are just throwing money away

Changing a tyre on a car is very simple

This. You only need a power tool if you are doing it all day. For infrequent consumer use, muscles are perfectly sufficient.

Batman:

 

PS so the shops that use airguns are ok?

 

the last shop i went looked a bit dodgy and they were using electric hand tool - probably an impact wrench as mentioned

 

A pneumatic rattle gun (impact wrench), and a battery impact wrench, pretty much do the same thing.

The pneumatic one's are fairly cheap, compact, lightweight & durable (and put our a heap of torque for their price point), and unlimited run time.)

Battery impact wrenches often come in mid and high torque versions, Mid torque would be fine for your need's, but have half the torque of a pneumatic gun. High torque electric impact wrenches are expensive, heavy and bulky.

Really the shops should be using the rattle gun to remove nuts, and perhaps to run the nuts on again, but do the final torque manually with a torque wrench to manufactures spec's.

The reality is that many people working in tire shops get pretty good (or think they are) at guessing the right amount to use the impact wench to get the torque approximately right, so just run with that to save time / effort. 

Batman:

 

lxsw20:

 

How often are you changing wheels on your car? 

 

 

i have 4 sets of wheels that i want to swap around 3 cars

 

As a once off? It sounds like you're looking for a problem to find a solution for.

Batman:

 

i just stand on the end of the 1+ foot tool that comes with most cars. i'm about 70kg. how many Nm torque is that?

Batman:

 

lxsw20:

 

How often are you changing wheels on your car? 

 

 

i have 4 sets of wheels that i want to swap around 3 cars

 

In this case, if I was looking to spend money I would be investing in a good trolly jack. That would make the job easier and faster than an electric impact drive would.

thanks guys i think i'll play around with what i have, if i do want to do swaparoos i'd still get some tools, but maybe just a nut attachment for my drill, and hand tighten at the start and find a torque tool for the tightening.

it's not easy when you have an annoying chronic upper limb girdle injury in your dominant limb, we'll see how it goes

lifting the tyre/wheel is sore enough

PS i have NEVER seen a tire shop use torque tools only pneumatic and electric handheld things

Batman:

 

PS i have NEVER seen a tire shop use torque tools only pneumatic and electric handheld things

Then you're using crap tyre shops. Every one I've been to use air tools to run the nuts down the threads, and then use a torque wrench to do the final tightening.

Good quality impact wrenches have somewhat accurate torque limits, however I'd still prefer to see a torque wrench in use.

interesting!

let me go around Dunedin looking at tyre shops one day.

I never use the same shop twice so i've used umpteen shops and have never seen a torque wrench being used!

Ask them how they manage their torque, they should be able to tell/show you.

It's definitely a question I'd ask them if I didn't see torque wrenches in action.