im in the market for one and been pulling my hair out reading reviews. im looking for one to yank lug nuts off and other chores around the house (ie, lag bolts and such for decks and wood work).
so who has one and what do you recommend? im not looking to spend $400 but ill pay a good chunk if its worth it.

 

im not sure if they have a store in your state but in michigan theres harbor freight, its like a cheap cheap cheap tool store, might wanna try there

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/18-volt...nch-67845.html
$110

http://www.google.com/products/catal...d=0CEkQ8wIwAA#

http://www.google.com/products/catal...=0CKMBEPMCMAU#

 

I have the craftsman cordless impact and love it

 

FYI Harbor Freight is good for cheap tools.....but keep in mind you get what you pay for.

 

lol thats for sure!

 

makita 18v 1/4" hex head with 3/8" arbor. Bought it used from the SnapOn truck with the deep batteries, had it for almost 3 years.

It even took an accidental bath in 4" of trans fluid. cleaned it all out and it works like new again.

 

milwuakee all the way. I have a cordless impact and use it all the time. I build decks/porches and use it on all my screws and driving big lag bolts. I get a day out of the battery before I need to charge it. Stay away from harbor freight its junk,sorry burnt a new drill from there in an hour once.

 

out of the few of cordless impacts i listed, the milwuakee has 2x the torque

 

i was thinking about this combo kit:
http://www.lowes.com/pd_79897-70-DCK425C_0__
thats a steal but the deal ends 4/04/11 so i dont have much time to research. its just not enough torque for lug nuts i dont think. opinions?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT
hitachi is def. nice. i have a compound saw and love it built by them.

although that milwaukee does look impressive! id like something i can build my own kit with ya know? have a little circular saw, sawzall and everything. hitachi,dewalt,craftsman are the 3 big names in my area.

 

I use an electric Milwaukee impact with the 1/2" lug for sockets on it for the truck, so when I went looking I got the compact impact driver.

I got a deal on Amazon for an open box Makita 10.8 V impact & hex drill / driver combo and I bought a used keyless chuck drill / driver.

These are nice, I am running out of batteries for my 9.6 V Makita stick from 1989, so I figured I would go compact this time.

The battery life is nice, and they charge quick.

I was looking for one for Dad, and the Milwaukee compact line is nicer, and has more options than the Makita 10.8 line.
There is a saw, recip saw, the bore scope and some others I think.
The Milwaukee is a compact 12 V line, and has the normal compact nub battery, as well as an extra cap 12 V battery that has a large flat bottom on it.

I don't think these would take a lug off the truck ( didn't try, no need for me to )

The compact is nice when I was doing the cabinets upstairs last month, fits nice for driving screws in the ledger board, without requiring to hold the impact driver a specific way ( larger drivers might only fit one way depending on the cabinet & where the stud is ).

Just something to think about, if the lugs are not high on the list.

 

Honestly, if you're in the market for an impact driver, I'd stay with corded, not cordless. You get more speed, power and a lower purchase price. And, I love my cordless drill, but if I have heavy work to do like drilling in masonry, I use a corded impact drill.

- Jack

 

I got my dad the mikita 18V cordless one with the 1/2 chuck, it was expensive, but we us it to take lugs off all the time and on a bunch of other stuff around the farm its great. I never would of guessed we would use it as much as we do. Using a wrench or ratchet now is like using a screw driver instead of a cordless drill, slow and takes more effort.

I had to pull a flat off our disk the other day and it had to hammer for a few seconds but it knocked them off with out to much difficulty. Spend the money, they are worth it.

 

http://www.makita.com/en-us/Modules/....aspx?ID=24073

I have this set, and they have been fantastic. I don't use it to remove lugs and such, I have a pneumatic impact for that. I use it to drive screws and lag bolts and it is fantastic for that. You can literally sink a deck screw 3/4" into a 2x4, it is tough on bits and will snap standard philips bits off but a good quality bit stays a long time. The rapid charger is nice, the 18v battery charges in about 15min and last a long time, the drill is fantastic and I like that both are short because you can get them in tight places. They are balanced well and feel good in the hand, the little light on the front comes in handy when working in low light and they both have a lot of power.

 

^This

I have a DeWalt Cordless impact. (The small one) and the DeWalt 1/2" is nice as I've used one several times but don't own one.

As far as mine, I have been super happy with the battery life, power, and it has been my go to power tool for a while.