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90 day 1/2 impact test

smalltruckbigcid

smalltruckbigcid

1/2 ton status
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Dec 25, 2004
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About 3 months ago I bought a new Mac branded 1/2 impact. I'm doing lots of alignments at work on semi's and that means lots of rusted and frozen large bolts. The most common size for me is inch and and eighth followed by 15/16ths. The reverse TQ is supposed to be about 1100 ft lbs and the forward TQ is about 750. Somedays I believe those numbers and some days I don't, that may be more the air supply at work than the gun.

Anyway company policy is we must TQ every wheel we put on to 475ftlbs. With a TQ wrench. Yeah it's big and damn heavy when we're busy. So yesterday I tightened up the lugnuts on a truck with my 1/2 inch gun and then checked them with the tq wrench. 20 lugnuts tightened and all 20 were at the tq spec. No extra wrestling with the tq wrench. Just throw it on and it went click:D

Not sure its better than an IR but it seems to be holding its own so far. And the Mac guy gave a really great deal I couldn't pass up.
 
So those 20 lugs were most likely over the spec...in order to be truly accurate you need to final tighten at least a little with the TQ wrench before hearing a click.

At least your gun definitely is putting out more than 450 ft/lbs fowards.

Rene
 
I can't find the gun on their website to compare. Does it look like this one: AW5500M or like this one: AW284Q

Sidenote: All tool companies have crappy websites. Mac's is most useless IMO, ha.

And I have to say I agree with Rene, if your company is really worried about torque, you should probably be using a 1" gun with a torque stick(calibrated properly) or the torque wrench.

Now here is a question for you, when was the last time that torque wrench was calibrated? I see shops all the time that every car that passes through they make sure to torque the wheels to spec. That is fine and dandy, but you are using a torque wrench a LOT more than the average tech. They should be calibrated every few years I say, but with daily constant use at least once a year is what I recommend.
 
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The wrench is new so it should be good for now. Its a Cornwell branded split beam wrench 3/4 drive, as far as I know all the split beams are made by presicion instrument co http://www.torqwrench.com/tools/C.php

In the past I've been told by these guys (and others too) Team Torque that the split beams don't lose calibration very easily http://ww.teamtorque.com/

So how tight? I had the wrench set to 470 and in the past If I set it to 500 the nuts move slightly and then it goes click so I'm in the ballpark. But there's a wrinkle in here for the canadian guys. We've been told that starting after the first of the year Canada is supposed to require a paper trail on who, what and how truck lugnuts were tightened. And it was also said that tq sticks weren't allowed for that, I don't know. We've seen a video demo of the Mac TQ station ($6k) and got to use the CP gun thats calibrated to 500 ft lbs, its also six grand.
 
Yea that DataTorq system is neat, but salty as hell.

You are right the Split Beam styles don't lose calibration as easily. Still need to be once in a while though. I cannot say on the Precision Instruments thing, they look identical to the Snappy ones and sell for a lot less, so it is likely. Digitals are the longest calibration holders in my book. We jut finally released a 1/2" with Torque Angle built in, now if only we could get the 3/4" digital out too.
 
I had a aw5500 before too. bought new......@50% list price though. so I gave it a shot too. I was disapointed in it overall. It doesn't even compare to the snappy MG725 that I have now. or the IR thunder guns that I've used in the past.

thats just my long term observations.


I've not hear anything about a lugnut torque paper trail as of now. And I'm a Licensed CVIP inspector. I haven't got any notification yet.
 
I agree with those guys about the over torquing deal. I was amazed when you said every few years though sled. Back when I was in service we had to calibrate ours every 6 months. I guess thats just the anal part of the army.
 
DEMON44 said:
I had a aw5500 before too. bought new......@50% list price though. so I gave it a shot too. I was disapointed in it overall. It doesn't even compare to the snappy MG725 that I have now. or the IR thunder guns that I've used in the past.

thats just my long term observations.


I've not hear anything about a lugnut torque paper trail as of now. And I'm a Licensed CVIP inspector. I haven't got any notification yet.
Click to expand...

Not surprised on the paper trail thing. After all it salesmen saying we need to do this. I'm wondering if this is going to be an Ontario thing anyway. The're screwy about lugnuts in that province anyway
 
Took the starter out of an ISX today and twisted off a snap-on 1/2 drive wobble extension. That surprised me I have to admit.
 
This may be heresay to you guys, but I am not a fan of the AirCat guns. I've had 3 guys in the past year trade them up for my impacts. 2 because they were on their third warranty rebuild with their AirCat/Mac guns, and the 3rd because he wanted the one handed forward and reverse feature.

The one handed forward and reverse is a big thing to me. I use to use that ALL the time. I cannot begin to count how many times I was using one hand to keep a part from falling, and had to hammer back and forth on the fastener to get it to come out. Or I had a wrench on the other side of a bolt and realized I needed to tighten it up or something. No need to let go of the wrench, just use my thumb and boom, other direction it goes.

Those AirCat guns are quiet, and powerful. However no more so than a QTi gun and imo the QTi is more reliable and easier to use.

Of course I sell the TI based impacts as a Matco guy, but I truly believe in the products I sell. If I didn't like Matco tools, I wouldn't sell them.
 
Mine is a one handed type of switch. The drawback I see is service. Work is only about 15 minutes from an IR service center. Guess I'll find out if I need it.
 
TI IR guns are super easy to rebuild and service yourself too. More often than not anymore I look a gun over myself before I send it out anymore. Unless it is warranty of course.

I haven't seen the new one handed switch type, that is nice they added that now.

I am sure you will be happy with it, just hope it holds up over time for you. I've known guys to use them for a long time with no issue. One of my buddies is using a Mac/Aircat gun he got probably 5 years ago at this point. I know he is still using it and having no issues cause he doesn't have a Mac guy. So good ones exist for sure.
 
Keep beating on it and it will start to slow down.

All I have is IR stuff, I can get a full on rebuild kit for just over $100 for the 1/2 inch.
About 30 minutes to rebuild it.

Mac, Snap on, Mattco and Cornwell keep on trying to sell me their latest whiz bang stuff.

No need to buy a new gun, just rebuild it.
 
tRustyK5 said:
So those 20 lugs were most likely over the spec...in order to be truly accurate you need to final tighten at least a little with the TQ wrench before hearing a click.

At least your gun definitely is putting out more than 450 ft/lbs fowards.

Rene
Click to expand...


I have an older Mac/IR gun and I believe it's putting out over 450 ft lbs forward.... how much more I don't know.

Problem is when everyone elses guns can't break a bolt they all want to use yours..... that thing would out roll some of the 3/4" impacts we had..... I bought it for 70 bucks barely used:D
 
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