Wheel change wrench

Soldato
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Looking at wrench options for swapping from winter wheels to summer come March.

I’ve got a low profile trolley jack and torque wrench for correct torque setting.

looking at a battery operated impact wrench, any particular recommendations?
 
Soldato
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Soldato
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This is all you need. I have the impact wrench @bainbridge posted but wouldnt think about doing up my wheels with it, although it came in handy battering my locking wheel nut into submission when it wouldnt come off.

I too have owned one of those extendable wheel wrenches for 20+ years and used to use it regularly.. Until I got an impact wrench and learned its capabilities and limits.

Why wouldn't you even think of fastening wheels with an impact wrench? If I know, from experimentation, that a certain power setting will fasten to a certain torque, then I'll confidently run the wheel bolts on and do the final tightening with the torque wrench.

Try it, be brave and do something differently :)
 
Soldato
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Because if I'm in the middle of nowhere and have to take a bolt off that has been impacted on I want to know its coming off.

Anyone using the impact wrench to do the nuts up to 7 Ugga-Duggas is doing it wrong. Where they are a godsend is for getting the wheel nuts off in the first place and for quickly spinning them back on far enough that you can use something more subtle to nip them up.

Personally I’ve got a couple of Milwaukee ones, the M18 is massive overkill for wheelnuts, it’s heavy and unwieldy but it’ll get almost anything undone. The M12 is much better suited for wheelnuts and is the one I take to the track.
 
Soldato
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I went through this phase of buying an air compressor and impact gun to undo wheel nuts. Spent a fortune then realised I did it once a year. Really not a business case for this :D
 
Soldato
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The Ryobi One Plus Brushless Impact Wrench has a car-specific setting so it does the nut up to 120Nm torque and stops. Obviously you still need to check it with a proper torque wrench but it’s pretty effective in my experience. I got one for my parents and then one for myself because I’m already on the One Plus system. I recently swapped out my summer tyres for winters and it genuinely speeded the whole process up massively. It can undo up to 350Nm but make sure you have a good quality wall-drive socket or you’ll strip the nut in no time with one of these things.

And while you’ve got the wheels off, put a good coat of anti-seize on the hub and back of the alloy. There is nothing more scary than trying to get a corroded-on alloy wheel off while the car is supported on a scissor jack.
 
Associate
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If were getting a new one again I'd probably get into something like the Ryobi ecosystem where the batteries can be used in a multitude of different tools.
However, I have a Kielder impact gun (and drill) and they've both been faultless
 
Soldato
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I've got the old Ryobi one, the brushed version and that's fine for stuff like wheel nuts, not had one it couldn't undo yet.

A lot of people seem to really look down their nose at Ryobi but for a home user i can't fault them, sure you're not going to run a commercial garage but for the 1 wheel change and say 1 brake job a year they're ideal.

I'd never tighten them with one though.
 
Soldato
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Anyone using the impact wrench to do the nuts up to 7 Ugga-Duggas is doing it wrong.

Indeed. I've only ever done them up by hand to "reasonably tight but I know it's not going to be a struggle to undo them in 6 months' time" and I've never had any issues. Since I started exclusively using my favourite tyre fitter who does them up correctly, I've never had any issues undoing them.

Other peoples' cars, on the other hand... Sheesh.
 
Man of Honour
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Surely if you buy a cordless tool of any kind and only use it rarely then the battery will eventually stop holding a charge? It used to happen to me with cordless drills but since I bought a Erbauer 18v cordless drill and Erbauer 18v cordless handheld hoover that uses the same 5.0Ah batteries I haven't had any problems with the batteries as they are constantly being rotated for charging.
 
Soldato
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Surely if you buy a cordless tool of any kind and only use it rarely then the battery will eventually stop holding a charge? It used to happen to me with cordless drills but since I bought a Erbauer 18v cordless drill and Erbauer 18v cordless handheld hoover that uses the same 5.0Ah batteries I haven't had any problems with the batteries as they are constantly being rotated for charging.

Yeah this is a good point, another reason why i got a Ryobi one as i have quite a few other tools so the batteries are used pretty regularly that way.

If it really was for a once a year job a corded one would probably be a better bet, or just a breaker bar if it really is once a year.
 
Soldato
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I purchased one of these and its perfect for the job. No need for an impact wrench and you get a sense of how tight its actually going.

https://www.halfords.com/tools/hand...lfords-extending-wheel-nut-wrench-635236.html

I'll prob start with this, also been looking for those plastic/nylon coated nuts to help prevent damage to the alloys.

Planning on swapping a few times I expect as I currently have three sets of alloys for the car, 18s (winters), 18s (summer PSS) 19s (OEM PSS).
 
Man of Honour
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I always prefer a breaker bar for undoing the insanely tight nuts after visiting a wheel place. Then a torque wrench to do them back up again to the right setting. There is something strangely satisfying with the "click" :)
 
Soldato
OP
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I always prefer a breaker bar for undoing the insanely tight nuts after visiting a wheel place. Then a torque wrench to do them back up again to the right setting. There is something strangely satisfying with the "click" :)
That's my plan along with being able to swap tyre sets
 
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