cordless drills

Think about Dewalt, i'll never own anything but them. They truely are a step above the rest in torque and battery life. I had a Milwaukee and thought it was cheesy.Mike M2

Tech Manager

CS Dealer Services

Before my last Bosch died after five years of constant use, my best pal who has a vacation home in Orlando bought a Skil locally. It turns out to be the same 10.8V as my Bosch only $30 in the US as against £60, $90 in the UK. Then the motor seized, sorted that now the internal chip has failed. Bin job. Nothing against the DeWalt, it's the shortest and joint most powerful but why do you think the Makita is "cheesy" Mike? P.S. I was under the impression they were all made in Mexico, only the $400+ top end units are made in Switzerland by Scintilla S.A.

I often hear Dewalt is #1 with Milwaukee often #2. I know Bosch can be good (despite my dislike of Bosch for car electrics) as can others. Lower priced stuff can be good for more casual users (pro's need reliability!) and it's often the battery that is problem. (My $15 SLA 12V 1.2AH substitution on my girlfriends CHEAP AUD$20 cordless GMC is still working well. May be better than getting the "quality" ~$76 NiCads or NiMH that should have been used. These day's I'll only consider Lithiums.)

Howie, I have several Milwaukee M-12 units. Great torque, and even better battery life. I have one high capacity battery and 5 standard batteries. I ride the motorcycle to do tracking device jobs and haul all the batteries with me, no room to haul the charger. I have done 50 tracking devices in a day and have never depleted one of the standard batteries. I have 3 of the 1/4 inch driver units. I am still looking for a drill. I am sure I will find one in the pawn shop soon.

So far many thanks for your considered responses. It looks like a toss up between the Dewalt and the Milwaukee. Unless Mike want's to explain the "cheesy" part? There's a home depot 3 miles from my pal's Orlando home so that's job #1, Home Depot is the cheapest for Milwaukee at $129 and the Dewalt at $149. Or I get a driver unit with a 1/4" bit size chuck attachment, thus shorter length for in and under dash; oh the joy of being 66 with RSI on both wrists. Craig 60 in a day? I thought I was holding the world record at 40 trucks in 18 hours! But then that's why I carry two Pyropens and spare cans purified Butane!

Dewalt 1/4 impact with chuck accessory is an awesome piece

I had to go recheck, I did not have my glasses on, but it is you that needs the glasses. Fifty. The units I do are cake. 3 wires and one box. No antenna, just Constant, Ignition and Ground. I do have a helper prepping the harness for me. Usually my Dad. And 2 guys staging the vehicles.

Not just glasses Craig, I think for me it's early onset senile dementia. But I have no helpers or preppers but if you mean by staging the driver's bringing the vehicles to where you want, then yes. We've gone backwards with the latest fleet units, tiny in size BUT plus ign. ACC and ground + CAN hi lo for complete history plus external GPS and (here) GSM antennae. Any one match THIS tracking install week around 4 years ago? 150 vehicles over 5 days but travelled to 6 major airports in the UK do do it. London Heathrow to Glasgow Airport with stopovers at East Midlands, Leeds-Bradford, Birmingham and Manchester International, all by car and 1200 miles!

Mike M2 wrote: Think about Dewalt, i'll never own anything but them. They truely are a step above the rest in torque and battery life. I had a Milwaukee and thought it was cheesy.

Have 3 dewalts and 1 snap on. My 12v dewalt is 15 years old and still works The snap on is 9v and has no balls but is very small.

I had a similar(?) Snap-On about 10 years ago, nice lighting but as you said, gutless, non-bending screwdriver configuration so effectively useless under dash.