cordless drills

I can take my 18volt Dewalt and drill 4 1 inch holes in a solid metal truck bumper for sensors, then go install for 3 more days before the battery dies. They are flat out tough...Mike M2

Tech Manager

CS Dealer Services

i use a Hitachi lithium 12v impact, its brother the normal Hitachi drill w/ chuck, and a small snap-on 10.2v(i think)for tighter spaces. honesty i have been the most impressed by these little Hitachi drills, for their size and voltage they have some serious torgue, i have broken seatbelt and battery post bolts with them in a pinch when i cant use or dont have a wrench. i also have to be careful not to snap off screw heads by over tightening. i beat the hell out of them every day for 3 years without any issues and they still work like the day i got them. also i only ever buy 12V or 14V cordless drills because you can use them for testing and other things like rolling a car window up or testing a radio in the field, cant do that with an 18V or a 10V in some cases. Dewalt, they make ok power tools in my opinion, i used to work with their heavy duty 18V drills and we had to bring them back in for warranty service almost every 6-8 months for a stripped clutch. ive never had so many problems with any one type of drill. not to mention that the battery on the lithium dewalt impact is wider than any other lithium impact, which can keep them from getting as close as possible to the firewall of a car. \ also another thought is that i know some of the super compact lithium drills have a lot of tourque, just like my Snap-on which will whip your wrist around like a big corded drill can but it doesnt have the rotational speed to drill holes and screws efficiently, takes forever to drill a hole through a car so i only use it as a last resort.

The whole point being that with alarm work, how many holes are you drilling? Hood switch, maybe (rarely) bulkhead, LED sometimes, valet switch sometimes. Heck I used tap-tights or bolts for the siren. I've got an 18V Bosch Lithium for things like drilling the bumpers. After getting a feel for which make the root of my question was drill driver or impact driver or both?

Won't an impact driver strip dashboard screws so should I only get a drill/driver?

i use an impact most of the time, you only end up with stripped screws if you hold the trigger for too long, way too long. once you hear it star clicking and the screw isnt moving anymore that means its tight.