which are the most used heavy duty wrench sockets on older 5-tons

[Robo McDuff]

I crossed the Rubicon and joined the red team for once .


With tractors, I am always on the green team

(think agriculture: John Deere, and MV in OD) but this time ....

After spending a few weeks pondering what to buy and where to get the $$, by pure luck I came across a tool fair where all the big names were present: Milwaukee, DeWalt, Makita, Metabo, Bosch, Hitachi. Close to Prague, where I had to go anyway for a meeting, so a good combo. With all these brands, I checked prices and performance of the most powerful battery-driven impact wrenches. All very close together but ....

Real green was not present, so in the end it came down to red and yellow. Milwaukee had some very mouth-watering offers that always bring you into problems back home, but I managed to get a hold on myself and went home only with the EU version of the M18 2763-22. The special fair price brought it down from a heart-stopping $$ 840 to $$ 600, just below the DeWalt DCF899P2 at $$ 630 (lousy exchange rate). The had a very nice combo set with 5 useful tools for $$ 1200, which is not in the books unfortunately. Whatever, Milwaukee it is.

I do have most of the normal wrench sockets in good quality hand tools. I am now looking at the specially hardened sockets for impact wrenches. We are going to take a lot of stuff apart, sand it, repair it, paint it and put it back.

Apart from the wheel nut socket (m38 in metric fits nicely), which SIZE sockets are being used the most for work on the 5-ton M5X?

Thinking wheel hubs and brake work, dissembling fenders and especially bumpers, winches ????
Which are the ones everybody has in hardened versions, the heavy use showing etc etc.

Unfortunately, the truck and my tools are far away from where I am, and even then, not sure which unexpected sizes I am going to find suddenly and if my metric sockets will fit the US nuts.

 

[NDT]

Seems like 3/4, 9/16 and 1/2 are 90% of the sizes on these trucks.

 

[winfred]

for 20 volt battery powered tools milwaukee vs dewalt, dewalt has much better batteries, tool vs tool its hard to say on the current models and may come down to ergonomics and feature preferences. i abused a set of milwaukee tools for more years then i can remember but only getting a year out of a set of batteries blows when i am running 5 batteries at 75-100 a pop, probably cycled though 5 sets of them trying oem and aftermarket looking for longer life. 4-5 years ago i retired the milwaukees for dewalt 20v and love em, out of 5 batteries the two ebay extras i got died with in a week of one another but the other 3 are just as hot as they were new, before buying the new set i was chatting with a guy at the bigbox hardware store about the new milwaukee vs the new dewalt and he said on the demo units at the store the batteries fail on the milwaukees and need replacing where the dewalts survive till retired and sold off on the clearance shelf, so i guess things haven't changed from my old v18 milwaukee set. hope you have better results

 

[red]

The sizes on these old trucks are all SAE, nothing metric from the factory. Common sizes are 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16, 5/8, 3/4.

Friends of mine have had good luck with their Milwaukee tools, I use Ridgid.

 

[fasttruck]

Don't forget 1.5" and 13/16 square for doing those bud wheel lug nuts.

 

[Robo McDuff]

I go a bit confused and crazy here when trying to find conversion charts for standard to standard, with differences between US standard bolt-nut size and wrench sizes.

The problem is, you guys use strange measurements like 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16, 5/8, 3/4. The US standard to metric converters, however, use things like inches in decimals. Then they have bolt sizes and wrench sizes and the cat's feet sizes or I don't know what, all in these x/y measures, which I try to get to metric. Any guidance on that?

The 1.5" wheel nut fits exactly to a 38 metric, which exists only in 3/4 sockets, so I have to get a "reduction" making my 1/2 wrench to accept 3/4 sockets.

The 13/16 square I tried to find already long time as socket, no dice over here in Europe yet.

edit: and the once website that promised a conversion table had been hacked and showed a very strange front page so I got the heck out of there. The other site just timed-out and gave an error message.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

Bolt size in the left column. SAE wrench size in the middle. Metric wrench size in the right column. It's a university website. Checks out clean.

http://extension.missouri.edu/webster/wrench-chart.aspx

 

[Swamp Donkey]

For your 13/16 square you need to look for 8 point sockets. I did a quick search and most major tool brands make them....Snap-on, Armstrong, Proto, etc.



The 38mm socket is also readily available in 1/2" drive from the usual suspects.

So when are ya'll going to swap the drive sizes over to metric too? That seems confusing to me. "I need a 38mm socket in 1/2" drive". See what I mean.

 

[winfred]

not sure of the logistics of getting it to the appropriate geographic location but this is a ideal set coming with the budd socket https://m.harborfreight.com/8-Pc-34-in-Drive-SAE-Impact-Deep-Socket-Set-67935.html

 

[Swamp Donkey]

not sure of the logistics of getting it to the appropriate geographic location but this is a ideal set coming with the budd socket https://m.harborfreight.com/8-Pc-34-in-Drive-SAE-Impact-Deep-Socket-Set-67935.html

Got caught up in the SAE to Metric thing and didn't even recognize the 13/16 was the Budd socket, lol.

You coming to the GA rally this year Robo?

 

[red]

I go a bit confused and crazy here when trying to find conversion charts for standard to standard, with differences between US standard bolt-nut size and wrench sizes.

The problem is, you guys use strange measurements like 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16, 5/8, 3/4. The US standard to metric converters, however, use things like inches in decimals. Then they have bolt sizes and wrench sizes and the cat's feet sizes or I don't know what, all in these x/y measures, which I try to get to metric. Any guidance on that?

The 1.5" wheel nut fits exactly to a 38 metric, which exists only in 3/4 sockets, so I have to get a "reduction" making my 1/2 wrench to accept 3/4 sockets.

The 13/16 square I tried to find already long time as socket, no dice over here in Europe yet.

edit: and the once website that promised a conversion table had been hacked and showed a very strange front page so I got the heck out of there. The other site just timed-out and gave an error message.

For most of the sizes you wont find a metric tool that fits right. That's why there are both metric and SAE wrenches/sockets. Using metric sizes on SAE bolts will end up rounding off the heads.

 

[Robo McDuff]

Swamp Donkey, it's stupid but the bolt size and wrench size had me mixed up. Actually, that's the same in metric, so I should have just ignored the bolt sizes. You are right, but even here we use metric but for the drives we still use 1/4, 1/2, 3/4.

Maybe because saying "I have a 12.7 mm drive" sounds stupid and redoing all the heads of sockets to 12 or 13 square does seem too much work as well. Maybe its nostalgia for our younger little bit brother?

Winfred, getting stuff from the USA to the Czech Republic takes a lot of time and even more money. With this kind of things, you pay a few bucks for the set and about triple or more the amount for transport.

Red, Some sizes fit almost perfect and work good, certainly when you take 6-point sockets. For others, you need to have the real thing or wreck your bolts, certainly with the standard 12-point. I do have several US Standard hand wrenches and can get reasonable good quality USA sockets here in the larger towns with special shops. However, for my new toy I need the stronger impact compatible sockets, and those are a different story. Most local shops or large chains don't carry them here at all, not even the metric ones.

GA Rally; I am afraid not.

 

[SCSG-G4]

Standard or deep well impact sockets?

 

[Swamp Donkey]

GA Rally; I am afraid not.

PM me your shipping address. I have a care package for you. I'm aware of your location...

 

[Robo McDuff]

Other heavy duty stuff

 

[SCSG-G4]

PM me your shipping address. I have a care package for you. I'm aware of your location...

I have a care package in luggage at this time, should be delivered to ROBO Thursday or Friday.

 

[Robo McDuff]

Hopefully make that Friday morning in person.

Does the 13/16 6-point fit the 13/16 4-point from the wheel nuts?

 

[red]

Hopefully make that Friday morning in person.

Does the 13/16 6-point fit the 13/16 4-point from the wheel nuts?

No it won't fit. For the wheel nuts the 4 point is necessary.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

I have a care package in luggage at this time, should be delivered to ROBO Thursday or Friday.

Good deal. He had told me about your trip. I'll take care of whatever he needs that you don't bring.

 

[SCSG-G4]

Good deal. He had told me about your trip. I'll take care of whatever he needs that you don't bring.

That would be a 13/16, four point socket!