Electric drill for lift jacks

[ronday]

Who makes a battery powered drill that will lift the truck camper? I have several drills but none have the torque to lift the camper. Also I know not to use a hammer drill as that will ruin the right angle gears. Thanks. Ron

[RickW]

Butch50 wrote:
I have used my Ryobi 18V lithium battery one. I use high speed till it reaches the ground and then shift it to low. When you go to low and the jack is on the ground and lifting you had better have a good hold of it or it well twist your arm.
....

Another way to really twist your wrist or hit yourself in the face with the drill is to use it to hit the top or bottom of the jack range. :E

After um, learning about this phenomenon, I marked the top of the jack legs with a permanent marker to show I was approaching the top range. Three dashes about an inch apart and a ring near the top tell me to go slow. 😉

[wintersun]

I test a lot of 18v drills from Milwaukee, DeWalt, Bosch, Makita, and Hitachi and the ones with the most torque and longest battery life are the 3-speed range ones from DeWalt. No need for the heavier hammer drill versions as you will not use this function. Second best are the drills from Milwaukee and in my testing Makita is in the bottom tier along with Ryobi and Rigid. All but DeWalt and Rigid only make 2-speed range drills which greatly limit their performance.

Most of the cordless drills are provided with smaller and lighter battery packs so that the drill feels lighter in a consumer's hand when they pick it up at a store. The DeWalts have the largest battery packs and their lithium-ion XRP ones have a 2-year replacement warranty which is the best available.

A drill I have not tried but might work is the 4-speed range Rigid drills. They have a low range speed of 0-450 like the DeWalt. I use the DeWalt battery packs on the cordles drills I am testing and also for personal use on a 18v cut-off saw, a 18v 5-1/2" circular saw, and a 18v mini shop vac. It is great to be able to buy the tool only for under $100 and use the battery packs and chargers I already have in the shop.

The batteries are designed to provide a steady flow of current and will recover after a few minutes to provide additional current if needed. It is important to recharge the battery immediately after using it for extended periods and not store it away partially drained. You will get a lot longer life from the batteries if you do this.

[bigcitypopo]

Milwaukee red. Brushless... Period

[RickW]

kcabpilot wrote:
I gotta ask - what is it with lowering the camper to the ground with the jacks? I mean seriously why? All it takes is a couple of sawhorses, is there a legitimate reason why everyone wants to crank them all the way down like that every time they unload? I think I'd tire of that real quick.

1. I don't carry sawhorses with me while traveling.

2. I prefer to not need three steps to get into a camper off the truck.

[kcabpilot]

I gotta ask - what is it with lowering the camper to the ground with the jacks? I mean seriously why? All it takes is a couple of sawhorses, is there a legitimate reason why everyone wants to crank them all the way down like that every time they unload? I think I'd tire of that real quick.

[Butch50]

I have used my Ryobi 18V lithium battery one. I use high speed till it reaches the ground and then shift it to low. When you go to low and the jack is on the ground and lifting you had better have a good hold of it or it well twist your arm.

I have 2 batteries for it and I can load an unload the camper a number of times before the battery runs out. I use it all the time to lower the rear jacks to stablize the camper as it is much faster than using the electric motor on the jacks. This is on a 10 2 CDSE NL which is not a real heavy camper but not a light weight either.

This is the one that I use

I don't know where folks get the idea that an impact doest beat on the nuts. I know both my electric and air inmpacts when trying to undo a tight nut beats the heck out it. That is the purpose of an impact is to try to jar the nut loose by hitting it and then back of a bit and hit it again.

The difference between a hammer drill and an impact is the hammer drill hammers from the get go but an impact well run smoothly till it gets resistance and then the impact starts. Go by a tire shop and listen to the impact wrenches hammer away when they are trying to take off big truck tire.

[RickW]

Wheelholder wrote:
When i had manual jacks, used an 18 volt ryobi. Put it in low gear and just kept walking around until I had it the height I wanted. reversed to lower.

Had it to do over, would make sure I had lithium batteries as they hold charge better when sitting.

I used a 12v Makita on manual jacks for years, then upgraded to a Ryobi 18v.

Of course if you don't have a charged battery, you go to plan B:




It works slower on 12v but will still get the job done.

One full size li-ion battery will last several cranking episodes.

[benalbert]

I have a big Milwaukee (not the little ones sold at box stores) M18. A full battery pack has enough juice to do a complete load/unload cycle. The thing has enough power to twist you up if not careful.

[Wheelholder]

When i had manual jacks, used an 18 volt ryobi. Put it in low gear and just kept walking around until I had it the height I wanted. reversed to lower.

Had it to do over, would make sure I had lithium batteries as they hold charge better when sitting.

[kcabpilot]

This probably isn't the answer you're looking for and depending on where you store your camper may not be a viable option but this is how I do it.

I use a pair of 34 inch high sawhorses that, combined with the jacks, support the camper rock steady at loading height. To unload I run all jacks to the ground with a light weight cordless drill. Five cranks on one of the front jacks and five cranks on the opposite side front jack (run same side rears down consecutively with drill) drive truck out, slide horses in and lower. So I never do more than 10 cranks by hand total.

An additional benefit is you don't have to duck when walking under the cab over.

Loading is same routine, takes virtually no time.

[Oldtymeflyr]

It has been said: "An impact driver only rotates. It does not hammer on the work piece." An impact driver very much hammers on the work piece. There is more than one way to hammer.

Last week I was removing a stubborn nut and frankly my impact wrench was not doing the job. The corners of the nut were beat up, why, because of the hammering of impact wrench in the horizontal plane. I finally pulled out my breaker bar with a 2 foot cheater to get that grade 8 nut loose.

I would not use an impact wrench on a TC jack to raise or lower, I think it introduces too much stress on the inner gears. Its one thing to hammer on a 50 cent nut another on a several hundred dollar jack.

My 18v Makita will do the job.

Good luck.

[KD4UPL]

A hammer drill and an impact are not the same.

A hammer drill is used for drilling holes in masonry. The bit rotates steadily while hammering in and out on the work piece. This helps to chip away at the concrete, cinder block, brick, or whatever your drilling into.

An impact driver only rotates. It does not hammer on the work piece. The impact comes in the rotational motion. It is used to apply extra force to a fastener such as a screw or bolt that you are trying to loosen or tighten.

[steve68steve]

mkirsch wrote:
I use a Ryobi 18V for the tedious "no load" cranking. ...

Once the feet have touched down, I work my way around the camper, cranking 10 turns at each jack to keep it fairly level. It only takes 3 trips around the camper to get it completely raised.

This was my thought, too. When leveling at camp, I spend 5 minutes cranking the thing TO the ground, then just a few turns to level it. Then again when leaving - all the time is spent cranking the unloaded jack back UP.

Same deal when loading/ unloading from the truck.

I think even a fairly small cordless drill would work for that.

For what it's worth, I think a "hammer drill" and an "impact driver" are the same thing - I seen recommendations for and against one or the other in this thread. If I'm wrong, someone correct me.

[Steelhog]

I would not recommend an impact driver as the gears in the jack head are not really designed for that sort of shock load. I suspect they are powdered metal which is fine but not the same as a gear hobbed from solid.