High torque or mid torque

Assume you can only get one.

Which would you get? The high torque or the mid torque? Am I out of my mind here b/c it seems like the mid torque wrench would be able to get everything off my pickup.

Is bigger always better?

Cheers!

 

I have a Dewalt dcf899 and it's had enough ugga duggas to get anything and everything off the truck thus far. Been running strong for 4 years

 

I have both (DCF899 and DCF894). I use the smaller 600ft/lbs (DCF894) one much more often. That 2lbs difference is much easier to wield and 2" shorter is really nice for tighter areas. 29 out of 30 times it's more than enough torque to bust whatever I need to remove. I rarely ever need to use the bigger DCF899.

Also the DCF894 torques lugs almost perfect on speed 1. Around 80 ft/lbs with a few ugga's so just needs a quick torque wrench applied after to get up to the 83 that both of my Toyota's require.

 

I have both. Since I’ve gotten the mid-torque, I haven’t once pulled out the high torque.

 

I bought the high torque but in a different brand and wish I would have gone with the mid. It’s way too big and overkill for most home applications

 

I dont know much about Dewalt, but Id say if there is a significant size different between the two, go for the mid torque. Note the detent pin on the mid torque though, Ive heard those are very annoying to use.

I got the big boy

$83 Milwaukee M18 Cordless Lithium-Ion 6-1/2" Circular Saw - 2630-20 - ( MILWAUKEE ) - BARE TOOL

Milwaukee M18 a handful of years back. Its a beast and will break anything you need it to, but for general wrenching on these trucks it is overkill. Next time I have 'extra' spending money (yeah right lol) Ill be looking for a good deal on M18s 1/2" drive mid torque.

As a side note I think we all know the advertised torque values from all the manufactures are absolute BS. There are some folks and YT channels that do real world tests. The highest torque but youd ever conceivably run into on these trucks is the CV nut at 173 ft lbs.

 

An advertised max break of 800 ft/lbs - if you need more than that, you might want to invest in a broken bolt extractor while you're at it.

 

I have the mid torque (high was not available when I bought). It works very well and I have a hard time seeing myself need more torque. So, I say get the mid torque unless you work on heavy equipment.

 

I work for DEWALT, both of those are awesome, the 891/892 is new and has insane performance for a mid-range. I have the old 894 which has way worse torque ratings and it still has done almost everything I have asked of it, including taking a crankshaft bolt off my Subie that was in the engine for 16 years, separating rust fused wheel bearings from knuckles from my girlfriends Subie, & removing Axel nuts from my Taco.

The only thing the 894 hasn't been able to do is press out the lower ball joints on my 07 Taco, but I blame that more on my $50 ball joint press than the impact wrench. I can bet the 891/892 would have no problem removing the ball joints. I'm willing to bet the 891/892 will be more than enough for almost everything on your Taco, and it is a lot less bulky than the 899.

I will say I have a preference for the Hog Ring Anvil, as over time a few of my DEWALT Torque Wrenches with the Detent Pin have started getting too sticky and I have started to have to use a pick to switch sockets. This sucks when your under the car wrenching and switching between sockets often. The DCF891 comes with a Hog Ring while the DCF892 comes with the Detent Pin.

 

As I was 1/3rd of the way through reading your comment I was planning on asking about Hog Ring vs Detent pin thingy. My gut was telling me to go with a hog ring b/c I've never actually seen one fail & I have seen a lot of the alternatives fail.

I do have a question for you since you work at Dewalt. How long can we expect Dewalt to continue with their current battery platform? I always hesitate to buy another cordless tool because I fear that one day I will be obsolete.

 

I have the high torque one because it was $100 off for Father’s Day sale, but will be getting the mid torque one eventually because the bigger one is VERY big and heavy compared to the smaller one. Seems to me the mid torque one would be just fine for the home mechanic.

 

There's enough of an established userbase that DeWalt won't discontinue the batteries. Even if they do, there's a wide swath of aftermarket batteries available.

Are you already invested in DeWalt batteries? If not, I'd advise the Milwaukee mid-torque as it's more compact.

Beware there are applications that'll stifle an impact wrench regardless of torque level. If you have to use a long extension, or if the bolt itself is long (think leaf pack U-bolts), most of the impact torque will be absorbed in the flexibility of the components.

 

20Volt won't be going away for decades, if ever. Same with the 60V/Flexvolt platform. More and more tools may start using the 60V motors, but all the 60V batteries are cross compatible with 20V tools. I don't think our non-commercial tools will ever need more than the 20V motors & I'm not sure the 60V motors will ever be feasible to put in compact tools due to cost and size.

Also for reference, we are just now slowing production of our 18V battery style which was introduced in 1996 and has been our only other flagship battery platform. We did have 40V for garden and 14.4V as well but those were pretty low volume and were discontinued, they were never our main battery style like the 20V & 18V have been.

 

I just picked up a DeWalt DCF891 and is a monster. I'm not sure what you use it for but for me it's mostly lug nuts, suspension work and just general whenever I need high torque. I feel the high torque DeWalt is too big to get in some spots. I literally just used it today to service a lower ball joint and it did fantastic it ripped off the CV joint nut no problem.
Get the DCF892, I think the only difference between the 891 and 892 is, the 891 is a hog ring anvil and the 892 has a detent pin.
I got mine from Acme tools, they had a DeWalt promo(it might still be running) got the impact and a 3ah battery and charger 40 bucks off regular price.

Before this I had a craftsman C3 19.2v 1/2 inch and it did well I couldn't find anything I couldn't remove with it and that was a 300ft lb torque rating, really good tool, unfortunately someone got a 5-finger discount on it. The new craftsman 20v 1/2 inch impacts sold at Lowe's are basically the previous generation DCF894s in red garb still very high torque rating.

 

OP can probably get away with doing almost anything they need with the DCF921.

Probably more useful under a truck less than a than a mid torque. Unless one works repairing heavy equipment/diesel/etc.
In which case I reckon you’d know what you’d need.