Air ratchets used to be a joke, now I own three

Back in the 90s I swore by my breaker bar and hated the old pneumatic ones, they never had any torque. Then my partner in Phoenix bought an Aircat 1150 and made me use it on a seized lower control arm bolt, that thing popped it free like butter. Now I keep one in the truck, one in the shop, and one at home for side jobs. Anyone else come around on a tool they used to trash talk?

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1 Comment

hugo_hayes1mo ago

That part about the seized lower control arm bolt hit home for me. Back when I was helping my buddy flip an old F150, we spent a whole afternoon on a leaf spring bolt that would not budge. We had the breaker bar with a pipe on it, and I swear the frame was starting to flex. Then his dad came out with this beat up old Ingersoll that looked like it survived a fire, hooked it up, and it just rattled the bolt out in like ten seconds. I stood there feeling like an idiot for two hours of my life. After that I started buying them at pawn shops, cheap ones, nice ones, whatever, and now I got a drawer full of them. I still keep a breaker bar in the box for the really stubborn stuff though, old habits die hard, but I will never trash talk an air ratchet again.