Milwaukee or DeWalt Sawzall For Rescue

[ramprat]

It's getting to be budget time again and I'd like to replace our Milwaukee battery operated sawzall's (on the rescue trucks) with a sawzall that is able to run more than 5-7 min on a full charge.

We do have 110 on the trucks and can run a corded sawzall, but I've herd that somebody had a sawzall that can run on both AC power and batteries & was wondering how good of a deal that is.

We have replaced the Milwaukee sawzalls batts a couple of times, but they wear out and build up a memory & when it's cold out or under a heavy load (like cutting the roof off a F350) they wear out before the job is done.

So, do the tool experts here have any info on sawzalls

 

[whatabudro]

I have used DeWalt 18v products since they came out. After talking with some other people I will most likely change to Makita or Rigid.

 

[scoutman77]

I use a Craftsman 19.2 volt sawz-all, I have the whole set: light, circular saw, drill, sawz-all. came with 2 bats and a 1 hour charger. I used it to cut down a small hog shed and a grainery last summer. the bats lasted almost until the second was charged.

 

[rgdillon]

Blade choice also has a lot to do with run time - the Milwaukee "Torch" blades cut fast and last a long time.

I think that Milwaukee's are notorious on short run time. I have the 18v cordless drill and it last's nowhwere near what my Porter Cable did. But - it's got a ton of torque and the battery will mount two different ways so I keep it around.

We have a few Hiliti's at work that they guys tell me have a good run time - personally I haven't used them for extended times enough to know.

If I was in the market I would seriously look at the Porter-Cable Cordless Tiger Saw - 19v and it's a compact design - gets into smaller places and only draws a little over 2 amps.

Ron

 

[stroked 350]

we have a dewalt on our rescue have tried it many times on allkinds of roofs never had good luck with it . i will take an o- cutter any day over a battery saws all.

 

[strokin']

We've got Dewalts on our Rescue and never use 'em, atleast not for calls. We have a portable pump for the cutters and jaws.

 

[ramprat]

Thanks for the ideas, going to do some more research & see what happens.

We have http://www.tntrescue.com/cutters/spreaders and each tool has a 100ft hose reel & a additional 50 ft of hose plus the pump is portable so we can grab it and go if needed & the pump can operate both the cutters and spreaders at the same time.

However, some times ya just need hand tools and can't use heavy hydraulic tools or you are using them and need more tools. Not to mantion ya need a backup if the hydraulics fail for some reason and that's when the sawzall, air chisel and other hand tools come in handy. More than once I've used a sawzall to remove a roof/door/dash while the hydraulic tools were being used on another car at the same time.