What are our thoughts on digital torque wrenches? I'm admittedly an old and have always used click type wrenches. There is something about that tactile click that just feels right.

While working on my Cummins project 1. Almost every nut has a torque spec 2. A lot of them are in that gap between what I can do with my 1/2" drive click type and my 1/4" drive. So I'm looking to buy a 3/8" drive and click types are mostly 20-100 ft lbs. The comparable digitals are more like a 5-200 ft lb range.

212 in lbs or 17.6 ft lbs is a common torque at the max end of my 1/4 drive - but it's also lower than most 3/8 click type.

What say yee AB? Is it time to ride my horse to town and join the modern age?

I have 1/2" and 3/8" versions of the Gearwrench flex head digitals. They work well for the price.

I wish they had a bit more positive notification when you get close to the torque value. I have to be a bit more precise vs a click wrench. The Snapon version seems to be nicer in that respect.

Nicest thing about the digital ones is the ability to easily do torque+degrees and to set an exact number.

Most of my techs in the shop have snap on digital torque wrenches. They beep when you get to set torque.

I personally have the old school click type torque wrenchces as I'm a weekend warrior who is too cheap to spring for the fancy ones.

Click gang

Anything that falls between my 1/4 drive and 3/8 drive gets 20 ft/lbs. If I'm doing TTY, it's always just a 90

EskimoJoe said:

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Most of my techs in the shop have snap on digital torque wrenches. They beep when you get to set torque.

I personally have the old school click type torque wrenchces as I'm a weekend warrior who is too cheap to spring for the fancy ones.

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Keep an eye out on Prime Day or whatever Amazon is calling it this go round. They usually have lots of Gearwrench stuff on "special". I think I paid $70 for the 3/8 and maybe $120 for the 1/2".

From the videos I've seen of the Snap on, they seem to light up earlier and they have a louder speaker. I feel like the Gearwrench doesn't start beeping until right before the torque value.

The Harbor Freight Quinn digital torque adapter seems to get good reviews. It was only $28 this weekend

I have a SATA 1/2-drive 25-250 ft-lb electric torque wrench. It's great - you can set it for torque, angle, torque and angle, etc.

They make a 3/8 drive 10-100 ft-lb with and without angle feature.

I have an audible torque wrench. It says "German Virgin" when torque spec is reached.

great! i might have to keep my eyes open

Thanks everyone. I don't want to have to wait until Monday morning to catch the SnapOn truck and then give him my first born for this application so I snagged a digital Kobalt for now. I torqued my CP3 pump (not the gear) on and already like that Nm and in-lbs are available units; since those are two common specs in the manual.

Not a fantastic deal, but still a discount. Woot has the Gearwrench torque wrenches on sale

3/8 is $159 ($189 on Amazon): https://home.woot.com/offers/gearwrench-85195-gearwrench-flex-head-electronic-torque-wr?ref=w_cnt_wp_3_119

1/2 is $177 ($217 on Amazon): https://home.woot.com/offers/gearwrench-85196-gearwrench-flex-head-electronic-torque-wr?ref=w_cnt_wp_3_120

These seem to be updated models from the ones I have

Local store doesn't have the 2/3" Harbor Freight Quinn digital torque adapter. They have the 1/2".

Maybe a dumb question but if you use a 1/2 to 3/8 adapter does that screw up the torque readings??

Other than snapping the adapters off, and the wrench being physically too large to fit, I've never had an issue with torque values. TTC did a test on this last year and found there is ~7% torque loss when using a 1/2 to 3/8 adapter

Rexter said:

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I have an audible torque wrench. It says "German Virgin" when torque spec is reached.

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Gtentight

Old school click for me. I still have a Craftsman 3/8" torque wrench from about '97 that I use. I was so proud of that wrench, was my single most expensive tool at the time.

Edit: I guess Texags doesn't like the iPhone umlaut….