Milwaukee or DeWalt Sawzall For Rescue

[Joey]

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 heard 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:cool: :cool:

[Pa Glock guy]

Im glad youre not the only ones that have problems with the batteries. We have a Milwaukee Cordless and we smoke thru the batteries as well. Even when fully charged they dont hold up to the rigors of vechile rescue. Ive never heard of a saw that runs off of both but it wouldnt suprise me if someone makes one. I know this, you cant go wrong with either Milwaukee or Dewalt.

[oldstyle]

We have a Dewalt that runs from either a battery or cord. The saw uses the same batteries as our Dewalt drill. The batteries get replaced every year or so when they don't take a charge. I have yet to have a problem onscene with anything going dead, but that's when we would switch to the constant supply.

[Tvov]

IMO Milwaukee and Dewalt are both very good.

We have a Dewalt sawzall and drill on our rescue, with six extra batteries in charging stands. We are using the 18 volt batteries. I think even the best, strongest batteries will run out relatively quick under heavy, extended cutting.

We rarely go through one battery at a scene. Why are you doing so much cutting with it? For the roof, cut the pillars with the Hurst tool and just lift it off, or bend it back.

[Pa Glock guy]

I was looking at this months Firehouse Magazine at work last night and there was an ad from a company that had some type of large battery pack that looked like it was inside a Pelican case. You laid the pack on the ground and plugged your tools into it somehow. They had a website but I forget the name of the company. Ill look when I go back to work on saturday.

[FlaFF]

Originally posted by Tvov
IMO Milwaukee and Dewalt are both very good.

We have a Dewalt sawzall and drill on our rescue, with six extra batteries in charging stands. We are using the 18 volt batteries. I think even the best, strongest batteries will run out relatively quick under heavy, extended cutting.

We rarely go through one battery at a scene. Why are you doing so much cutting with it? For the roof, cut the pillars with the Hurst tool and just lift it off, or bend it back.

Two guys with good battery powered sawzalls will have a roof flapped before the hurst unit is started, connected to the tools and ready to go. A and B posts on the majority of cars dont require a hydraulic tool.


FlaFF

[Tvov]

Originally posted by FlaFF
Two guys with good battery powered sawzalls will have a roof flapped before the hurst unit is started, connected to the tools and ready to go. A and B posts on the majority of cars dont require a hydraulic tool.


FlaFF

Hmmm... Something to try at the next extrication drill. At the moment, we have one battery sawzall. Our main Hurst unit is electric, hooked into the electrical system of the rescue, which has a large onboard engine-pto generator. We have two cutter tools, one spreader tool, and one combination spreader/cutter (which, honestly, doesn't cut well). One cutter and one spreader are pre-connected to hydraulic lines, which are preconnected to the Hurst unit, which are on reels for fast deployment. With this setup, we don't use the sawzall much for extrication. But like I said, at the next drill I am going to suggest playing with the sawzall for pillar cutting. We've done it before, but not really with the thought of using it exclusively if the Hurst breaks down (we also have a gas backup Hurst unit).

The long time members remember using sawzalls exclusively, before the Hurst tools became popular. Of course, they had to start up a generator, because battery tools weren't around then.

Thanks for the response. This is a great forum for threads like this!

[justfish]

Our new Heavy Rescue has 2 - 150ft cord reels. This is mainly because of the problems w/ batteries. We used the Dewalt 24v and the Engines have 18v. Always seem to be a problem w/ batteries.