18 volt grease gun

[Dargo]

Okay, most everyone here knows I'm not keen on cheap ass tools. However, I am an admitted "grease-a-holic". All of my equipment gets greased whether it wants it or not. Some of the fittings are darn near impossible to hit with the human limitation of two hands. I have a pneumatic unit that works fine for the equipment that I can pull into the barn at will. The big grease users with so many fittings are my Grasshopper ZTR mowers. By greasing the hell out of them at every single fill up on fuel (no kidding, I've never ever missed even once), none of my spindles, wheel bearings or pillow block bearings are showing any wear at all in 10 years of use on my older unit.

Anyway, I've not bought one of the Lincoln 18 volt grease gun units because they are over $200, and I'm just too tight to spend that much on a darn grease gun! However, I just came from Rural King and two things really caught my eye; one of which was a $59 18 volt grease gun kit. It comes with 2 batteries, charger, and the unit itself. Anybody have one? I'm really tempted to get one for $59.

The other "tempting" thing is the brand new Foton 70 hp cab tractor they just got in on their lot today. I crawled all over it, under it, and sat inside it. It is Perkins powered, and is really one heck of a tractor for $17,900. RK constantly runs 10% off ads on these tractors. With the new sheet metal and completely changed cab, this thing looks to be a real bargain!

 

[Melensdad]

I just came from Rural King and two things really caught my eye; one of which was a $59 18 volt grease gun kit. It comes with 2 batteries, charger, and the unit itself. Anybody have one? I'm really tempted to get one for $59.

I think Harbor Freight has a similar one for a similar price. You may want to compare the HF with the RK units?

 

[bczoom]

$17,900 is a good price on the Foton.

Can't help on the grease gun.

For some things (I.e. the Grasshopper), isn't it bad to grease too much? The spindles on my ZTR say 3 pumps every 50 hours and in big letters DO NOT OVER-GREASE.

 

[Dargo]

$17,900 is a good price on the Foton.

Can't help on the grease gun.

For some things (I.e. the Grasshopper), isn't it bad to grease too much? The spindles on my ZTR say 3 pumps every 50 hours and in big letters DO NOT OVER-GREASE.

The Foton honestly does look like a bargain. I'd rank it's quality right on par with the Kioti line; really.

The Chinese grease gun is $hit! First, it does not pump grease. None. It hums and clicks for about 3 minutes until the battery is dead. Put in the 2nd battery and it does the same thing. Carefully read the instructions and am following them to the "T". Since both 18 volt batteries are now dead (after their 3 minute run), I placed one on the 'one hour charger'. It does absolutely nothing! No lights, no charge, no nothing. I even change batteries and outlets (even though I know the outlet is good.) Nothing. So, the grease pump is junk and doesn't work, both batteries are junk and last 3 minutes, and the charger is shit and does nothing. This only proves to me once again that I am not a cheap tool sort of guy. I have no time for shit tools; power tools or hand tools. It's going back and I have no desire to try another.

Anybody know where I may find a better price on the Lincoln brand of battery powered grease guns?

Oh yeah, I'd have a very, very serious issue with something that says to only grease the grease zerks on a ZTR every 50 hours! That sounds like a sure way to roast them. As I said, for my 10 year checkup at the dealer, they used their calipers and miked all my spindles, wheel spindles, and wheel axles. After 10 years of use and 1200 hours they all showed zero measurable wear. On all the commercial ZTR units I've ever used to considered, they all very clearly stated that all the grease zerks must be greased every 8 hours of use. I'm very confident that I would not have come through a throrough inspection showing zero wear if I only greased my unit a couple times a year. My gusss is that I'd be on my 3rd or 4th set of deck bearings.

 

[bczoom]

Maybe I should grease my spindles more...

I didn't know if excessive grease would blow some seals and make things worse.

The prices I saw on the Foton's were $18,500 to over $21,000.

Want to tell us what you really think of that POS grease gun?

 

[Dargo]

Okay, the POS 18 volt made in China *%&#$ thing went back. Hell no, I didn't want to try another one of those pieces of $hit!!!!! I politely told the lady at the counter that I'd just like a refund because no part of the grease gun worked. She then gets the "department manager" who tries to convince me to try another. I was polite for the first 5 minutes... Now, he may as well send the entire load of those pieces of shit back because of the crowd that gathered as he was going to "show" me how it was operator error. Well, by golly, the POS wouldn't do one single thing as advertised for him either, nor would the next 3 he tried! Word of mouth gets around fast. He won't be able to get $5 for what he has on the clearance isle now!

Now, my real question: Lincoln has made a 12 volt grease gun that has been around for a while. There seems to be no "remans" of it available anywhere (maybe a good sign), and the cheapest I've found is on eBay from a seller who sells the 2 battery version for $163 plus $6.50 shipping. However, Lincoln now has a 14.4 volt version, new for 2006. It says that it is a 2 speed unit (do I need 2 speeds?) and the cheapest I can find the 2 battery version of it is $197 with about $8 for shipping. Anybody have either of these that they use? I have a rolling pneumatic version that uses the 120 pound quarter barrels, but like Junk, I almost never use it. At times I need 3 hands to hold the grease gun on the zerk, hold the grease gun itself, and then pump the handle.

So, I ask the wise people here, should I buy the Lincoln battery powered grease gun??

Then, if so, is there any reason at all that I should go for 14.4 volts rather than 12???


Somebody hep me peeze!

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

Dargo, go buy the 14.4 volt version, you have my permission. You already stated you are a grease-a-holic so I suspect nothing but the "best" will make you happy. However, I'll still think you're a lazy ass for not wanting to squirt a grease gun with your bare hands.

 

[Dargo]

However, I'll still think you're a lazy ass for not wanting to squirt a grease gun with your bare hands.

Since PB was kind enough to point out that I haven't the strength to pump the handle on a grease gun, I'll go ahead and show what I bought. Here is what I ended up with: Dargo's grease gun (model 1444)

 

[Melensdad]

I dunno. I got a pump gun, it does me fine. I'll admit I've tossed out a couple pump guns that I thought were crummy, but I have a decent gun and it serves me just fine. I've never had the desire to get a pneumatic or battery grease gun. Maybe because I grease things once a year, regardless of if they need it or not?

 

[Doc]

It even has a shoulder holster.
Looks like a nice unit. I'd probably grease more often if I had one of those.

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

Since PB was kind enough to point out that I haven't the strength to pump the handle on a grease gun, I'll go ahead and show what I bought. Here is what I ended up with: Dargo's grease gun (model 1444)

Hmmm - when I saw the URL for your link I thought you were sending me to some site run by the likes of DingoTango!

 

[mtntopper]

The POS cheapo 12 volt went to hell a couple weeks ago. I did not get one single full cartridge run through it in the year I owned it. Plugged it into the 12 volt outlet and it poured smoke and sparks from the motor area.

I followed the advice in this thread and bought the 14.4 Lincoln and could not be happier so far. It actually works. I use grease for the track tension system on several of my snow cats. A good gun can make the difference of walking or riding. I want to ride.

Thanks Dargo for the heads up info..

 

[mla2ofus]

Best thing I've found for a hand gun when 3 hands are needed is put 2 18" hoses on it.When you have to hold coupler on zerk,position gun on hip or floor/ground and pump away.
Mike

 

[Dargo]

I had to scroll down to see when that post was made; i.e. - when I bought that Lincoln 14.4 grease gun. It really made me curious because I've now gone through 8 tubes of grease and am yet to charge the battery. So, if I were to buy again, I'd buy the Lincoln 14.4 gun, but the kit that only has 1 battery instead of two. I have to guess that the two battery kit must be made for a shop that uses a dozen tubes of grease or so each day. Man, does this thing last a while on a charge!

I don't know what you think mtntopper, but it took me a bit before I got used to it. I was somewhat apprehensive on using it on bearings at first because I didn't know how much grease it was putting out. However, over time, I figured out each "click" seems to equal about a half of a pump on a manual gun. That definitely isn't scientific, just an observation. Also, I didn't think I'd ever use the 2nd (high) speed, but I do. When greasing the loader grease points on my tractors one quick shot with the gun on high seems to work great. For mower deck bearings I use low speed and go about 3 or 4 clicks. I have a pneumatic grease gun that uses a 5 gallon bucket or a 120 pound quarter barrel. I really never use it now.

I'd be curious to see how many tubes mtntopper goes through before he has to recharge the battery. Oh, did you get the kit with one battery or two? If you got the one with two I'll feel bad for not following up in this thread to comment about how long a battery will last. I'm glad you like it so far. Please post any observations you have on it. If there are very many grease fittings on those snow machines, I can see where the Lincoln battery powered unit would be great. I didn't know that you adjusted the track tension on snow cats with a grease gun. There again, both dozers I had were that way. It amazes me when a little grease gun will move the tracks on a 50,000 pound dozer!

 

[mtntopper]

I am still on my first battery. It may be getting slower/weaker with about one full cartridge used so far. Much of my work on snow cats is outside and at low temps with the grease gun working hard. On some of the snow cats the bogey wheel seals are actually made so when you pump grease in one side it drives any moisture out the other side. This takes more grease than normal applications. It is just so much easier than having the air pump cavitate while you are under the equipment and having to crawl out and shake the pump. Cold weather is not your friend when trying to grease equipment. Even in the shop at 55 degrees this seems to happen too often. The Lincoln power gun just works well for my usage.

With the gun on the high or low setting, you can watch the track stretch and tighten without any effort on the Lincoln gun. Works much better than the air pump gun for me and I am not dragging 25 foot of hose around getting tangled up in other crap and having to continually rearrange the hose and air line.

I did buy the gun with 2 batteries. It is just good insurance for me. The 12 volt gun would probably of been plenty, but after the POS cheapo experience, I did not want to take a chance. A track left in a snow bank somewhere is going to be a major PIA for several days....

Not sure what the wife paid for the Lincoln as we do considerable business with a company named Fastenal. They have decent hardware, tools and other industrial supplies when you need them. The local store stocks the 12V but we had to order the 14.4, which took about 4 days. So far, so good......