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Since I'm unable to manually remove blade nuts, I'm thinking of buying an electric impact wrench. Anyone have any suggestions? I have a total of about 11" of clearance when mower is jacked so size is important (not too wide). Want to go as least expensive as possible but not buy something that won't do the job of torquing up to around 150 ft. lbs. I thought of going cordless but I will only use it maybe twice a year so I prefer electric versus battery and don't have a compressor. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Rent one to remove them then return it to the rental and save your money for a torque wrench. Torque the nuts to about 75 lbs. with oiled threads.

Great idea! I'll call about renting one. My blade nut torque has a range of 115 to 165 ft. lbs.

SeniorCitizen said:

Rent one to remove them then return it to the rental and save your money for a torque wrench. Torque the nuts to about 75 lbs. with oiled threads.

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Check the owners manual for torque specs. My mowers calls for well over 75

I have a Ryobi One 18 volt impact driver that will loosen any nut I have thrown at it. Great tool.

RustyBoy said:

Great idea! I'll call about renting one. My blade nut torque has a range of 115 to 165 ft. lbs.

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While renting the impact, rent a torque wrench too and get a feel for the 75 # torque then you'll never need either of them again.

I've had people bring mowers to me, even though I don't operate a shop, to have the blades(s) removed. I have my own impact method which doesn't involve electric or air and it hasn't ever failed.

I had an electric that I bought from Walmart years ago and used it for a long time with great results. They are much cheaper than a cordless one and the one I had did an excellent job. I have also seen some that you plug into a cigarette lighter that are 12 volt that will probably do the job you want as well.

Whichever one I use, I only have just over 11" of clearance from the floor to the blade nut. Many of the electric impact wrenches exceed the 11" width and unable to fit. The only one with some power I've found so far that may work is a Kwasaki with supposedly 220 ft. lbs. at HD for $71. I do have a torque wrench but really unable to use it while lying on the floor and trying to hold the blades from turning. Someone mentioned at another post to just hit the nut once or twice with impact wrench and that should do it. The last time I changed the blades was with help from neighbor and is air gun, used to remove and install with probably too much torque. I bought a 120 ft. lb. torque stick but would only be able to use with a narrow wrench, like the Ryobi battery. I do like the idea of the Ryobi cordless if that would remove the nuts without much trouble, but for using it just maybe twice each year, not sure if battery is the best option - but its size is perfect, just over 4" wide. A powerful enough electric with not much width would be perfect as I still need the socket which will add some width.

You're making this way more difficult than it needs to be with all the blade turning problems and such. Build yourself a blade blocker or on some mowers a 3 or 4 inch PVC pipe slipped on a blade will block a blade from turning. I'm an old man and sharpen my blades at least 10 times a season without all that equipment you seem to need. I refuse to mow with dull blades.

BoylermanCT said:

I have a Ryobi One 18 volt impact driver that will loosen any nut I have thrown at it. Great tool.

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I did note that Ryobi makes a nice tool and is just under 8" wide, perfect for what I need. How long have you had it? Ryobi claims 300 ft. lbs. on their latest model and 200 on their previous - which one do you have? What torque is recommended for your mower blades?

SeniorCitizen said:

You're making this way more difficult than it needs to be with all the blade turning problems and such. Build yourself a blade blocker or on some mowers a 3 or 4 inch PVC pipe slipped on a blade will block a blade from turning. I'm an old man and sharpen my blades at least 10 times a season without all that equipment you seem to need. I refuse to mow with dull blades.

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You're probably right as I usually make things more difficult. Never thought of a PVC pipe to hold the blades and I'm definitely going to try it. Just read that Litrium-ion batteries on the cordless drills only last 2-3 years and would not be a good choice for only using on my mower blades. Thanks,

RustyBoy said:

I did note that Ryobi makes a nice tool and is just under 8" wide, perfect for what I need. How long have you had it? Ryobi claims 300 ft. lbs. on their latest model and 200 on their previous - which one do you have? What torque is recommended for your mower blades?

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I have the 3 speed impact driver (not impact wrench). Normally used for driving deck screws and such, but it works great at loosening stuck bolts. I got the idea from my local car shop when I brought the car down to have them loosen a seized nut. He came over with the Ryobi impact driver and got it off in a few seconds. Charged me $10. On the way home I stopped by Home Depot and bought my own for $80, and use it mostly for driving long screws like it is designed for, but also it doubles as an impact wrench to loosen any nuts. It also has 3 LED lights on the tool, so it makes it easy to see what you are doing.

I loosen my blade bolts with a 1 inch socket on a 24" breaker bar I picked up from Harbor Freight a few years ago. I jack up the mower, brace the blade with my boot and the breaker bar gets the bolt off. I use a regular torque wrench to tighten them to the correct foot pounds.

You can be approached by the most common Impact drivers, very powerful device is not required to twist bolts from a lawn mower. You can look through the models from Makita or Dewalt, they have quite cheap models. You can search for such reviews to compare prices and specifications. If you do not like neither Makita nor dewalt, then look for models from the MAC they have a price tag higher, but the power is often greater.

HARBOR FRIGHT , $40.00 (with coupon) ELECTRIC Impact, great for loosening the family car, truck, lug-nuts as well . I GAVE away All my DeWalt battery tools, got tired of dead batteries, bad charger, $100.00 a pop batteries, Bought RIGID Drill & Driver Combo kit with LIFETIME WARRANTY on the Batteries , LOVE em !!

Boobala said:

HARBOR FRIGHT , $40.00 (with coupon) ELECTRIC Impact, great for loosening the family car, truck, lug-nuts as well . I GAVE away All my DeWalt battery tools, got tired of dead batteries, bad charger, $100.00 a pop batteries, Bought RIGID Drill & Driver Combo kit with LIFETIME WARRANTY on the Batteries , LOVE em !!

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I personally had no Dewalt, since the user of the makita, it has been serving me for almost 2 years, since I started working on the craft, I changed the battery once about six months ago. I have a fairly old model, but no complaints.

I saw Ryobi and Kawasaki power tools mentioned. I use power tools pretty often and this is just my opinion but I'd steer clear of those two brands. I love anything Kawasaki since I bought my first trail bike in '72 but unless they've made big changes, their power tools suck.
Personally I don't see anything wrong w/ owning impact wrenches. They come in handy if you do any of your own wrenching on your vehicles or just for lug nuts. I have a Milwaukee m18 cordless impact (~180 ft-lbs) and drill/driver and use them a lot. I absolutely use the impact on blades. I have a small California Air Tools 4610a compressor which also comes in handy. All I have are nail guns but I borrowed my buddy's monster IR impact wrench for some tough nuts and bolts on vehicles and it did the job. You can never have too many tools
OT: yes I wouldn't hesitate to buy an impact wrench for blades. I used mine to change blades on my Gravely 34z and my Scag Tiger Cub.

Cant you run the front wheels up on some pieces of wood or something to get you some extra working room under the deck or even pull the deck off the tractor. Either way I took bought the elect impact from Harbor Freight. Have used it for blades and other things and it hasn't left me down yet.