"Peter Huebner" wrote in message
t...
In article d9e8a140-7133-4a0b-8b61-
,

says...

They had a few old DeWalt NiCads left on the shelf. With the
XT
batteries, they were pretty hard to beat. There is some talk
that
with the unpopularity of the Li (there are some temp problems
with
some) that DeWalt will continue on with the NiCad lines. They
seem
abundant on Amazon, and even new NiCad models are available.

I guess the reason this ****es me off so much is that I got
stung with
the whole NiCad to NiMh battery switch. I still have a Makita
that
works well when charged, but I was disappointed that I spent
$300 to
upgrade from my favorite old DeWalt, only to find that I didn't
get
the performance of my $239 DeWalt compact drill driver. I felt
like
Makita burned me good, and since there wasn't anything
technically
wrong with the drill, after more than 90 days of wrestling with
it, my
vendor wouldn't take it back. So I have a $300 "shop only"
drill.
Verrrry practical. And it ****es me off any time I see it.

It is a horse when charged, but will easily discharge (almost
completely) itself in the truck when not used in about 2 weeks.
It
forced me to carry a corded drill for backup, which I never did
when I
had the DeWalt. DW seemed like it was always ready to go, and
it
would hold a good charge in the truck for a month. I don't
want to
get to a house to install new hardware and hinges and have to
wait on
the drill to charge every time. And I don't want to start
carrying a
backup drill for my front line drill again.

Long, long ago, my friend had a service van he used to make calls
on homes and business as part of his electrical contracting
business. He was using the Makita long-handled drills (I don't
recall voltage) and would run into dead battery syndrome all too
frequently. His solution was to simply buy a small inverter and
fasten it and a Makita battery recharger to one of the shelves in
his van. He also got a mechanical interval timer and installed it
between his van battery and the inverter, so he could give it a
twist to run the inverter for 4 hours, for instance. It worked
like a charm.

He was on a new construction site when one of the finish
carpenters had a cussing fit: his Paslode airless nailer's battery
was dead. My friend let him recharge it in his service van and
then helped the guy install a similar arrangement in his own
pickup.

FWIW, we drive a Toyota Sienna van, and it comes complete with a
120vac outlet in the back for recharging things, such as my wife's
scooter.

--
Nonny

You cannot make a stupid kid smart by
handing him a diploma. Schools need standards
to measure the amount of education actually
absorbed by children. Don't sacrifice the smart
kids to make the dumb ones feel good about themselves.