19.2 V drill with manual auger

[Pro37]

Haven't purchased a gas auger quite yet and am going to try the battery powered drill this ice season. Its got 410 inch pounds of torque so who knows. Wife bought the attachment arbor for me.

Has anyone else tried this yet?

Pro

(praying for COLD weather)

[chunkytrout]

I just can't for the life of me see these rigs working. I can't wait to be proven wrong. Good Luck

[Pro37]

Thanks. I've watched their video online and the claim on the box says "cuts through 10 inches of ice in about 10 seconds". Second claim says, "cuts up to 25 holes on a freshly charged battery"

I think this has everything to do with the drill and a sharp auger. I plan on keeping the batteries in a cooler with a hot pack-- otherwise, they'll die out there.

It fits the auger great so we'll see if I can prove the skeptics wrong (including myself)

[Pro37]

Tested the auger with the battery powered drill on 12/25 and 12/26. I blasted through 15 inches of ice in about 35-40 seconds. I could not believe how fast it was. Was operating the drill on low power setting and stopped to life the auger up a couple times to clear the hole.

Results: drilled a total of 12 holes between 2 batteries on 12/25. In my opinion, this setup works great if you normally drill 10 holes or less in a visit (which may or may not fit your fishing habits.)

Thought I'd share with the group.

Pro

[Northlander]

Sounds like a good hand auger would be quicker. Lots of extra stuff to carry and added weight. 10 holes at 35-40 seconds a piece? Ill stick with my Nilsmaster Auger. I can use it either as a hand auger or a power auger and its way faster than that drill as a hand auger. If this set up works for you though good luck with it. Maybe someday they will make a battery operated drill that can handle that kind of workload.

[upnorth]

That really ain't too bad, especially when you figure that you would have the 1st couple holes punched through the ice before they got a gas auger, primed, choked, started and kinda warmed up a little.

I don't plan on buying one, I think the battery is still gonna be the weak point. But it is still on option for someone who is not going to move around too much.

My guess in is a few years they will have a battery operated auger that will work very well. It wasn't that far in the distant past that a cordless drill was only a glorified screw driver and short lived at that. Time will tell.