Swivel Impacts: Deep or Standard Length?

[ephotrod]

I'm looking to purchase a set of matco's 3/8 drive impact swivel sockets. I'm torn between the deep or shallow set and don't know which to go after. After asking several friends who have the sets I'm even more torn because the guys with the deep love them and the guys with shallows say they love them. This will be my first set of impact swivels. Any and all comments are welcome.
Josh

 

[Skin]

General rule of thumb is if you can fit a deep swivel, you can fit a deep socket on a swivel adapter. The regular [shallow] are the only sets worth getting. If you find any really special instances where a deep or semi-deep would fit the bill perfectly then buy that 1 socket but entire sets of deep or semi-deep are a waste.

 

[Outlawmws]

Swivels are typically used in tight places. If your tight places are more typically bold heads rather than nuts, I'd go with the short ones.

Or you can live a little and get both...

 

[ephotrod]

That's alot of living at 800 for 20 sockets!
Josh

 

[Dolsontools]

That's alot of living at 800 for 20 sockets!
Josh

don't forget to get the intermediate swivels too

 

[FergusonTO35]

I've never had an occasion where I really felt that I needed the "deep" swivels which really aren't all that deep. You can create the same thing by putting a regular short socket on a swivel. The really short hex end of a swivel socket is a large part of what makes them work so well.

 

[Fedwrench]

It depends on what you work on. I probably use my shallow impact swivels 90% of the time. However, I also have Matco deep swivels which are more like semideep. They are quite handy for some applications. I would recommend starting off with shallow, add needed sizes later in semideep.

 

[DrkMtnDew]

personally i have yet to have a real need for a deep universal. if i did i'd buy that one size.

 

[SS5150]

I've got the Matco 3/8 impact swivels 10-24, regular depth. They do 99% of the work. I've had the 15 & 18 Matco deep swivels for a few years for some specific jobs and picked up the 10 & 13 earlier in the year. The deeps are rarely used but are handy in certain spots. As far as the deeps go I'd just buy the individual size you need.

 

[crewchief888]

I As far as the deeps go I'd just buy the individual size you need.

^^^^ what he said

ive only used one deep swivel, 9/16" 3/8 dr,
and i use a 3/4" 3/8 dr semi deep

 

[osborn.ozzy]

What about these?
http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/p_10...act+Sockets&prdNo=11&blockNo=11&blockType=L11

 

[Sterff]

All of my swivel sockets are deep.

 

[mrbreezeet1]

What about these?
http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/p_10...act+Sockets&prdNo=11&blockNo=11&blockType=L11

Those are nice, might want to add a 19 MM. At least they don't skip sizes like craftsman often does.
I''v had the Sunnex set for several years, never a problem with them.

 

[ndoran]

I have both, I bought the 10 piece metric deep set in 3/8 drive Ultrapros on sale for $95, the month before they had the shallows on sale for $55 for the set. I also thought about buying the 1/2inch drive sets but decided against this because the socket part is the basically the same size - it was tthe drive end that was much bigger. Figured I was buying them to fit in tight spaces so the 3/8 would be the better buy. I find the shallow ones are most useful when you have a long extension on it - best example is removing cavalier sway bar bushing retainers located on top of the subframe when you need a 3 foot extension and a shallow flex socket to reach the bolts from above to avoid having to drop the subframe for access.