10pcs 1/2" Impact Deep Socket Set

The case for deep impact sockets is specific and, for anybody doing wheel and suspension work, close to essential. Wheel nuts on a great many vehicles sit on studs long enough that a standard socket will not engage the full height of the nut. Leaf spring U-bolts have several centimetres of thread projecting past each nut. Hub, driveline and suspension assemblies are full of studs. In all of those a standard socket simply bottoms out on the protruding thread and cannot seat at all, so the tool that is otherwise ideal is useless.

The material specification is the important part and it is the same reasoning as the standard set. These are chrome molybdenum, heat treated, with a chemical molybdenum corrosion coating rather than chrome plating. An impact wrench works by hammering — a spinning hammer striking an anvil thousands of times a minute — and that shock loading destroys chrome hand sockets, which are hardened and plated for wear resistance and are therefore hard and brittle. They crack and throw fragments. Chrome molybdenum is chosen because it is tough rather than merely hard: it absorbs the blows and deforms rather than fracturing.

That distinction matters more on deep sockets than on standard ones, because a long barrel flexes with every hammer blow. A chrome deep socket on an impact gun is the single most dangerous combination in a socket set, and it is also, unfortunately, the most tempting one — because deep chrome sockets are common and wheel nuts are exactly what people point impact guns at. If you use a gun, own these.

The buyers are tyre and wheel fitters, commercial vehicle, truck and bus workshops, suspension and spring specialists, plant and agricultural mechanics, roadside and breakdown services, and hardware dealers supplying the motor trade.

Practical notes. Use the gun to remove and a torque wrench to tighten — a gun on maximum stretches wheel studs and warps brake discs, and both fail later. Use impact-rated extensions and adaptors rather than chrome ones. Inspect the sockets for cracks from time to time, since they do have a working life. And keep them apart from the chrome set in the tray, because in a hurry the two look similar enough to grab wrongly. Message us on WhatsApp for a price, or for the standard and deep sets together.