Drill Auger Upgrade or Stay Put

Thinking about selling my Ion X and going to the Dewalt 999 with probably a 6ah and 9ah batteries. Will likely pair it with the G2 Ion bit or the pistol bit. Looking to save some more weight over the current setup, and adding another tool and more batteries to an arsenal of gear I can use year round is really appealing to me. Looking at a year like this year when we’re in the middle of a move, I won’t be fishing nearly as much as I usually do, and having that auger head hanging in the garage, not really capable of any other uses, has me thinking I’d rather have a drill setup.

Usually do a few weekends in the wheelhouse each year but primarily a hole hopper, early to late.

Option B) would be to just buy the Ion G2 composite flite for my current head and save the weight at least, but wouldn’t solve the problem of the auger only being used for a few months out of the year.

WHAT SAY YOU IDO?

I went out and purchased
The Lazer lite 10” bottom

I’m attaching it to my
42 volt Ice Gator
Power head.

Can’t wait to try it,
I asked StrikeMaster to
Produce a light weight 10” bottom
they finally
Did.

Thanks

G0 for the cordless drill and batteries you can use elsewhere. I have a Milwauke drill and a 6″ later metal auger and and 8″ LiteFlite. I use batteries in the blower, inflator, impact wrenches, other drill, chainsaw, hackzall…

The new Ion composite bit is $79 right now on their web site. marked down from $229. I would go that route.

I’ll always advocate for the cordless drill. I have x2 Milwaukee hammer drills and tons of batteries so it obviously makes sense for me, but even if someone is just starting to add to a heavier duty power tool collection it makes sense. There are a number of different drill augers that are forcing competitive price points as well. Unless you are drilling holes a majority of the time through over 2′ of ice, I think anything else isn’t worth it. Obviously running houses on LOTW or something like that all season is different.

Overall Pros: year round uses (how many months will most people use an Ion this year? 2 months?), cheaper (in most instances), lighter, no other unique chargers to deal with

Overall Cons: Maybe not as good for the 2’+ ice…but they still do the job even for that and have started to close that performance gap too.

bigcrappie wrote:

The new Ion composite bit is $79 right now on their web site. marked down from $229. I would go that route.

Do you need an adapter of sorts to run that on a drill? The pictures make it look like that’s not something that’s plug and play ready for a drill chuck?

You would need the chuck bit and probably the disk which you could buy from eskimo. After tax and shipping the bit only is $108 which is still a good deal.

buckybadger wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>bigcrappie wrote:</div>
The new Ion composite bit is $79 right now on their web site. marked down from $229. I would go that route.

Do you need an adapter of sorts to run that on a drill? The pictures make it look like that’s not something that’s plug and play ready for a drill chuck?

Yes an adapter would be needed, but I’m fortunate that my day job is a design engineer for consumer products, so we can usually find time in the machine shop for “government projects” when things slow down.

use promo code ION10 and you get 10% off. If you are over $100 its free shipping too.

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buckybadger wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>bigcrappie wrote:</div>
The new Ion composite bit is $79 right now on their web site. marked down from $229. I would go that route.

Do you need an adapter of sorts to run that on a drill? The pictures make it look like that’s not something that’s plug and play ready for a drill chuck?

Yeah it’s 40 bucks and a quick release. Looks like a sweet set up for 150 bucks or less.

Wonder if that Ion composite bit will fit my 40V Strikemaster power head? Anyone know what direction the Ion spins?

I think only the jiffy augers spin the opposite of all other augers.

Jiffy cordless torch spins like the rest of them.

I went drill auger . My thoughts being batteries in things die over time . Cell phone ect . And then possibly in time they will phase out the battery replacements making you buy a new power head . Atleast with a drill you can keep replacing the drill . Also there is a ton more Milwaukee or dewalt drills out there than auger power heads . I think I got my hammer drill off eBay . Make sure you don’t get too small of one !!

Look at Ridgid also lifetime warranty on the tool and battery. I figure using in those elements good to be able to replace if something happens. This setup has been awesome all the drills out there will work I just looked for the lifetime coverage.

Ended up ordering that Ion Ultralight bit and the Dewalt DCD999 from Home Depot. Current deal is the hammer drill, a 6ah flexvolt and 9ah flexvolt for $300.

waldo9190 wrote:

Ended up ordering that Ion Ultralight bit and the Dewalt DCD999 from Home Depot. Current deal is the hammer drill, a 6ah flexvolt and 9ah flexvolt for $300.

That should be a sweet combo. I run a hilti drill on a clam plate with the lite flight. Only time I don’t use that is when ice is 3 ft plus up north. Then it’s gas.

waldo9190 wrote:

Ended up ordering that Ion Ultralight bit and the Dewalt DCD999 from Home Depot. Current deal is the hammer drill, a 6ah flexvolt and 9ah flexvolt for $300.

That will be a good setup for you! I know you said you were going to make an adapter, but just thought I’d let you know that the Quick Connect chuck from Deep Freeze works really well. https://www.deepfreezefishing.com/product/ez-auger/

Just wanted to add a quick review from my first use. Didn’t drill a ton of holes this weekend but the DCD999 and 8″ Ion bit was a GD monster. I was beyond impressed with how quickly/easily it ripped through the ice! I absolutely don’t see myself going back to a traditional auger with how well this worked coupled with the multi-use aspect of the drill/batteries.