Older Milwaukee M18 drill and 8" auger

[Channel Z]

I'm presently using a Milwaukee M18 Fuel 2604-20 hammer drill with XC4.0 batteries. The batteries are getting a little long in the tooth and I need to replace/upgrade. This is mounted on a Clam plate gen 1 modified with spacers to lift the mounting bracket to accept mounting the drill. Kept the chuck and modified a bolt (?½-20?, 3 sides) to tie in to the Clam extension. Have been using a Mora Normark Finbore 6" and works great when I go out jigging but have been using tip-ups for walleye and would prefer a larger hole, 8". I've made an adapter to mount my folding handle Mora Normark Finbore 8" with new Mora Swedish blades to the extension but the drill just doesn't have the power to cut a hole. Pretty sure the drill meets the 750+ in lb torque requirement to power the 8" auger if my understanding is correct.
So based on this setup for the 8" Finbore and getting it to work, would upgrading to a 9AH or 12AH battery solve the problem? Or do I need to upgrade the drill to one with more torque output? Looking for the least expensive way out.
Sorry for being long winded but I felt more details up front would get the best answer instead of vague info. Thanks for your help!

[ice4066]

i have a newer 18 fuel drill with 5.0 batteries and i ran my 6and 8" lazer hand augers on it last year and i dont have the clam plate i just use the drill with side handle and have no problems , only problem this year is not much chance to use it1

[ran7ger]

 i run that exact same set up.  still have 2 of the original 4ah batteries but don't use them to run the auger anymore.  new 5 ah will do the job but go all out and get the 9 or 12.  i can't believe what a guy gets out of the 9ah battery, drilling through close to 30" here now and will run my flasher and lights in the shack for ages.  if that doesn't fix ya up well ya got a deadly battery just pick up the hammer drill and your back in business.

[Channel Z]

Ordered the 12 Ah battery. Will be arriving today. Will let you know how it works out.
I stopped by HD to see if I could get the online price, no go. Just so happens that the Milwaukee rep was in the store. Hunted him down he couldn't get me a better price but asked about which battery would do what I was looking to do. He agreed with your results. Said the 12Ah is a high output battery and should do the trick. If it comes early enough so I can get a full charge on it then I'll try it later today else it will have to wait until Saturday.
Thanks for your help!

[cwavs1982]

Channel - the 2604 is listed at peak 725 in-lbs of torque.  This may be something to keep an eye on when drilling the holes.  The drill may get a little warm.  You definitely have enough battery capacity now to push through the drilling, but the drill may now be the weak link.  Just something to keep an eye on.

[Channel Z]

The Milwaukee 12 Ah battery arrived yesterday in time to get it charged. Used it last night. AWESOME!!! Cut like the 6", like going through warm butter! No hesitation, binding or stalling.
Will pay attention to how hot it runs. I expect no overheating problems at this time of year, 6" of ice and I usually only drill up to 10 holes over a period of time, not run and gun, drilling lots of holes one after the other.
Thanks to all you all for your help! As of now I once again have a fully functional 8" drill operated auger! These old arms and back prevented manual operation.

[Channel Z]

An update on the 12 Ahr battery upgrade. Have used this updated setup 4 times now. Have dtilled up to 16 holes in one outing. Still 4 bars of power and when I put it on the charger after fishing it was 100%, or at least high enough that each time the charger light was green.
My fishing buddy who has a new version Ion was really impressed with how fast my rig cut. He saw how well it worked with the 6" auger and struggled being unusable with the 8" auger using the original 4Ahr batteries. Think I'll see if we can race them when we go out Sunday. Probably only 6-7"of ice.

[hardwater diehard]

May be a tad under torqued ..but on skinny ice and pacing yourself with your drilling may work just fine ...and if your not 100% happy with performance your about $100 bucks away from new or refurbished 2803 or 2804...your 2601 can be your shelters anchor drill. Good luck with your set up .

https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/Power-Tools/Drilling/Hammer-Drills/2604-20

[joefishmore]

How much does the 12 amp battery weigh ?

[Channel Z]

Hardwater Diehard, I'm not an electrical engineer so don't know the correlation between power from the battery and torque output of the drill but based on the old 4 Ahr batteries the 12 Ahr battery seems to better utilize the full 725 in-lb torque output.
I wanted to race the 2 other augers, a new 8" Ion and an 8" Kdrill, last time out but they conceded without an attempt. They say the updated rig goes like a raped ape and there's no contest.
I agree that the skinny ice helps and as it gets thicker I will watch for overheating. Thanks for providing the new model numbers, handy to have if things go south. I'll refer back to this post.
joefishmore, the 12 Ahr battery alone weighs 3.41 lbs. The original 4 Ahr battery weighs 1.58 lbs so a little more than twice the weight but 3x the capacity. I can say that I think the extra weight helps when drilling, no downward effort required as it auto feeds awesome. However there is no problem with hanging up on breakthrough, it flat out cuts right through. My 6" auger with the 4 Ahr battery would occasionally bind up/stall on breakthrough. I'm sure that didn't help with overheating the drill.
I guess, just a thought, the larger capacity battery may make the drill run cooler as it's not boging down as much as it used to even with the larger auger bit I'm using now.

[hnd]

theres got to be something to it. 

I have a weedwacker, blower, and circ saw and all of them run better under the 12AH battery than the 5AH.   the circ saw basically requires it.  the blower has way less power with the 5.0 battery. 

[hardwater diehard]

[Channel Z]

HD, I watched the video and yes I can buy in to what was shown. Thanks, that explains a lot.

[Channel Z]

Updating my experience with this setup now that we have more ice. Now up to 11" ice. 4 bottom inches of black solid ice. Remaining 7" is from refrozen overflow, snow and slush. The drill powers right through the top 7" and slows down at the bottom 4". I had 3 consecutive occurances of the drill stalling at breakthrough with the battery not being fully charged between trips because it still showed fully charged, 4 LEDs. This was when letting the auger auto feed when cutting. I found that as has been suggested in other posts that slightly lifting/preventing the auger from auto feeding allows the auger to break through clean with no binding or stalling. That was with the battery not fully recharged between trips.

My friend who has the Ion used my setup the last time out to drill a few holes and was astounded at how fast and easy my rig punched holes.

When I had the first stall I got concerned that I would need to upgrade the drill but now using the slight lift up technique I think I should be good for a while.

Should have over a foot of ice when we go out tomorrow. Will see if it can still cut without problems.