Spec Tools, a division of Skew Products, Inc., offers the professional quality RGO-5412 Overdriver. This 1/4" hex screwdriver provides direct silent ratchet action, or the gear knob can be held for four times speed without batteries. This allows the tool to "turn quicker" than a screw driver.
The review
Alex Portillo, the head technician at Car Clinic, an auto repair facility in Mahopac, NY, does a lot more diagnostic than interior work. So, when he was given the Spec Tools RGO-5412 Overdriver, he wondered why he couldn't just use his screwdrivers.
However, when Portillo started using it, he figured out its place in his arsenal of hand tools. "It saves you time, it spins quicker than a screwdriver," he says. "It gives you ratcheting action and it has a lot of teeth, which helps me go quicker. In a quarter of a turn of the handle, the screwdriver head turns about two thirds a revolution. I don't know how it does it, but that's a big deal. If only all my tools did that."
The handle of the tool allows the technician to store different screwdriver heads (i.e. flat head, torx, Philips, etc.) of varying sizes. This is key when doing interior work which requires lying under a dashboard and changing multiple tools. In fact, this is where Portillo saw the tool at its best.
"The Spec Tools ratchet is for interior work, so you can pull dashboards apart quicker," he observes. "You can keep common heads in the top."
"Now, I'm used to just using screwdrivers," Portillo admits. "But this lets me walk around with less tools."
Such a tool is not only beneficial for interior specialists, but can be quite helpful in situations where the location of the car does not lend itself to going between it and the toolbox each time a different tool is used.
"As someone that started out doing a lot of work outside on the weekends, I can see how this is great for side jobs," Portillo says. "I didn't have a toolbox outside in those days, of course."
He did have some suggestions on how to make the tool better.
"I'd like to see it less fat and less long, so it can fit in certain extremely tight spots," says Portillo. "I didn't run into that issue, but it just feels, you know, big. A smaller handle would go a long way."
When asked to rate the tool on a 1 to 10 scale, he thought about it for a bit and then answered, "Maybe an eight out of 10. The fact that it makes the process of 'screwing' so much quicker is awesome."
