Trail Welding

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RealMcCoy

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So who takes supply's to weld on the trail and what are the?. I have heard of welding with 2 car batteries but have never done it. I can see this a great way to get you off the trail if you break something major.
 

KD7WCD

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I'v done the three battery thing with some jumper cables. Thing people forget is that unless you are caring batteries just fir this which is ridiculous, you really need to have 4 batteries. Assuming you are pulling batteries from the groups rigs you will need a way to jump start everyone once you are done. If you are doing this from rig to rig it is something you need to consider when parking before you star pulling batteries.

Yes it works. Yes it might just get you off the trail. No you won't get a great weld so plan on redoing the welding when you can get to proppef equipment.

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VCeXpedition

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After taking the 7P Battery Welding course at Overland Expo last year, I came home and made my own to use two or three batteries.
And it is no problem to use the batteries then count on them to start the car.
During the class, there were 10 - 12 students, they all tried their hand at it and the batteries were still in relatively good shape, had good voltage, certainly enough to start a car.
I carry mine now on longer trips, I'm glad I had it last time, I had to weld my exhaust where it had completely separated.

It's true, it's not a great quality weld, but it melted the metal and got me home.

I did find out that:
1. Get better welding goggles
2. Practice my stick-welding skill.
3. Unplug any sensitive electronics of the car you're welding on. (either coincidence or cause)... ask me how I know.

The kit I put together was way less than $100 and that was all-in, but it did take me some time to assemble it all. But my time is all garage therapy! :laughing:

Dan.
 
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KD7WCD

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When you assembled your own kit what did you choose for giggles? I think about this and I think my full hood takes up to much room. The Google in the kit don't cover the face but are still better than not having anything at all. Not having anything is dangerous, painful and makes the whole thing a lot less feasible.

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VCeXpedition

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@KD7WCD, Yep, that's my next issue. I have an older hood that is an instant darkening lens that I am going to modify to make it able to fit in my bag.
Another option is to find some smaller goggles that have that same instant-dark lens, but I still have to find a way to cover my face.
Welding in these scenarios is not a long time, just get the fix done but I'm still concerned about that exposure on my skin.
I'll post up here when I do something.

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VCeXpedition

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So, to close the loop, I picked up these auto-darkening goggles from Amazon, hopefully they'll work out better...

upload_2017-2-13_22-11-6.png

This is my ho-made welder. It worked pretty well, despite my lack of stick-welding skill.
The goggles in this pic were summarily thrown in the trash tonight when the new ones arrived.

upload_2017-2-13_22-14-29.png

I can use two or three batteries with this, two seemed to work well for what I needed. For welding on the frame, I might have wanted three.

Dan.
 
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1derer

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So, to close the loop, I picked up these auto-darkening goggles from Amazon, hopefully they'll work out better...

View attachment 16626

This is my ho-made welder. It worked pretty well, despite my lack of stick-welding skill.
The goggles in this pic were summarily thrown in the trash tonight when the new ones arrived.

View attachment 16627

I can use two or three batteries with this, two seemed to work well for what I needed. For welding on the frame, I might have wanted three.

Dan.
Good kit! I need to get a buddy to join and reply here he is the only person that I have seen wire up a push mig stick to his 24 Volt Land Cruiser. Its not pretty but it works!