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welding off two batteries

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K5dreamer

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I was breezing through the sticky on "inventive" trail fixes, and saw several references to stick welding using two car batteries, jumper cables, and welding sticks.

So I was wondering. for those of us with CUCV's, we have 24v electrical systems. including a 24v power block inside the vehicle on the passenger side quarter panel by the rear seat.

could someone hook jumper cables up to that power block and weld on the rear tailgate or something?

and could you do this with the engine running to keep from draining the engine? or would that endanger the electrical system to much?
 
I'd be pretty sure that unless there are 4ga battery cables on that junction block it would melt any wire smaller than that.
 
if memory serves, they are either 4ga or 8ga, ive got some leftover 4ga from an amp install that i can compare to. From my understanding the process requires alot of temp monitoring anyway, i figure the weak link in the system would be the jumper cables.
 
K5dreamer said:
I was breezing through the sticky on "inventive" trail fixes, and saw several references to stick welding using two car batteries, jumper cables, and welding sticks.

So I was wondering. for those of us with CUCV's, we have 24v electrical systems. including a 24v power block inside the vehicle on the passenger side quarter panel by the rear seat.

could someone hook jumper cables up to that power block and weld on the rear tailgate or something?

and could you do this with the engine running to keep from draining the engine? or would that endanger the electrical system to much?
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Id never do it with the batteries hooked to the truck's electrical system, let alone with the truck running.

WAY too much electrical shock load on the truck's system. Stick welding just creates an electrical short. I would hate to short my truck's electrical system, especially both batteries, for extended periods of time.
 
It's more about amps than volts.

You can use the two batteries, still mounted in the truck just use one set of jumpers to connect the positive of one battery to the negative of the other. Then the leads to weld with hook to the remaining posts.

We have used my buggy battery and another vehicle battery still in place and fully hooked up to the vehicle to do this with no ill effects. Vehicles OFF not running.
 
interesting stuff. might have to take some spare batterys, charge em up overnight, and play around with this concept on a day off. gotta get me some 1/8 in welding sticks........ :)
 
get the 3/16 6011 it works better. The 1/8 melts too fast to do any good welding
 
you'll know when you've pulled too much amperage.........that'll be when your battery post melts.
 
i don't have a welder, but i needed a battery box to get my truck back on the road...used two batteries and a set of cables and welded one up out of some thin gauge sheet...one of those batteries is in the truck right now :D
 
From what I understand you'll use less power with the 1/8 rod. Sounds like it drains the batteries pretty quick also.

For those of you who have done this about how much weld can you put down before your low on power?
 
The few times I have been a part of this. The repair was completed and the batteries still had good juice to start the vehicle.

I do know that as the weld was happening the power went down (as expected). I have also seen where two batteries didn't quite have the power so we used three. That got a bit hot.

No real info on how long you can weld and then have no battery left but from what I have seen you have enough power to do the repair and get back on the trail.
 
how long they'll last could be ballparked pretty easy I would think...It's an amp draw that affects the reserve capacity.. obviously there are a bunch of variables....

this is where deep cycle would make a HUGE difference.. reserve capacity #'s are usually based on an amp draw of 25 amps bringing a battery down to 10.5 volts..... amp hr rating is another number to look at...

each grp 27 marine deep cycle I run has a RC of about 250 minutes... and about 75 minutes at 75 amps... so I would guess they would hold up fairly well considering usual welding amp outputs.....

I'm deadset on a welder in my rig... I really like the Powermaster setup... tho I'll be doing a York first...
 
I had been toying with the idea of an actual welder in the truck too. as after purchasing the jetta the truck is no longer a daily driver. although when i saw the deal about using two batterys, and realizing my truck already has two batteries, and i carry jumper cables, all i would need to carry would be the welding rods. much cheaper, less weight, and far less space consumed than an actual MIG welder. I still use my truck to haul things from time to time. so even though its a toy, its not a dedicated trail rig so i dont want to permanently use up bed space. the purpose of the on board welder would be for emergencies anyway, so this concept is very attractive to me.
 
K5dreamer said:
I had been toying with the idea of an actual welder in the truck too. as after purchasing the jetta the truck is no longer a daily driver. although when i saw the deal about using two batterys, and realizing my truck already has two batteries, and i carry jumper cables, all i would need to carry would be the welding rods. much cheaper, less weight, and far less space consumed than an actual MIG welder. I still use my truck to haul things from time to time. so even though its a toy, its not a dedicated trail rig so i dont want to permanently use up bed space. the purpose of the on board welder would be for emergencies anyway, so this concept is very attractive to me.
Click to expand...

my reply was kinda just talking about how long they would last, not your particular post, my bad... but sure, in a pinch, some cables and rod, absolutely...

as for an onboard welder, I was refering to welding with the alt... most convenient, best, and potentially, expensive setup..

You can rework alts to be welders pretty cheap.. do a search, someone just did one recently in here...

I want fancy high end.. so my goal is not a cheap one


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How about a dual output externally regulated ford type Lestek alternator?
 
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