Build Family haulin'

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

brokenparts said:
hey mike... what is your frame height (ground to bottom of frame)?
Click to expand...

Once I get done adding all the extra weight from protection it might be a tad lower but right now I'm at 25" from bottom of the frame under the driver side door to the ground. My tcase does hang down a bit lower (~5") and I haven't fabbed up a skid plate yet.
 
GLTHFJ60 said:
That's what the inside of the rockers look like. Nice.

Excellent sliders!
Click to expand...

Yeah, once I saw Zach's (brokenparts) and then cut mine off there isn't much that needs to be sealed so doing the work to cap them seemed like diminishing returns especially since it will be covered up with a slider anyways. I just sealed up that seam in the middle and will run some rubber plugs in the holes at the bottom of the pillers. The one area I need to look into further is the hole at the rear wheel well. I'd like to get a flashlight in there and see where it goes to see it's worth dealing with (maybe just a piece of rubber glued in to keep things out).
 
Dirtgypsy said:
Those are bada$$ mike.

please tell me you are NOT going to put those boggers on your truck :frown:

Clint
Click to expand...

Those will be spare tires. I still need to get some 6 lug 16s to mount those. Right now they are on 8 lugs.
 
weekly update

I seem to be taking my sweet time with these sliders but they'll get put on soon.

This was my battery condition for my welder. I had one boil over so I knew it was toast (charger didn't get the right signal so it kept charging) and then the other had a post that was loose so I decided to just replace both of them.

P3090006.JPG


Trojans are pretty good batteries but I decided not to fork over the extra difference and just got house brand. These are group 27 deep cycle batteries. They are new and if I have any problems in the next three years I'll be bringing them back to their shop.

P3090007.JPG


I cleaned off the battery tray with baking soda, plopped in my new batteries and hooked them up.

P3090010.JPG


With new juice supplying my welder I burned in the outriggers, cleaned up the metal and put my first coat of Rustbullet on. With the warmer weather coming up I'm hoping it will be easier to paint since I'll need a second coat on the sliders and the rockers. I'm getting low on Rustbullet too so I'll need to get some more ordered.

P3100017.JPG


I've been tracking down a coolant leak that wasn't dripping. I ended up having a couple pinholes on my return heater hose so I got some new stuff and replaced it. It was also time for an oil change so I made a mess on the driveway and got that finished. After the rubicon trip this summer I should have over 10K miles on the swap.
 
Last edited:
That's awesome! I can't wait to buy one of those Ready Welders!!
 
Thanks, I do plan on making a new cart, something more vertical with a place to wrap the cabling for the gun and grounding clamp. Plus those skinny wheels don't do so well on soggy grass so probably some wheels with more "floatation". I've been eyeing this big-wheeled radio flyer cart at Harbor Freight that I could modify.
 
Last edited:
boots4 said:
Thanks, I do plan on making a new cart, something more vertical with a place to wrap the cabling for the gun and grounding clamp. Plus those skinny wheels don't do so well on soggy grass so probably some wheels with more "floatation". I've been eyeing this big-wheeled radio flyer cart at Harbor frieght that I could modify.
Click to expand...

There you go. Buy a radio flyer and cut it up to mount the batteries. That would be a badass setup as well.

I know this has been covered earlier, but it looks like you have spots for two more batteries. Ever use more than 2 batteries?
 
I didn't realize how much juice my setup puts out until I played with that miller 175 at Zach's. When welding with that machine I can "lay" the bead in, but with mine I "burn" it in. If I need to close in a small gap I have to stitch it or I will burn holes though it. I'm talking 1/4 stuff with my dial set to 1 (no wonder I hate playing on sheet metal!). This is all with .35 wire and I'm just on my last roll of .35 so I'm going to go with .30 to reduce the power a little.

There are two ways to reduce the power with the ready welder and one is by voltage so I could run 18v instead of 24v but that would mean another charger for my setup. The other way is to reduce the size of my wire. I had read that .35 was a good overall size wire but I'm thinking that for my setup .30 will work a little better for what I want to use it for. I'll get good penetration with a little less heat. Plus after play with MIG I'm tempted to get a bottle and some solid wire because it's a little easier than fluxed core IMO.

So the long answer is no I haven't tried more batteries because it already has plenty of juice.
 
boots4 said:
I didn't realize how much juice my setup puts out until I played with that miller 175 at Zach's. When welding with that machine I can "lay" the bead in, but with mine I "burn" it in. If I need to close in a small gap I have to stitch it or I will burn holes though it. I'm talking 1/4 stuff with my dial set to 1 (no wonder I hate playing on sheet metal!). This is all with .35 wire and I'm just on my last roll of .35 so I'm going to go with .30 to reduce the power a little.

There are two ways to reduce the power with the ready welder and one is by voltage so I could run 18v instead of 24v but that would mean another charger for my setup. The other way is to reduce the size of my wire. I had read that .35 was a good overall size wire but I'm thinking that for my setup .30 will work a little better for what I want to use it for. I'll get good penetration with a little less heat. Plus after play with MIG I'm tempted to get a bottle and some solid wire because it's a little easier than fluxed core IMO.

So the long answer is no I haven't tried more batteries because it already has plenty of juice.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. I'm planning on getting into welding myself as soon as I can afford it and this system seems like a pretty inexpensive way to get some weld time. This looks like it will be the route I'll be traveling. Thanks for the tips!

EDIT: So you ordered the one with the NATO power plugs, wired the batteries in series then wired your charger directly to the terminals, correct? Sorry for the quick hijak, but welding is exciting to me.
 
Last edited:
GLTHFJ60 said:
EDIT: So you ordered the one with the NATO power plugs, wired the batteries in series then wired your charger directly to the terminals, correct? Sorry for the quick hijak, but welding is exciting to me.
Click to expand...

In all honesty I'm not sure it's that much cheaper by the time you buy batteries and a charger. The main advantages I see are its portability (that was a big one for me and I can bring it on the trail) and not having to run a 220V line somewhere and its power. It is cheaper electricity wise though.

Yes I bought the one with the "cold switch" (10000ADP-CS) that turns off the tip when the trigger is let go. I figured for a new welder like myself more safety was better. Configuration is as you stated. I wired the batteries in series and the charger has two sets of leads that are wired to the +/- of each battery. I choose a marine charger because they are made to charge battery banks where they are wired to each other (powering electric trolling motors, etc.).
 
Last edited:
There is a good article on pirate about the ready welder. I think its worth reading. I was surprised by how much power can be had with battery type welding.
 
I got the passenger side finished minus paint today and started on the scab plates for the driver side and ran out of wire. I should have the driver side wrapped up tomorrow after I get some more wire. I think I'll weigh that one before I burn it on just because I'm curious.

I also ordered a low-profile steering joint to clear the shock body. If that comes in by this weekend I'll bring that to play with at the bearing packing party.
 
weekly update

I cut out some scab plates for the frame. I also cut the bottoms off and used those pieces as gussets on top.

P3160006.JPG


Did a couple of mock ups to find where to clean off the frame and where I wanted to put the plates on the frame.

P3160009.JPG


P3160011.JPG


I ran to a welding supply store and picked up a 10lb spool of .30 flux core wire and then wound up a couple of my empty 1lb spools. One of the tips was to try running .30 flux core in a .35 tip so I gave that a try and find I have better control and it's easier to fill small gaps. I'm getting great penetration so I think I'll be sticking to .30 wire, for flux core anyways.

I lined the sliders back up and started burning them in.

P3170019.JPG


P3170021.JPG


P3170022.JPG


I chose a finger salute for spacing between the door and outrigger. :flipoff2:

P3170016.JPG


And then a pinky width between the rocker and slider.

P3170017.JPG


Here's how they turned out.

P3170018.JPG


P3170023.JPG


P3170025.JPG


P3180030.JPG


Thought I'd try out the high lift test to see how the slider mounts flex.

P3170012.JPG


P3170015.JPG


The slider/rocker clearance was good under weight but the door/outrigger might end up rubbing with full weight on it. I'll have to see how they do in the field to see if I will need more gusseting but for now I think I'll leave them.

P3170014.JPG


I cleaned up the welds and slapped some paint on the frame. It'll definitely make washing the top of the rig much easier to reach.

I had some daylight left so I started cutting parts for the 1/4 protection. I'll wrap these into the rear bumper and get some tube bent up.

P3180033.JPG
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom