Precautions mig welding on my truck?

[doobie]

i have heard of it but any welder i have ever talked to has never actually seen it happen.I personally dont unhook any thing and i mainly work on heavy forestry equipment that have alot of electonics and have never had a problem but i always make sure my ground is next to me.if the customer expresses a concern,i just tell him that if he is worried then he can unhook what ever makes himhappy.

[Sberry]

I think in most cases its a hazard and a liability to hook/unhook the battery, I never do it.

[arc]

i have had it happen, fried a ecu on a westernstar, dam helpers..... any one that is actually a welder will know about stray arcs and what that many amps and volts will do to wiring. its true and any one that says not to, go back to school and get educated. its just common knowledge to do this at least around here. dont mean to offend any one its just this is what i do and know and i know whats right and wrong.

[Bert]

Hey, you gonna' build roll cages for skateboards now with your new bender??

Yep I'm gonna have the MEANEST, MOST AWSOMEST SKATEBOARD INT THE WORLD (of course the skateboard's gotta be the same size as a truck, but wouldn't that be cool to see?

[Bert]

QUOTE Sberry:
I think in most cases its a hazard and a liability to hook/unhook the battery, I never do it.

Far as what Sberry said, I could see a lot of it (eclectronics) having to reprogram (besides the radio) that might be a pia...Think I'll stop doing it...

[arc]

id like to see that skateboard, maybe a v8 at the back to hit those highway speeds?? lol

[uhohjim]

Autobody shops don't disconnect anything.

I was curious today and inquired on what they did. I'd say to simply make sure you have a good Gound point for your welder.

I've been in the heavy collision and fabrication business for over 25 years and if im going to be welding, have the doors open for a long time or anything else along those lines the first thing I do is disconnect the battery..Just my 3 cents
Jim

[Burnindaylight]

For sixty bucks I bought a surge protector, hooks onto negative and positive terminals on the battery and prevents havin to unhook the terminals, so far so good

[Bert]

...Just my 3 cents
Jim

WOW! You think you're better than a lot of the pros here???!!!!
Why you upping your price???!!!

[84ZMike]

I read a few of the replies....(FYI ecm = engine control module so it doesn't control the tranny, or acc.) I'd rather take the few min. to disconnect them on a newer vehicle than have to replace them....my reasoning is this some of the signals to and from the control mods are as low as 0.5 volts so if I was welding @ say 18 volts....that would be like plugging a 9 volt cordless drill into a 320 volt supply...not me....some of these control mods cost some big $. For your 95 Toy I'd remove the battery cables and have at it.

[uhohjim]

WOW! You think you're better than a lot of the pros here???!!!!
Why you upping your price???!!!

It's all I had left in the brain pan lol Jim

[bill5674]

i always unhook the grounds .on all of our equipment it says unhook ALL grounds for chassis and engine ecm.i dont go that far it would take longer to do that then do the job.that said years ago on a non computer mack, i left the batteries hooked up and went to start it. blew the tops off two batteries http://www.millerwelds.com/resources...milies/eek.gif
maybe just a coincidencehttp://www.millerwelds.com/resources/communities/mboard/images/smilies/confused.gif
...bill

[MD Welding]

I have an electric forklift and I weld & plasma cut on the forks alot with the ground on the forks or on the part and never had a problem. I have always herd about un hooking the battery also.

[TS-Off-Road]

Yep I'm gonna have the MEANEST, MOST AWSOMEST SKATEBOARD INT THE WORLD (of course the skateboard's gotta be the same size as a truck, but wouldn't that be cool to see?

Here you go....

start bendin'

http://www.worldsbiggestskateboard.com/about.html

[Bert]

TS, can you start a new thread with that pic??? I hate hijacking this one