Engine Driven

[iso50]

Does anyone on here use an Engine Driven welder?

[H80N]

ISO
I have a Trailblazer 301G that resides on the back of my truck...it gets fired up most days...

Heiti

[ASKANDY]

There are a bunch of people here that use the engine drives. They are sized by amperage and processes the machine is capable of doing. The most common for the professional mobile welder is by far the Trailblazer. It will do all processes and has high aux power for running about anything you can plug into it like compressors, grinders, drills, plasma cutters or even other welders. I'm sure Heiti and Hawk can give a bunch of experiences with theirs.

A-

[iso50]

Originally posted by H80N
ISO
I have a Trailblazer 301G that resides on the back of my truck...it gets fired up most days...

Heiti

That happens to be the one I started looking at. Do you use it for MIG welding? If so, what do you need to add to make it "work".

After the MIG vs TIG thread, I decided that I will eventually need BOTH. And since I won't always have access to 230 VAC, I was wondering if an engine driven unit would be something to consider later on.

[H80N]

TB301G

ISO
I use mine for stick, MIG and TIG... and in the not to distant future hope to add a Spectrum 2050 plasma cutter...(and has run the house a few times this winter during outages)
The merits of the different units have been pretty well covered in previous posts.. if you were to do a search on "trailblazer bobcat" .. you would find lots of recent info..
in brief what I added to run wire was a 30A spoolgun, wc-24 controller.. Argon bottle and regulator... I run a lot of aluminum..
The Trailblazer gets my vote.. it is capable of xray quality welds in all processes.. plus 10kw of aux power... as I said lots of info on prev posts... HAWK has what is probably the primo Mobile setup.. and as Andy said there are lots of guys on the forum with engine drives.. as to which one you pick and how you outfit it.. well that will depend on what you are planning to do with it... for my usage the TB301G is about perfect..
take care
Heiti

[iso50]

How much time do you get out of a tank of gas?

[H80N]

ISO
somewhere between 8and10 hours... I try to keep it topped off so it gets filled whenever that thirsty pickup needs gas.. so have never measured exactly... mine has the onan which uses more gas than the kohler...
hope this helps
Heiti

[wrench3047]

The Army has been fielding the Trailblazer 300D NT (no longer manufactered, replaced by 301) for over a year now. For MIG we have the same setup as Heiti. It does well for everything we need it for. The TIG we run a high freq box, and finger control for amp and gas. It works well enough. It never did TIG before this machine, but I was able to set it up and make a strong if not pretty weld. The diesel version we have will run all day and most the next morning if we have jobs all day.

[HAWK]

iso50,

The Trailblazer rules. I use mine for all processes including carbon arc gouging and auxillary power. Take a look. This was this morning about 10:00. After I finished the cutting with the 2050 I used the TB301G to power the Dynasty. I ran the D200DX wide open at 200 amps, 135HZ, 80%EN balance on .250 3003 plate corner joint. It powered the D200DX like a dream! It has great aux power.

For GMAW I run the 12RC CV suitcase feeder, 75' 14pin extension cord. 250 amp Bernard MIG torch, (OKAY I HAVE SOMETHING OTHER THAN MILLER), and either 75AR/25CO2 or 92Ar/8CO2 for shielding gas. As H80N mentioned it runs the 30A spool gun nicely. In the GMAW line for aluminum it is the premium mobile power source for the XR push pull feeder.

For GTAW it runs the Dynasty great as I mentioned already. It also has a pleasing arc with the HF 251 D high frequency stabilizer box. I run a fine amperage hand control and 100% argon with this box. I prefer a 50He/50Ar mix for the Dynasty.

SMAW is just sitting there ready to run. I use an Arc Air gouge torch to run 1/4" carbon rods. The Trailblazer handles them easily.

You can see in the picture the Aux power is running the 2050 and a bench grinder. It will run anything I need including my house minus the washer and dryer. I know that sounds like a lot and really is. The range, water heater, and furnace are gas so that eliminates some high amp draw, but they still require 120VAC for elctronic ignition.

I don't know what to say about this machine except it is great. I know you really can't see it is a TB301 in this picture so I'll attach one more JPEG in the following post.

[HAWK]

Okay one more picture to let you know it really is a TB301G. This is a .zip and requires acrobat reader 6.0 to view. %.0 or earlier will not work. Just down load the new 6.0 adobe acrobat reader.

Here is the link:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

my apologies for the .zip and adobe reader, but for some reason (operator error) I could not reduce the JPEG file size and get a good picture.

[iso50]

Thanks for all the great info. For TIG work, do you need a seperate "box" or can you run it directly from the TB301?

[H80N]

TB Tig

ISO
for DC scratch start tig all you need is a good aircooled torch.. argon bottle and reg (amptrol is nice.. i have the rccs-14)... for AC tig you need one more box............... the hf-251...
hope this helps
Heiti

[iso50]

Thanks for all the info, I can't wait until I start welding!!!!!

[HAWK]

iso50,

The HF 251D-1 high frequency box is also nice to have on DC. It gives you the high frequency start instead of scratch start. Then you already have it for AC TIG as well.

[MAC702]

In case you haven't been convinced yet, the Trailblazer 301G is THE engine-driven welding machine. If you strike an arc with it and with a Bobcat, you will never consider the Bobcat again. 3-phase welding generator with a separate auxiliary power generator! That means yer buddy can fire up a 9" grinder while you're welding and you'll never even notice.

Okay, okay, someday I'll own the Big Blue Air Pak with all the goodies.......