Portable Welder/Generator

[crashz]

I'm starting to look for a welder/generator for repair work and primary power on the land and also as back-up power at home. My equipment (tractor and dumptruck) sit on land about 130 miles away and currently we have no power there. I have a list of items to repair, but most are good practice for me. Nothing structural, but with long seams or plenty of cracks (dumpbody repair, cracked Bush Hog deck, etc).

So its needs to generate power, weld and be portable enough for me to lift in and out of my pickup. Oh - and needs to be priced reasonably enough so that my wife doesn't get too upset. So far, it seems like the Hobart 140 Champ (I think thats it) would be a good choice. Not much else fits in that catagory. Miller has a couple units that are close, but are just a bit heavier and more expensive.

My question for you guys is this: Would this be a good generator/welder combo to re-learn stick welding? I did a bit of welding back in shop class in high school (do guys remeber when shop was required even for college prep kids?) and could barely stick two peices of steel together. I practiced on some crude body work with a mig some years later, but really it will be a re-learn from the start. And yes, I will be getting the "Welding for Dummies" book when it comes out!

 

[N8ghz]

I recently bought a used Miller Legend for much of the same reasons you stated.....no power on my other rural property. The Legend I found is a 1992 vintage with an Onan 2-banger. It is a 225a AC/200a DC with 5500w of 120/240 AC generator power. It weighs about 600#. I load & unload it from my bucket-truck using an AutoCrane 3203 crane that I added to the utility bed. The Miller Legend is a sweet machine and welds as well as my other Miller stationary machines. The bucket truck also has an Onan generator to run the hydraulics and provide 120/240 at 4500w.....so between the welder and it....10kw if I'd need it?

 

[gauthier]

Some of the littler welder generators just put out ac,,you don't want to waste your money on a ac generator welder,plus they don't put out much aux. power,,I would recommend a miller bluestar 185,,you can get a wheel kit for it,light enough to move by yourself but big enough to fit most anybodys stick welding wants,plus it is a good generator.

 

[tommu56]

I got one of these and it works fine for off the beaten path I use it at my cabin (off grid)

It is a chore to lift it in to my truck I usually use the loader.
It runs about 3-4 hours at full load on a tank of gas.
Starts like a dream 2 or 3 pull every time (if you remember to turn on the fuel)

I also have a miller maxstar

if I am around any power or need tig.
it runs on 120 o4 240v volts.


tom

 

[J_J]

crashz,

If you were close, I would let you purchase a Lincoln Ranger 8 welder/generator, 8,000 W with Kohler engine for about 1/2 the price of a Ranger 10 . 210 AMPS DC, and 225AMPS AC. Weight about 450 lbs.

 

[JoelD]

I bought a miller bluestar for the same reasons, Great DC welder and puts out 5000 watts. However, the welders, in my opinion, are not really designed to be running for hours on end as a backup generator. For example, my machine has less than a 2 gallon tank. I ended up purchasing a dedicated generator powering the house when power goes out. They are super cheap now, you can get 5000-6000 watt generator that will run for 14 hours for $500 or less.
I would hate to put tons of hours on my miller for anything other than welding which is what it is really designed to do. Much more money to replace my miller than my generator.

My 2 cents.

Joel

 

[gauthier]

I tend to agree,,but,it shouldn't hurt it,can't figure out how it could,but,,,main reason I wouldn't want to run it just for a generator say for days,is noise,and like you say gas mileage,,but for a emergency say an hour here and an hour later[for water and heat],they come in very handy.

But agree,if you want a generator to run for days,than you need a generator made for that,and 500 dollars ain't near enough to get a good one to supply your whole house.

 

[ayelvington]

The Hobart looks like a nice unit that would do the trick. I do recommend that you go to a welding class before you spend the $$ though since you may find that you need more or less welder for what you're doing. (The Hobart is a stick-welder, and you may or may not be limited by that...) No matter, the Hobart looks like it would cover a lot of work for you!

 

[yomax4]

If you plan to run multiple items or even a few important parts of your Home, Look to get 8000 watts or more. Big and heavy but you can put it on wheels. If you only need to run drills and such, get a small unit. With my Ranger 8 I ran my Outdoor wood boiler pumps and Fan as well as the furnace fan and a few lights during an outage. When I had a 4000 watt, I nearly froze to death in an ice storm. Buy buy what you need and you will be fine.:thumbsup:

 

[patrick_g]

Think outside the box, single welder/generator box that is. Typically the smaller name brand combo units are pretty good welders and so so generators.

I built up a little 2 wheel trailer with a 4X8 diamond plate deck for my shop and or afield welding/cutting needs. I have an electric start gasoline fueled Generac generator supplying 120/240 VAC which powers a Lincoln AC/DC welder, a Lincoln MIG, a Thermodyne Plasma cutter, an air compressor an abrasive cutoff saw and whatever power tools I need to run. (not all at the same time of course.) I also have O-A bottles and torches on board.

The Generac generator (in my opinion) is better as a generator than the average combo unit. It also, like many of the engine driven welders, has the auto idle feature which slows it down till you put on a load. Say the compressor needs to run: the generator runs at normal speed till the compressor is satisfied and then the generator slows way down till significant power is needed again.

The welding trailer is still a work in progress. I haven't built on the electrical panel I have in mind yet. I want to be able to plug the trailer into a 120/240 outlet and power everything on it instead of having to fire up the generator. Right now I have to unplug a machine from the generator to plug it into "shore" power. Then I need an enclosure that opens up and folds out of the way to allow good circulation when open and weather protection/a little security when closed. The welding trailer is also a back up to my propane fired backup generator should there be a problem with that.

While thinking outside the box... why not a PTO powered unit for welding?

Patrick

 

[Kubota 2350]

To bad you not closer to me, I have a nice Lincoln 225 AC/DC welder with a 6000 watt 115/240 volt generator with only 20 hours on it for sale.

 

[RPW]

For much the same reasons as said I picked up a used Bobcat 225nt. It has almost 800 hours on it but runs great. 8000w/10000w with 200+amps AC/DC welding. Will run about 12 hours on a tank of full at 1/2 power. I setup and mounted a base on it so I can set it in my truck over my gooseneck hitch. Once in I don't have worry about it sliding around. I paid about $2k for it.

 

[crashz]

I appreciate all of the responses.

I can't really go much bigger than a portable unit, as I don't have the storage here at my home (no garage, only a small shed with no real room to expand) and thats why I was thinking a combined unit. I also have no way to load and unload something over 250 lbs at home. No tractor here.

In talking with a friend, he suggested getting a seperate generator and welder. He mentioned that for the price of the combined unit, I could get a generator, buzz box and a wire feed welder. That would be nice, as I can aquire each piece as I need them. Each would be portable enough and I could leave the welders on the land and only transport and store the generator at home.

The only thing is that I've read here that welders don't typically work very well on generator power. Is that true?

 

[JoelD]

I tend to agree,,but,it shouldn't hurt it,can't figure out how it could,but,,,main reason I wouldn't want to run it just for a generator say for days,is noise,and like you say gas mileage,,but for a emergency say an hour here and an hour later[for water and heat],they come in very handy.

But agree,if you want a generator to run for days,than you need a generator made for that,and 500 dollars ain't near enough to get a good one to supply your whole house.

Hi Guthier,

I paid $400 for my 6000 watt generator (13 HP Honda Clone motor) which I use to power my house in power outages, I've done 4 days straight once, with my neighbor running 8 days straight on the same model machine.

Will run everything but the stove and the clothes dryer, I run my well pump, furnace, TV's, AC's, etc.

Plenty of power for my home. IF not for well pump, I'd run something even smaller.

Joel

 

[JoelD]

I appreciate all of the responses.

I can't really go much bigger than a portable unit, as I don't have the storage here at my home (no garage, only a small shed with no real room to expand) and thats why I was thinking a combined unit. I also have no way to load and unload something over 250 lbs at home. No tractor here.

In talking with a friend, he suggested getting a seperate generator and welder. He mentioned that for the price of the combined unit, I could get a generator, buzz box and a wire feed welder. That would be nice, as I can aquire each piece as I need them. Each would be portable enough and I could leave the welders on the land and only transport and store the generator at home.

The only thing is that I've read here that welders don't typically work very well on generator power. Is that true?

I've run a small buz box (120v) off of a small generator 3000 watt, worked great, no problem at all.

If you get the correct sized generator you should have no problem.

I agree, if you can transport the separate generator and welder and what ever else makes a lot of sense, in the end I think you'd spend less and get purpose built machines for each use.

That's the way I would've gone if starting over again. Although I got an amazing deal on my miller, which had under 100 hours and came with over 200 foot of welding cable (a guy was retiring).

Joel

Joel

 

[gauthier]

Miller bluestar 185 weighs about 300 lbs,,with wheel cart that you can buy to put on,you can push it on dirt,,dc stick welder, kohler command pro motor,6000 watt ac generator,two 120 volt plug ins and one 240 volt plug in,,60 percent duty cycle at 130 amps,,,...2,400 bucks + or -,,,, never tried to run a welder off a generator,,,cause you can buy the welder with the generator....