Welding rigs -- Details

[fun4now]

. I asked the salesman about a trade in of my F-550 for one of the 5500. What a deal he made me. I would give him my 550, and buy his 5500.

well you know that those chevy fooks think of ford's, i supose the ford guys feel the same about chevy's
it shore is a good looking truck though. i'm a big fan of the GMC so i might be a bit byest.

[J hall]

What wheel base do you have Jeff?

It is 165"wb the bed is 11 feet. still small enough to be able to get around, but big enought to carry some stuff with me.

[admweld]

Take a welder, compressor, deck, and welding gear and you've maxed out the GVWR capability of an average dually 1 ton. Want to legally pull a travel trailer or utility trailer? If so it probably won't be on the same truck. F450 would do me fine, but not by a wide margin, so but no point stopping there, may as well get the 550 with the real axles. you're not adding any more size to the truck than if you had a 1 ton dually, it will still fit in the same box, it just has different parts under the skin.

Thats not far off.My rig weighs in at 16,300 w/2 welders BB/TB ,1 IRcompressor ,tools, cables, metal,leads,reels,bottles,floor jack,ladder,creeper,air tools,rod.You can never carry enough in my line of work which one day is railings, next heavy equip repair, then some structural work the next day i do what ever work i can get i,m not very fussy.Some rig guys do just pipe i,m not one of them.

[calweld]

If you spend much time off-road or in rough country, it definitely pays to have a truck rated to take a load considerably heavier than you actually have. Those dipsy-do's have a way of magnifying the load, all the wearpoints and stress points on the chassis deteriorate quick on a maximum-loaded truck. You have to remember, too, our trucks have a constant load all the time . . . you usually think of a loaded truck, say a delivery truck, well it goes out with a load, starts dropping stuff off, then it's empty, drives back home light. My truck, 100% of the miles are loaded, but since it's built for 32,000 lbs, and average weight is actually 25,000 lbs, it holds up well. I would think the same thing is true for the F550, rated at 19,000 lbs(?) but only carrying 16,000, would hold up better than if it was at max all the time.

[Aeroweld]

Hang on Portable Welder...the cavalery is here! You guys have been pretty hard on my buddy so we have to put a stop to all this nonsense about his truck......Eh
I can attest to seeing his rig and can tell you guys it's real nice.....EH His 550 has a Custom made, well planned out bed and boxes, stainless wheel covers, nice lettering, and he has a crane Frankly, as nice as anything I've seen posted on here He might be telling the story of no camera, but I suspect he just doesn't want to embaress you guys...EH

Now that the wagons have been circled......

As for myself, I'm working out of a pick-up right now until I get my F550 on the road. My last truck was a 1990 Super Duty with 7.3 5 spd. Some previous discussions were about weight so I'll throw my $.02 in on that. Mine weighed 6500 lbs for the bare chassis cab, 8800 with the bodies, and right around 12,000 loaded for work. The Super Duty worked out well as I still had a few K of GVW to spare without being close to max all the time. With an F350 I would have been overloaded all the time. The "new" F550 ( a used 2000) will be overkill but it is in excellant shape and the price was right. BTW, 7.3 Powerstroke w/6 spd and XLT trim on the new one

I don't really specialize like you pipeliners do so I have to be ready for just about anything when I get away from the shop. I could be TIG welding a stainless heat table in a restaurant in the morning and using Dual Shield on a back hoe in the afternoon so I really need to carry just about everthing but a kitchen sink. Instead of building a body I just went with a Monroe Custom Utility body. I have some zoning issues where I live and need to keep everything concealed to keep the city off my back. Plus I do some work in Detroit and have to keep everything out of sight or it will be stolen; the utility body offers some good security for all my tools and equipment. The truck was an 84" cab to axle (as is the new one) so I bought a 60" CA body. I built the 24" wide torch compartment and mounted it in front of the commercial body. The welder was mounted on top of that facing curbside
For mobile equipment I have a Trailblazer 250 with about 150' of leads. Oxy Acet. set-up with 100' of hose. Cutting torch and combo torch with all the attachments. HF251 TIG unit, a couple TIG torches and 140' of 14 pin remote cable. Miller S-32S wire feeder with 3 different guns plus a Spoolgun for aluminum. Most of that was carried in the left front comparment of the utility box. I carry 2 330cf gas bottles; 1 Argon, 1 75/25 horizontally under the welder in the front box w/100' of hose The front compartment of the utility box on the passenger side of the truck had a Craftsman 9 drawer box with a full set of mechanics tools. That box also held most of my spare parts such as hose repair kit, misc electrical connectors, torch tips, TIG and MIG gun parts, etc. The center compartment on pass.side carried my elect. tools; 2-4 1/2" grinders, 7" Grinder. Die Grinder, 3/8",& 1/2" conventional drills and a Hammer drill, Sawzall, Elect. Impact. Grinding wheels and electrodes. I would usually carry at least 10 lbs ea of 3/32 and 1/8" of 6010 & 7018, and 5lbs of 3/32"6013, Also some nickle rod for cast and some hardfacing rod. Spare spools of hardwire MIG, Dual Shield and Aluminum for the MIGs. Personally, I don't carry much 5/32 or 3/16 7018 as when I get into situations needing that size electrode I just grab the wire feed with D.S.
Welding leads and control cables pretty much fill the rt rear compartment.
On the left rear compartment I carried 100' of extension cord, 50-60 ft of chain and a few binders, Come-a-longs, a milkcrate full of c-clamps, 10 lb sledge, crowbars, and fire extingushier, 10 ton Porta-power, vise, and also had provision to strap a 60cf bottle if needed..
Center compartment carried all my TIG filler of which was mild steel, aluminum, stainless, magnesium and some "specialty" type fillers. Also in there was cleaning products, Dye Check kit, Tempil Stick kit, hardhat, hardhat welding hood, rags, paper towels, some paint, droplight and 150w flood lights, and assorted containers with nuts & bolts, rivets, sheetmetal screws, etc. Besides all that I carried a leather jacket, cape sleeves, coveralls, spare helmet head gear, water, jumper cables, and first aid kit. I also tried to anticipate anything that could go wrong with my equipment and carried many spares/simple repair parts. Nothing worse that getting on a job site and having a simple part malfuntion and not being able to complete the job. Not only does that cost me time and money but the customer looks at you like "What kind of an amature did I hire"

As someone else mentioned, I also painted the inside of the compartments white; really helped to see things when dark or low light.

In building that truck I ran welding leads, 14 pin remote, and 110v power to the back of the truck. Saves having to drag cable and extension cords from front of truck and also easier to move around if I have to move to multiple locations on the same job site.
I attached a couple of pics of the old rig taken when the truck was about 10 years old. One, an overall view and one of the rt rear corner showing welding lead QC's, vise mount, remote and 110 outlets on body. All the other pics were 35mm so I would have to scan them to be able to post.

I didn't have any racks on that truck for materials, again a zoning thing. I would usually carry a small selection of steel in the bed, and for bigger jobs, just have the material delivered to the jobsite. For the new truck I have some ideas on a removable rack for carrying 20' when needed.
Hopefully money will be freed up a bit this winter and I can get the new one on the road. I miss my old rig and it's a real PITA working out of the pick-up.

My $.02, mileage and results will vary

[pipeline Dan]

[QUOTE=Aeroweld;71315] Frankly, as nice as anything I've seen posted on here He might be telling the story of no camera, but I suspect he just doesn't want to embaress you guys...EH

Silly Silly Silly Boy I think you and your friend better go through all the pics
before we start posting this kind of stuff

[ShieldArc]

this is a good thread, just adding a bump for J

this is a good thread, just adding a bump for J

[Sberry]

Aero, I am not sure how you get all that stuff on there. I only carry a small stick machine and about 10# of rod. I need to weigh it again tooled up, I had it calculated and I forget the numbers but mine is heavy and I carry a lot of stuff. I totally enclosed everything but I have complete air tools and pipe threading. One thing that had kept mine in the shed even more these days is battery impacts. I work from a pickup when I can but I aint a welding spe******t, one thing I find in my line of work is the ability to be hi problem solver with minimal resources and a sense of the stuff I really use and lean on. I am doing my own work so I have the luxury of pre-planning and pre-empting. I like having hi air and a lot of fittings, bolts, etc. I have a remote location, it was nice this spring to have it on the job as a gang box. I have kind of worked my way out of it though but for what I got into it even the occasional need makes it worthwhile and sometimes some petty contracting. I could get by with trailer mounted or skid, I can solve most field problems without welding anymore, my equipment goes out serviced and I have good trucking, I will haul a problem home if I can. New pic, same truck. I circle the top box, the lid folds open full length with the ladder in place and it is where I carry the "extra".

[weld-tek]

I wanted to keep this thread going, so heres my new truck, 06 5500 gmc. I'll do more pics when bed is done.

i would like to see truck completed,maybe when i come to music city in feb it will be done,any updates?????????????

[Eric Carroll]

com/albums/c27/EricCarroll/DSC00399.jpg[/IMG]Heres what Ive got done so far,I may be done by the time you come down but i wouldnt bet on it.