Welding Precautions

All of the above are great precautions to ENSURE that nothing adverse happens. Honestly, anyone who knows what they are doing will be able to do the job without any problems. After a blowout, I had to have the generator tray re-welded, as well as a new tailpipe attached. Both were welded and I didn't do anything but take it to the shop and pick it up later. No problems. Just use good common sense, especially if you're going to try to do it yourself!

The safest way to do it is to weld the rack off the RV and then bolt it in. Anytime you weld on a vehicle you take a risk. If that's not possible, you can limit the risk by clamping the ground as close as possible to the weld area. You could also go as far as removing the all the fuses, unhooking the battery and turning off the breakers. Personally, I'd bolt it in. My luck, it seems like if something can go wrong, it does.

rgatijnet1 wrote:
Disconnect the coach from shore power. Keep the ground connection for the welder as CLOSE as possible to the area to be welded.
Make sure that there are no wiring harnesses, fuel lines, propane lines, air lines, near the area to be welded.
Some people may recommend disconnecting the batteries, or ECM/TCM but I never found that necessary on any of my coaches.

I will second this post and make the very same recommendations.

In fact, when I had to do some welding on this rig,,,,,that is exactly what we did.

One other POSSIBLE solution ... I have had this rig welded upon twice, The second time they welded OFF the Rig.. that is the parts needing welding were removed (They bolted on) and the work was done on the bench in the shop, and then bolted back on the Rig.


Battery trays may be doable that way.. Depends on the RV.

If someone has a pacemaker/defibrillator implant make sure they are not near the welding

I don't know ANYTHING about the area you are welding but a couple years ago DH had to weld the bumper on the 5th wheel. He put a sheet of metal (I think) against the camper, and I hosed the camper while he welded. I told him not to set himself on fire because I did not want to make the decision whether to protect the camper of him... joking.

Disconnect the coach from shore power. Keep the ground connection for the welder as CLOSE as possible to the area to be welded.
Make sure that there are no wiring harnesses, fuel lines, propane lines, air lines, near the area to be welded.
Some people may recommend disconnecting the batteries, or ECM/TCM but I never found that necessary on any of my coaches.

Unhook batteries and shorepower.