Welding on frame vs. electronics

Chuck_thehammer wrote:
Risk versus reward...

I do not weld with electrical/electronic equipment connected...

One error. your fault or NOT.. its DEAD.... all of it...

have you ever seen a lightning strike ... to electronic equipment... burnt toast...

read what happens when 220 volts is wired to a 50 amp RV service...
I know a person that did that to a NEW Georgetown....

If you are that paranoid (O'm not), then just disconnecting the battery from the vehicle is insufficient. You need to disconnect all the connectors from all the on board electronics, sounds like a heck of a job to me....

Reason why is, it's the eddy current that fries the electronics and all the conductors in the harness can be impacted by that.

Simple answer (and what I always do) is the shortest possible path from the electrode (wire or tungsten) to ground. Been welding on vehicles many years without any issue.

Gave my explaination, I'm done.

Risk versus reward...

I do not weld with electrical/electronic equipment connected...

One error. your fault or NOT.. its DEAD.... all of it...

have you ever seen a lightning strike ... to electronic equipment... burnt toast...

read what happens when 220 volts is wired to a 50 amp RV service...
I know a person that did that to a NEW Georgetown....

Always put the ground clam as close to the weld as possible. Never had an issue with any vehicle electronics. The shortest possible path from positive to negative or vice versa is what you want.

But then that is really SOP when welding anything and of course a clean grounding spot too.

K3WE wrote:
I'm thinking no big deal...

Then again, some of the goofy transistor stuff inside of radios and converters and the fridge, and hundreds of amps surging in places where they aren't normally supposed to be...

Comments? (experience preferred).

When welding on any Vehicle be certain that nothing has a common ground with the welder.

IOWs unplug the vehicle