Welding safely on a 24V CUCV

[KallyLC]

I need to do some welding on my M1008. On my other vehicles, I normally just disconnect the negative connection and make sure the ground is good before I weld. No problems doing it that way. But that's one battery on a 12v system. What do you do with the two batteries on a 24v system?

'do you disconnect the battery before welding' is a question as old as time itself, and one people seem to have a lot of strong opinions about, so I'm expecting the full range of answers here. I know there's not much in the way of electronics on these trucks, but I would rather ask the stupid question than risk damaging something.

So the question is, if you disconnect the batteries before welding, which connections do you remove? Just the negative on one battery? Both of the negatives?

 

[Barrman]

I think the bigger thing to worry about is the path from where you are welding to the ground. Get the ground on the same part as is being welded. Never, never make the ground path go through something that moves. Such as a bearing.

 

[Barrman]

I just noticed you are in the UK. We could have a language problem.

I know from my ‘67 Cooper S and my ‘57 MGA that “Earth” is the side of the battery connected to the chassis. I have no clue what you call the clamp of an electric welding set up. The clamp is what I was calling the “Ground” in the post above.

 

[KallyLC]

I already called it the ground, so we're on the same page. Any time I'm welding the ground clamp is as close to what I'm welding as possible, on an area that's been stripped back to bare metal for good contact. That's not an issue at all.

I'm more concerned about what to do with the batteries. I understand some people don't feel it's neccessary to disconnect them at all prior to welding, but I'd rather play it safe and do something unnessecary than leave it and risk damaging something.

I'll re-phrase the question a little better in the first post.

 

[WWRD99]

Just from my own personal experience with doing tons of welding on the body with the batteries hooked up, I've never had a problem. Mine are 6tm batteries. I'm not sure what you have in yours. agm batteries may react to welding, but not sure.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

 

[1x1_Speed_Craig]

Why risk leaving anything hooked up. Completely remove the battery cables (all of them). It take a hot second, and is definitely the safe route. I have never welded on vehicles with the battery connected, and I certainly won't start now.

 

[Finnegan1008]

Removing the ground on the forward battery breaks the 24V circuit. Do that and you are good to go.

As stated above, no harm in removing all of the battery leads either

I grew up doing autobody collision and restoration work and every welding certification I got I was told to disconnect the battery.

 

[79Vette]

I have a welder in my 1009 powered by the 24v system for use in trail repairs. It works great, except being limited to only electrode positive.

As long as you put the ground clamp nearby where you are working (to avoid shunting welding current through other parts of the vehicle) there should be no problems. I've never disconnected batteries when welding on a car and don't plan to start now. The batteries themselves will not be damaged, and their presence won't hurt anything else.