Wisconsin Tacomas and bad financial advice

Yeah. That's true.

 

I'm looking at this oem hitch

wondering can the 2" receiver be put on top, behind the license plate?.
From underneath the bumper it looks like there's room.
I still have a bunch of snow packed up in there.

 

Just get an aftermarket high clearance bumper. Your going to have to do as much cutting and fabricati'n to do what your thinkin' about. Thats how I ran the "winch" for several years.

 

Why are you trying to put it behind the license plate?

don’t you already have a hitch?

 

More clearance clarence

 

Well, you're no damned fun! We're here to encourage bad decisions.

 

I'm also looking at some viper cuts. Maybe I just need to cut something?


Yeah but that hitch is in the front.
I like the option of using the winch front or back but I'd like the hitch out of the way.

Hanging there like it needs a set of those nutsack hitch plugs swayin'

 

Just put a skid on it and call it a day

 

Sounds like the perfect time to pull everything off and start custom fabrication like @pearing

You do have a welder now so no excuses.

 

I'm still in the book stage.
Learning what sticks for what amps. what amps for what metal.
I'm going to need a bigger welder.

 

Just get one of those fancy ones where you set material, wire and thickness. Then it does it all for you. No books required.

 

I had one of those. I sold it cause it was too simple for a guy like me to figure out.

 

From what I've gathered I'm going to need at least 160amps for the things I'm looking at.
The one I grabbed goes up to 70amps.
Up to 1/8".
I'm guessing smaller projects could be done with multiple passes but like Pat said, it'll take forever.

Dumb question. Are there 110v welders that kick out 160+amps?

 

.... And I bet they hadn't ever changed their fluid

Fluid film. And ..... Loud music

This right here

Amen to that. I keep the locals honest

 

How about 140?

https://www.millerwelds.com/equipment/welders/mig-gmaw/millermatic-142-mig-welder-m90601

Aluminum 18 ga. (1.2 mm) - 14 ga. (1.9 mm)
Mild Steel 24 ga. (0.8 mm) - 3/16 in. (4.8 mm)

 

Doubtful, unless they run at a low voltage. To be fair, I have no idea what voltage a welder actually operates at.

 

Hmmm.. I feel like I have to try that.

 

I know that the manual might say it can only weld 1/8th steel (or whatever you previously said)…but have you watched any pipe welder videos where they’re joining 3 inch thick pipeline sections? It’s insane. Tons and tons of passes to weld one of those pipes together. First a root pass, and the wider and wider intermediary passes, followed by a perfect cap pass. It can all be screwed up at any point along the line. That’s why those guys get payed the big bucks.

If yours does max 1/8 single pass, that means it will comfortably do a nice pass at a bit more than half that thickness (without tripping your circuit breakers or quickly hitting the duty cycle).

….So, I guess what I’m saying is…just pretend your a pipe welder and pile on the passes. It will only take a lot more time to do the same job, and you’ll double or triple your chances of screwing it up. The net result is that you will get tons of experience with the puddle, AND have an opportunity to learn from a lot of mistakes. Including what happens to something when you don’t let it cool down between passes

I’m only half joking though. Sometimes when you’re doing a project, you take 99 percent of the time measuring, cutting, fitting, etc only to get to the welding part when you’re tired, and then just splooge on a shitty ass weld that will take you hours to fix. By the time you get to your next project, you kinda forget what you learned from welding the last time. Welding goes quick on non-industrial sized home projects…so it’s kinda hard to really observe and think about what’s happening with the puddle in different circumstances and materials. It really is a skill you can only pick up by doing it a lot. And at my age, the skill is also pretty perishable.

Eh…who am I kidding. Just go all in and get yourself a bottle of shielding gas and a decent hobart mig unit or something. There are decent 120 units that are fine if your wiring in the garage is the right gauge. You know you’ll get your moneys worth.