Technical Anyone ever use a welder with a motor home generator?

I have to do some welding out back, too far from a hookup. I have a 5500 watt peak, generator from a MH, was going to pick up a 120 buzz box or small wire welder with fluxcore but never ran a welder off a generator before.
Thanks

 

You need to look at the nomenclature tag on the welder and see what it's amp draw is for it...your peak output for your RV generator is roughly 45 peak amps if I can still do math in my head
The problem with the little 120 buzz box welders is that they don't have much of a duty cycle...
Good luck

 

I realize the current vs needs, I guess I was more concerned about continuous power from a generator to run a welder.

 

I think theres a u tube video of a guy doing it. Check it out. Thickness of the steel will matter too.

 

The cheap harborfreight fluxcore welders get some decent reviews for durability.
They suck for options on heat & wire speed .....

To be honest, I think if you explained the job you need to do ..... possibly a fluxcore welder on 110 Volts would not be a viable option.

My welder does fluxcore, but the thickness it can weld is less then mig welding.
Trying to get decent penetration on thicker metals with a 220 fluxcore welder is not easy ... less easy if running it off 110.

 

I’ve got to make an irrigation gate between me and the neighbor. Probably out of 3/16th max, maybe 1/8th, just for “slide support” of the gate going up and down.

 

Your duty cycle on the welder is probably going to be less than on the RV generator...RV generators are designed to see a continuous load up to the name plate output...the name plate on my little 120V wire feed is 20% at 145 amps ...that 80% of the time you are not welding or the welder overheats and locks out....as the output amperage decreases the duty cycle increases....look at the duty cycle of the welder you are going to buy
You are more concerned about the generator than the welder....
Your welder is more of a concern....are you welding pre 1965 parts for a hot rod? We might be going off topic here

 

1/8" is good as gold, 3/16" is max for my 220 volt welder & tough for good penetration.

 

I do it all the time with a 3500 watt generator and 140 inverter. Stick and tig. Generator chugs pretty good if you get the electrode stuck. Mostly I TIG sheet metal so I am only running 80 or 100 AMPS. Not sure about 5500, but 3500 won't do a transformer. Some of the welding was customizing a model A, so this is on topic.

 

I can’t speak for the Harbor Freight welders but some of the other inverter welders are sensitive to the sign wave that some generators put out and won’t function properly even when the amperage input/output is correct.

 

That’s kinda what I was thinking.

 

Just to set things straight, I have 5 220v welders, I don’t have a 120 v welder, I don’t actually want one, but I have a 120v generator, and a “glue gun” will suit my needs.
I’m mainly concerned about if a generator can run a welder effectively or not. A 20% duty cycle is fine for what I need (I have a small plasma cutter, has the same duty cycle).
I figure. 3 or 4 second max bead, wait, go again.
It’s not a production/get it done as quickly as possible job.
I figure a ice chest, two hours out back, I’m good

 

We have done it many times on job sites

 

FWIW I have a Miller 211. It’s 110/220v it’s the model rite before they went inverter. I have run it with a Northern Tool 5500 watt generator and had no problems. And that particular machine running on 110 is way more powerful than I would have thought. As mentioned 1/8 is about the limit for 110 but it does it with no problem.

 

A few years ago at my son's house, his neighbor was welding up some black iron pipe with a generator running an expensive inverter welding machine. He was struggling bigtime trying to get the arc started.
Alot of people struggle arc welding in the beginning. I gave him some pointers and he got to doing it ok for a beginner. The one problem I noticed was the lag of the generator after you struck the arc You had about a 1 second lag before the generator would get up to speed and put out the full voltage.

 

So as far as what I need the welder for, I looked through HF they have a cheap 140 amp one for around 240 bucks. I looked at Home Depot, 140 amp Lincoln around 750.
I’ll get the HF one, then have the kid list it for sale when I’m done with it.
Thanks for all the experienced replies.

 

An old welder that used to come weld for my father taught me how to deal with this. When using his mobile welder he would strike an arc to get the welder up on the governor before starting to weld. Just a quick tap and weld when the engine speeds up.

 

What about just renting a larger generator so you can use one of the welders you already have, or renting a welder that has its own generator? Then you would have a better welder to work with (220) and probably not cost any more. And you would know that you can weld whatever thickness you may need to weld.

 

I ran my 220V Miller 210 on a similar generator that was 6,500W continuous.

I used it on architectural installs, often outside with a bunch of cardboard to shield from wind.

I ran my Lincoln AC/DC tombstone on it a few times too. That worked just fine.

 

I’d thought about that. But the issue is access to the location. I wouldn’t be able to get one of my welders in position close enough to do the work.

I guess I could arc weld it though. Been a few years since I struck an arc though, was never that good at it either.

 

With the generators available and welders available I’ve never been able to get it to work.
Somebody says just plug the welder into the generator. we’ve tried that and it don’t work, remember?
Apparently not the right combination. We did try to use an engine driven welder’s 220 power out put to run ACC tig and both the generator and tig machine were not having any of it.

 

I have an ancient Miller engine driven welder, funny on the outputs, one is labeled “100 v DC”.
But engine has little to no compression, and I’ve little to no ambition to take the motor apart, get it going, then find out the welder doesn’t work anyways

 

I ran 110v mig welders off my old 4000 watt Onan genset back when a bare dirt lot was my only workspace. Never had an issue, the generator ran them just fine. I seem to remember the governor reacting pretty quick on it, stick welding might still be a pain to strike an arc but should still be do-able. Never had an issue with a mig running flux core.

 

100v DC will run the grinder. The old brushed motors don't give a hoot what you feed them. Generators for the house used to be 32v DC!

 

I’ll be darn, I always assumed it was for some job site thing that had DC lighting.
Thanks.

 

A generator that size should have a 220v plug on it or I should say a lot of them have it. Sometimes the ones having trouble running things like welders or other tools is the frequency (hz) is off and it can be as simple as the rpms are too high (or low).

 

I have a Hobart 140 120volt. Used my Honda 2000 generator to weld on some yard art and a chicken pen. Ran on lowest setting and produced chicken shit welds, but it worked. Sorta....ended up having to have welder repaired because it arced the contacts and when ya let up on the trigger the gas would keep flowing.
One of our Model T Bum dirt road/goat trail guys takes a flux core welder (HF?) with him on our long trips and has run it off his m/h generator with great success many times. Fortunately I have not need his service!. Even running my Hobart on a heavy 20ft extension from my shop outlets makes a noticeable drop in performance. Mainly on a 15amp breaker. On 20amp, it does well.
We have one of those trips coming up ASAP.

Dave

 

If wired properly, the 20 amp plug should be larger wire, so less loss to the welder. 14 gauge as I recall, I’d have to look it up to confirm.
I wish I had something here I could test the darn thing with, but will wing it and hope for the best.

 

Yes it is bigger, 14GA

Dave

 

If I was going to run and extension cord to a 110 welder I'd run at least 12 gauge wire or even heavier SO cord.

Snooping around some guy in Sonora had one of those older than dirt Generators like they used on construction sites 40 years ago that is 110/220. 8 HP motor on it and at 125.00 if it runs it might be worth a gamble. Generator 8 Hp 120 and 240 volt - materials - by owner - sale (craigslist.org) Not worth fooling with if it doesn't fire up and run but at 35 miles away it might be worth calling on.

A lot of those RV 110 generators like you have keep up with two RV ac units going full blast though.