New mobile welder

[Joe45]

Hi lads I'm in the middle of buying a mobile welder but I'm wondering if I should go with diesel or petrol

 

[MichaelV]

Have you looked at Shindaiwa ECO 200, Joe? Kubota diesel-driven.
They have a good name.

Michael

 

[Joe45]

No I only looked at the Harrington spitfire ew200 . I wil check them out

 

[Jim Davey]

Ew200 is a good value for money set.
It’s worth noting that the duty cycle doesn’t really lend itself to running 4mm rods for long. You can if you need to, and it will chew through 3.25mm all day.
The Shindaiwa or Arcgen 200 is a better bet if you need the duty cycle to be higher. Diesel is cheaper to run too but that has to be offset by the 3x higher purchase price.

 

[Robert.]

Shindiawa all the way ,3 year warranty , easy servicing , great to use , comes on wheels .

 

[Gragson]

Works well at squashing people too?

 

[Robert.]

Works well at squashing people too?

If you can run and push fast enough ...yes haha . Although if anyone wants that to be put somewhere my van can't go , they can supply the labour or crane to move it . I carry my shield and rods , sit and drink coffee until it arrives

 

[Joe45]

Ew200 is a good value for money set.
It’s worth noting that the duty cycle doesn’t really lend itself to running 4mm rods for long. You can if you need to, and it will chew through 3.25mm all day.
The Shindaiwa or Arcgen 200 is a better bet if you need the duty cycle to be higher. Diesel is cheaper to run too but that has to be offset by the 3x higher purchase price.

Is the ew 200 DC model as reliable as the AC version

 

[Robbie260]

It depends on what you want to weld and for how long. I looked into all the options a while back and went the still relatively new tech battery welders.

1. As i dont need to worry about petrol in my pickup. 2. No extra engine to maintain.
3. Can charge the battery off a pure sine wave inverter in the pickup and deep cycle battery.
4. Not as big or as heavy, particularly useful when you have limited storage space.
5. Mine will work with a battery, generator, 240v or 110v covering all my bases for moblie and site work.

There are two companies as options, lorch and fronius that do them, i went with lorch as it suited me better but both are good machines. The lorch is seperate welder and batteries, the fronius option has an integrated battery but has the ability to be used at full whack with a 2.2kw suitcase generator. The fronius option maxes out at 150 amps but there are various power options from lorch that include a 200amp high frequency tig. Probably dont have the longevity of a properly looked after diesel engine drive but while the battery pack probably wouldn't but the welder will probably outlast any petrol engine drive that would get less use. If i need more capacity i just buy extra batteries.

 

[Jim Davey]

Don’t forget you can buy an off the shelf LPG conversion kit for the Honda GX390 engine fitted to the Harrington. This cuts fuel cost quite significantly.

and in answer to the OP’s question the DC version of the XJ200 is very reliable, far more so than its double the price competitors in blue and red from Italy.
I’ve got 7 on my rental fleet and sold plenty. I also do the repair work so I get to see first hands what’s good and what’s not so good.

 

[8ob]

I am not sure if things have improved but the smaller petrol sets always used to drop off quite drastically on strike up, add long leads and it can be a bit painful. Not a problem if you can strike up on a pad or away from the start but not ideal, I can see the attraction of the bigger diesel sets.

Bob

 

[Jim Davey]

I am not sure if things have improved but the smaller petrol sets always used to drop off quite drastically on strike up, add long leads and it can be a bit painful. Not a problem if you can strike up on a pad or away from the start but not ideal, I can see the attraction of the bigger diesel sets.

Bob

If the set has auto idle, switch that off and the strike up will be improved. Heating up the rods in a quiver helps marginally to reduce the power needed to strike and can have a big influence on the quality of the weld.