Need Ideas for lead holders for a Bobcat 250 Welder, Show me yours

Bought a new Bobcat 250 and I need to figure out how to protect it and the leads while moving it around. I don't want to mount it on a trailer so that leaves me with few options. Most of the time the machine will live in the shop and be fork lifted into the truck bed or on an open trailer for travel to work sites.

I have a friend that built a skid that carries the welder along with two gas bottles for a torch. The skid has a lifting cross member on top and pockets for fork on the bottom. While I could copy that I rarely need the torch on a job and it would be more useful on the bottle dolly.

Right now I have the machine on a 4 wheel cart sitting in the shop. That cart has been useful in moving the machine around and into an out of the way place. I think whatever I make should also have caster wheels.

Anyone have a suggestion?

Casters plus vehicle transport is usually not a great combination.
But if you put in flip-down legs (or flip-up casters) to get the weight off casters while underway, you can have the best of both worlds. Try not to have the whole rig 6" in the air on casters, because if you kill a caster at a jobsite, the whole rig could faceplant. If it's just an inch off the ground 'low-rider' style, you can survive a broken caster just fine.

Fork pockets (tubes) at the top (also) can let you drop it in over the side of a pickup or trailer fender without messing with chains or straps for rigging, and without sway while in the air in tight quarters.

If you have only occasional use for bottles while on the road, perhaps make a ledge and fastening setup on the end where the dolly could be 'docked' to your new structure. So, dock the dolly, then pick it all up at once and load. Transport-worthy connections at dolly and structure-to-truck will be required, of course. But it's one pick, in and out, and there's always a secure place for the bottles.

Chip

I love the idea of a "dolly dock "

I was toying with the idea of not putting casters on the rig that goes to the job sites, always a tractor or forklift there, and just keep a frame with castors to set the rig on when it's in the shop....

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

I built a skid that wiould fit across the whole front of the pickup bed and I could still have access to the gooseneck ball. If I didn't have the bottles in it I could just lift it with the lifting eye on the welder other wise i had a removable cross bar that was balanced and i could lift the welder and bottles here is a pretty poor picture but it is the best i got. (the pipe on top is a different project) you can see the hole on the top rail were the crossmember bolts in.

idacal said:

I built a skid that wiould fit across the whole front of the pickup bed and I could still have access to the gooseneck ball. If I didn't have the bottles in it I could just lift it with the lifting eye on the welder other wise i had a removable cross bar that was balanced and i could lift the welder and bottles here is a pretty poor picture but it is the best i got. (the pipe on top is a different project) you can see the hole on the top rail were the crossmember bolts in.

Click to expand...

How was the access to the side doors of the machine? Or did it really matter much?

on the side with the lead holders the cross members are all bolted in 3/8s bolts. it was for a 302 trailblazer so the oil check and air filter were from the top oil change and filter were on the side of the leads. I dont run a lot of welding so 2 or three oil changes a year when I was using this skid. It was the only way I could do it and still have access to the gooseneck and some bed space
just saw you have a new bobcat I just dealt with trying to change the battery on one. the designer needs taken out and made to change 50 batteries in the field with a 15" present wrench as punishment. on the new bobcats I believe the oil drain is on one side and the filter on the other

I found a Weathergard pack rat at the neighbors junk yard. I mounted my portable welder and torch bottles on top of it. Welded a piece of 3" pipe and put a lifting eye on it. The drawer Holdes hood, grinders, rod, clamps and a lot more.
As for storing leads, I put two long bolts on top corners of machine and roll both cables up at the same time. Works well for me.

I needed to move the welder to a job site so have not had time to pursue this.

I have a small 6 x 10 enclosed cargo trailer that I keep supply's and gate opener hardware in and take it to all gate jobs. As an easy way to move the welder I forked it into that trailer and on the job just opened both the back and side doors and let it run like that for about an hour. The exaust was going out the side door and other than being noisy and hot in there I started thinking I might like to just mount the welder in that trailer. I could always run a new exaust pipe out the roof and open the doors while it's running.

Anyone done this before and are there any safety factors I'm overlooking?

That would seem to be an even better way to pack and use it just make sure your helps not kicking back a 12 pack hiding out in the triler while your working. But you can lock everything up that wayand keep the welder out of the sun keep it from weathering so bad