One of those "Ask me how I know moments?"



Only story I have is a friend was welding on his pickup truck/camper combo and one of the chains holding the camper got pretty hot before we realized what was going on.

 

ALRIGHT!! anutha cool tool in the Arsenal👍

 

That looks great, I've found something almost identical on Amazon UK & it's from a well-known automotive tool manufacturer here so should be fine, the reviews are all good too.
Having got home early today I crawled under the back of the truck & the crack is where the bracket for the passenger side mudflap is/was welded to the tub, the mudflap got broken in the accident so I'm guessing that it either tore the metal by the weld at the time, or it's slightly bent & it's a stress induced crack, either way I'll cut it by the damaged bit to relieve any stress & then weld it back in place (once the Anti-zap arrives!)

 

Yes, as a matter of fact. It's OK to finish the weld before putting out the fire on your shirt but don't let this happen...

 

Aye ca rumba! How do you explain that one to the customer? Think that guy took any ribbing over that one?

 

I didn't remember that your truck was in an accident, and I hadn't seen your post below yet before I went hunting for a photo of the passenger side rear of the metal tub being fitted to the frame that would show the laterally oriented hat channels under the bed floor.



OK, the ACCIDENT explains it. Because otherwise, that tub is quite sturdy, and is also insulated from frame twist by the wood spacer and sheer plate mounting method shown in the photo above.

Some questions for you in the photo below...



1. What's going on in the yellow oval?

2. What do you suppose the witness marks outlined in orange are from?

3. Are those all welds circled in red?

 

Seriously though if you are concerned about electrical current here is what I use, I got it from Harbor Freight, just grind off some paint next to the weld area and stick it on then place your ground clamp on the stud. Works great for things that are hard to clamp to also.

 

That reminds me of an incident with a friend who shared a workshop with me, he was an excellent mechanic & never cut corners with customers vehicles but.........his own car was a different story, the car at the time was a Ford Granada V6 (not sure if there was a US equivalent) this model suffered from a poorly designed camshaft drive consisting of a gear drive with fibre teeth, these teeth would fail prematurely resulting in a non running engine. Usually the valves would not contact the pistons so it was an easy job to remove the timing cover & replace the gears, what wasn't so easy was removing the pan to extract the sheared teeth, this was necessary to prevent them finding their way to the oil pick up strainer. This would be terminal as you can imagine.....
Removing the pan entailed removing the engine which while not a major job was time consuming & something my friend was short of (he wanted to get the job done in his lunch break.........so with the car raised on a two post lift he drained the oil into a plastic bucket, carefully cut three sides of a square out of the pan, bent it down & extracted the offending bits. Just for good measure he pulled the valve covers & flushed through with some parts water fluid.
He then bent the flap back into place & without pausing for thought commenced to mig weld it back into place, this didn't go well, the bucket containing the oil/pats washer fluid mix was only a couple of feet away & it was a matter of seconds before a bit of welding spatter ignited the fluid which then ignited the plastic bucket, immediately spilling the contents over the floor, first thing he realised was his overalls catching fire! Someone grabbed a fire extinguisher & all that did was spread the burning liquid. I grabbed a fire blanket & with alot of luck we contained the fire before it did too much damage, which was limited to smoke & soot damage, even the car started up once the welding was completed (in a safe & orderly Manor this time) unfortunately or maybe fortunately there was no cctv.

 

As you say the tub is very substantial & was certainly built without cost being a restraint...
A quick question for your encyclopedic knowledge of these trucks, there's some holes in the front of the tub, they are symmetrical in position, do you know what they might have been for? I'm guessing from the history i have of the truck that they were there from new & not visible until I removed the bed liner.

 

I guess maybe I am just a wild and crazy guy, but I have never done anything when welding on a vehicle. Of note, significant flat bed modifications on a Duramax I had as a work truck, exhaust and hitch welding on my Powerstroke, body modification welding on my Sidekick, welding a muffler on the Isuzu pickup I used to own, and many more! I understand that there is all kinds of urban legendry out there about disconnecting batteries and such, but I don't understand it. I have yet to go to a muffler shop and see them disconnecting batteries and ECM's before putting a new muffler on a vehicle. This of course is also experience tainted by a touch of common sense...notice I did not mention welding on ECM brackets, or welding a hold down to a battery, or anything like that. And whoever mentioned welding trucks has a good point...now I don't think there are many things we should emulate from oil field rig welders, but most of them, if they are fitting or working off the bed of the truck, it is just the truck bed that is grounded, so what they are doing is of little difference than just welding "on" the truck.
One fun rig welder story I heard from a friend...he worked as a welder's helper for awhile. One of the welders on a job with them had a pretty green helper. When finished with a weld, the helper was rolling up the leads. He did not notice that part of the insulator at the top of the rod holder was missing. He threw the ground clamp and lead on the back of the truck, and then the rod holder. Apparently he did not notice the small spark when the rod holder hit the bed. A few minutes later someone burned themselves when they touched the truck bed...it was scalding hot! They got the welder shut down and then had to let the truck cool off before continuing. As I remember, that truck drove away from the scene. The employment status of the helper cannot be confirmed or denied!

 

Did your truck come with this spare tire box installed, as shown in various examples below?

 

@Y2KW57 I don't believe it did, there's a hole below the spare which has a nut welded to a flat bar that's bolted through the bed, the spare wheel is secured by a long threaded bar to that, there was a custom made vinyl cover over the wheel which had shrunk & rotted from the sun. No graphics, no stainless trim at the front of the bed, just the opening tailgate & hide-a-hooks along the bed sides, they didn't go mad with the options.

 

I forgot what model year your truck is.

Most of the spec built trucks were equipped with the 60/40 spare tire/tool box.

The polished trim under the rear window was the national sales manager's idea to conceal the panel stiffening indentations and seams in the back cab wall that people were unaccustomed to seeing with normal pickups, which had higher bed walls.

I think as the demand for these special trucks waned, sales slowed, and production was winding down as the country entered into war , some of these "must haves" were allowed to be dropped.

 

The truck is a 2001 with a build date of August 2000. It was ordered as an XLT as they didn't want leather seats & it was the only way to avoid them.

 

Whether or not it is fair to dismiss the OP's concerns as "urban legendry" is up to each reader, but the OP's precautions provided in Post #1 of this thread are spot on consistent with the best practices and precautions issued by every truck manufacturer in the industry.