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Welding explosion question

jonno634

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2018
Messages
141
Location
Garfield, WA
Occupation
Farmer
I know your shouldn’t weld on truck rims with tires mounted, as they’ll explode!

can you weld on an airbag mounting bracket, without removing the air bag? Or will it react like a tire? Just wanting to be safe. And this airbag looks like a pita to remove.

thx
 

jonno634

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2018
Messages
141
Location
Garfield, WA
Occupation
Farmer
I know your shouldn’t weld on truck rims with tires mounted, as they’ll explode!

can you weld on an airbag mounting bracket, without removing the air bag? Or will it react like a tire? Just wanting to be safe. And this airbag looks like a pita to remove.

thx

well, it didn’t go boom!
 

Old Doug

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2013
Messages
4,536
Location
Mo
If you are working by the hour it needs to be removed. I would at least let it down.
 

JPV

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2015
Messages
756
Location
S.W. Washington
The only thing I worry about when welding around airbags is popping them with hot spatter. I deflate them and maybe even wrap a wet towel around it. The nylon air lines are usually what gets holes!
 

funwithfuel

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2017
Messages
5,589
Location
Will county Illinois
Occupation
Mechanic
The rim is an integral piece of the pressure vessel. The Z-spring is pretty far removed from the bellows and bag of an air spring. The explosion risk comes from pyresis. That's when the tire starts combusting on the inside with no way to extinguish or vent excess pressure. That's the scary part.
 

Truck Shop

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
16,923
Location
WWW.
The proper method for any welding to take place---make sure you have a couple of batteries on the charger near by, wear clothes that have lots of loose threads hanging off, debris such as
old shipping boxes full of packing material, lots of aerosol cans setting around, grease rags piled up. and make sure and wear long hair.:p
 

Tugger2

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Messages
1,376
Location
British Columbia
Good video . All jokes aside tires are dangerous. The operator working for me was airing up his hand cart tire at home and it blew up with one hell of bang and gave him a bit of gash on the wrist.
As ive said before Tires are for Tiremen .
 

funwithfuel

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2017
Messages
5,589
Location
Will county Illinois
Occupation
Mechanic
There is an MSHA fatalgram (case study) of a tire explosion on an off-road rigid haul truck. The front left wheel had been welded on 5-6 hours prior to shift change. Operator gets machine from garage area. Performed his walk-around inspection, climbed in the cab to fill out his inspection report. He was killed instantly when the tire exploded crushing the cab against the spill guard. There is no deadline or goal worth a man's life.
Cheap SOBs used to weld the cracks between Budd lug holes, duh... that's where the wheel centers and tightens, you're just kicking the can down the road and carrying a dangerous situation with it. I wish this information was easier to find and more widely spread. It's just not worth it.
 
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