In
Carbondale, Colorado, Pat and Jan Gremillion manufacture Premier
Power Welders. The Premier is a high-frequency, under-hood arc
welder. The welder gets its power from a heavy duty alternator,
which Premier also manufactures. The model used on the TJ is a 170
amp model. Onboard the main box, there is a regulator which
constantly recharges your battery as you operate the welder.
An
added bonus to the setup is the 115 volt DC power outlet, which is
usable for most lights, brush powered tools and universal motors.
Installation
is fairly simple, but does require some electrical wiring
knowledge and some ingenuity on your part for finding spots to
house everything. The included installation manual does a great
job and is written clearly enough for most backyard mechanics to
get through the job on their own (we did, anyway).
One
last note: you absolutely must replace your stock battery with
either a Black Panther or an Optima battery. The deep cycle models
are required, as you will constantly be putting a major drain on
the battery as you use the welder. We went with the blue top
Optima, which is the marine version. It is Optima's only true deep
cycle battery. This, of course, is of great benefit for winching
and running extra lights. On the Project TJ, we only run this one
battery and it is performing great for us. |
Top
View of the welder
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Side
view with regulator
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The
welder comes complete with everything you need. The leads and
cover are an add-on. Be sure to ask for them when you order.
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After
unhooking your battery for safety, you will need to remove your
serpentine belt (or v-belts on other models). Now is a good time
to replace your belt while it's off.
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The
next step is to remove your stock alternator and put in the new
Premier. |
The
two alternators are slightly different in appearance and size.
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Mounting
for us on our TJ 4.0L required us to use a different bolt and add
some spacer washers in order for it to mount snugly.
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Once
in place, put the belt back on.
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The
TJ 4.0's have changed from year to year in how they use the space
just over the driver's front wheel. We had already used the ABS
shelf for an ARB compressor, so to make room for our welder we had
to relocate a vacuum cannister underneath the brake booster.
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Here's
the view, looking down, from over the brake booster (bottom right
of photo). Below the steering shaft is our vacuum cannister's new
home.
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You'll
need to run quite a bit of wiring around both the front and the
rear of the engine compartment. We added a wire loom to protect
the wires and then wire-tied them in place. Be sure to keep them
free of moving parts and heat sources.
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We
now had a free space on top of the wheel well to mount the main
welder box.
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Locate
an unused slot in your main power box to tap into.
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Finally,
finish up all wiring and read your operations instructions very
carefully.
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Operation of the welder
is very simple. The idea to getting a good weld with the Premier is to
get proper voltage. There is a range on the meter for guidance. We
found that the lowest range caused our rods to stick to our work, so
we had to increase the rpm's of the motor, using the included hand
throttle. The useful range of the welder was in the 2200-2400 rpm
range. Incidentally, the Premier can also be used to cut steel, as
well as weld it.
There are a lot of
details to the install that we omitted, due to space and variations
from vehicle to vehicle. The bottom line is to read your installation
and operations manuals very very carefully and think everything
through three times before you actually do it. Welding can be
extremely dangerous and without proper installation and usage can
cause both serious damage to your vehicle, and more importantly, to
you! Be sure to wear a welding mask with proper tinting, welding
gloves, and long sleeves and pants. Also make sure anyone around you
also does or is warned to stay and look away. This report is in no way
to be interpretted as an installation manual or guideline.
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