Was driving by the Cowboy Church near Bonham, Texas and saw a person I knew in the parking lot. While talking to him there was a guy welding broken parts on horse trailers that fellow members have. I noticed the welding leads went under the hood on his pickup so went over and checked it out. There was a Delco 140 amp alternator on a custom made mount and driven by the pickup engine that was his power source. He said it was very simple to set up and the main change was to do something to get a 100 volt output along with the 145 amps. If I ever get a REAL truck instead of a 4 cylinder Ranger I'm going to send out an SOS signal to Bill Hanlon on this topic since it could come in real handy. Years ago the sheet metal shop near me had a Delco alternator welder that was driven by an electric motor but it was in a conventional looking welder cabinet.
This sounds very good indeed ! . Back in the 1950's and 1960's many War Surplus places sold kits made up out of WWII bomber generators you could mount on your rig and weld with......
Evan, It would seem to me that as long as you could hold the 2.3 in the Ranger at a high enough RPM, it would drive the (extra) alternator just fine. The "main change" was to the voltage regulator. I had a custom (electronic) voltage regulator built for my (namesake) 52 WASP. The builder (RIP, Bob) told me he could set it to ANY voltage.
Mike, I drove a 54 Jet during college. Hudson was ahead of times offering a compact when the Big 3 were all going longer, wider, and heavier. The Willis and Henry J also found little market in that time period.
Evan, sadly, the Hudson (mine, not the company) arrived at a "difficult" time in my life. It rifled money from my wallet like a sailor on leave. When I finally DID get it to run, it needed only a few things to make it roadworthy. Coincidentally, my entire life was about to change. The Hudson sits to this day in a friends barn, nearly 10 years without being driven, with a fresh Twin-H 308, and a fresh Dual Range Hydramatic beneath the hood. You n e v e r know... once Penny is done... (you AD guys are more fun than the HET Club guys I think). She drove nice, all 20 miles I put on her, not at all like a fifties-sedan. Stored in a CT barn from the late 60's until the mid-90's, I bought her circa 2000, and she really hasn't seen the road since.
