If you're ever driving through rough terrain and break an important part such as a drag link or tie rod, you may be stuck until help arrives. If you were unable to summon help you could weld the part together with heavy-gauge jumper cables, two automotive batteries, and a welding rod.


YouTube user engineer775 shows in the video above how to setup an emergency welding rig by connecting two 12v car batteries in series (wiring them into a single 24v battery), connecting one side of a set of jumper cables to the positive and negative terminal not wired in series. The other end of the jumper cables will connect to the welding rod and the other to the metal workpiece. Touch the welding rod to the joint that needs to be connected to weld. You'll also want leather gloves and a welding helmet if you ever do this.

The problem with this technique is that you have no real control over the amperage generated by the batteries. This will vary depending on if you wire 2 batteries (24v) or 3 batteries (36v) together. Keep in mind that we are not endorsing this technique, especially for those who have no welding experience, but if you're stuck in the boonies with no cell phone signal you might like knowing how it can be accomplished. That said, if I were in the habit of going off road alone I'd probably add a couple of welding rods, an extra charged battery, two sets of jumper cables, and a cheap welding helmet to my vehicle emergency kit just in case.

Bug out Tip...Welding using car batteries | YouTube