Re: Increasing Tongue Length
I had a job for a summer while in college, welding above ground swimming pool sections together. I worked on an assembly line, where the metal was cut, folded and welded. We made both aluminum and galvanized sections. The usual arrangement was to make aluminum sections for half a day, eat lunch and then make galvanized sections in the afternoon. As such, I welded galvanized 5 days a week, four hours a day, all summer.
I'll vouch for the fact that the galvanized coating burns off in the welded area. We welded the corners of the folded box sections and then welded ribs into them, so there was a fair amount of work for each piece. While not as easy as the aluminum sections to weld, I never had any problem getting a decent bead and didn't experience the kinds of contamination problems that can occur in MIG or TIG welding, in general. As with any other weld, you just had to get the heat and feed right.
What I will say, is that welding galvanized does, indeed, give off a lot of fumes. It also "pops" quite a bit. We had to wear leather, welding "coats," not aprons, to keep from getting burned by the little, molten balls of zinc coating that would fly everywhere. We also had to wear chemical respirators.
As for health issues, I haven't thought about this for years, so I just did a bit of surfing. My take on it is that there are arguments in both directions. As might be expected, industry groups tend to claim that there are no long term effects, while groups that involve themselves in protection of workers, etc., claim there are. My personal view of it now and when I was doing it, is that allowing fumes of any kind to enter your lungs over prolonged periods, can't be conducive to good health. That's why I wore my respirator at all times, insured that it had no leaks and changed the filter cans frequently.
As for the trailer, find someone who knows what he/she is doing and have at it. I did it to one of my trailers and it has been just fine.
???
