Farm equipment welding repair in the Treasure Valley

What breaks on a farm

• Loader buckets. Corners crack, the cutting edge wears to nothing, the mounting ears egg out. I rebuild corners with plate, weld on a new cutting edge, and bore or sleeve the ears.
• Bale spears and forks. Spear mounts crack from side loading. Fork frames bend. Both weld up with a doubler plate.
• Hitches and drawbars. Three-point arms, drawbar clevises, ball mounts. High-stress, and a lot of them have been welded before. I'll tell you if it's worth another weld.
• Implement frames. Disc frames, harrow bars, sprayer booms, the tongue on the hay rake. Fatigue cracks at every gusset.
• Corral panels, gates and feeders. Livestock finds every weak weld. I fix panels in place and re-weld feeder frames before the next load of hay.
• Pipe fence and stock trailers. Same truck, same visit. See trailer repair.

Cast parts

A lot of hitch parts and older implement castings are cast iron or cast steel. Cast steel welds fine. Cast iron is a gamble that needs preheat and the right rod, and the repair is never as strong as new. If it's a cast part on something that could hurt someone when it lets go, I'll tell you to replace it. If it's a bracket on a feeder, I'll weld it and tell you the odds.

Wheel lines and aluminum

Wheel-line pipe, hand line and a lot of irrigation fittings are aluminum. So are some feeders and trailers. That's a different process and different gas. I do it, and it's covered on the aluminum welding page. Tell me it's aluminum when you call so I bring the right spool.

Timing matters

I know what a broken baler costs in July. Repairs are usually one to three days out, and if it's stopping a harvest, say so when you call. I'll tell you honestly whether I can move it up. Most in-field repairs take an hour or two once I'm there.

What to have ready

• Park the equipment where I can get the truck to it. A field edge is fine. The middle of a wet field is not.
• Shut it down, drop the implement, and pull the key.
• Knock the mud off the break. I'll grind, but I can't weld dirt.
• If a part fell off, keep it. It shows me how it failed.

Where I go

Most of my farm work is south and west of Meridian: Kuna, Caldwell, the edges of Nampa, and the acreages between. I'll drive farther for a real job. Visits start at $95, and the bigger rebuilds are quoted from a photo. All of it is repair welding done with the mobile rig, so nothing has to be hauled anywhere.