Solar and Marquette branded a really GREAT backpack mig welder. It contained an easily replaceable 24 volt battery in the bottom. It could lay down about 60" of weld before a 110 volt recharge was necessary. Clubs here would carry one in the group. I think I still have a couple, but I got used to arc welding with 3/32 "Missile weld" rod which I could carry in a plastic tube... and three jumper cables. It will stick springs together! Now I have added auto darkening goggles. Unbeatable...Except for a Premier Power which can weld better than a home unit. (hi Frequency) Pat, who invented it would have not made it any other way.
One "backpack" is Marquette M12191. Cordless Wire Feed welder 18ga to 1/4"
We put the mig welders in small backpacks. Weight might be 25lbs. Miller or Lincoln (The same parent also) bought them out and buried the product quickly. We tried a hard case Miller on loan. You could only do about 24" before unusable. We are not sure how they messed up the tech but definitely not in the same league. And much bigger and heavy. The Solars could be bought for $100-150 or so when Ebay started........ Marketing!!!!!!!
I bet you could use that same battery for any 24 volt system. It was about 3 x 8 x5" tall. 24 volt. Maybe $30. I think it looked more dry cell than wet cell. But i haven't used mine in 15 years. Charge it once in awhile for drama.
One way to keep your group together would be to put the battery in the front rig and a ready welder in the back one.
