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Western Nebraska | A few months back there was a discussion about branding and someone asked me to post a few pictures of the rig I use, so here they are. I have a Sportsman with a basket on the back that holds my equipment. I built a small rack to hold a battery and the power inverter. Initially it was built to hold two batteries but that proved to be too much weight for the back end of the ATV. The toolbox in the basket holds my tagging pliers, tattoo pliers, implant gun and banding pliers. The bucket has some gravel in it to keep the iron clean. Bouncing around the pasture does a pretty good job of scouring the iron between uses. In one of the pictures you can also see my tire thumper that does double duty as a head knocker. It does a pretty good job of persuading hostile mothers that they ought to tolerate me. We are just about 2/3s done with calving and I have only had to use it once.
I tried several inverters before I settled on the one you see in the pictures. Even though the iron says that it will draw 240 watts you need about three times that to get it to heat effectively. I tried a 400 watt inverter that plugged into the 12v outlet on the atv and that wasn't enough power. The first 700 watt inverter that I used was just a regular standard duty inverter. It only lasted a year in the dusty, rough conditions that I was using it in. I have had the marine inverter that you see for two years now and it is going strong. It is supposed to be resistant to shock and corrosion and so far it is standing up pretty good. I carry an extra battery in my pickup so I can switch them out if I need to, but I can usually get 15-20 brands out of a charge and it is rare that I have more than that to do in a day. The batteries are marine batteries so I can draw them down completely with no ill effects. The iron is a little 2" iron. It is as small as it can be so it will heat better and make a smaller mark on the calves.
If anyone has any other questions fire away.
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 100_2671 (Small).jpg (81KB - 865 downloads)
100_2672 (Small).jpg (74KB - 867 downloads)
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My branding setup
