Rob H. wrote:
I'm researching to see if the extended rods are for supporting a track
system, as some models apparently use one. Also, in the absence of any
visual evidence for a tire beader that resembles this, I don't know
why that is still a viable solution. This is a welding truck, the ring
very closely resembles a welding ring....it seems that the challenge
now is only to find a similar one to explain some details.

--riverman


I hadn't yet found the beveling band and since some devices that are for
different purposes look alike, I was open to the possibility of it being
a tire beader. But now I'm 100% sure that it's a beveling band. I shot
the photo while on the road in Illinois, I looked out my hotel window
and saw the unusual ring and took a few shots of it. I hadn't seen one
before but figured someone here would recognize it.


Rob


I'm 100% sure it was made as a beveling band.

A sack obscures the band near the left foot of the ladder. The ring has
a hooked rod about a foot from there. Below the rod are the heads of
four studs. Above the rod, four studs appear to be absent even when I
blow up the photo. Am I mistaken? If they keep the band at a fixed
distance from the pipe, they must be necessary for accurate welding.

The photos I've seen show convoys of company trucks welding pipe. This
doesn't look like a company truck: no racks for cylinders of welding
gases and no reels for welding cable. Well, maybe poorly-equipped small
contractors also weld on pipe lines.

The cylinders are a mystery. Seeing only a grayscale picture, the
trucker identified the tank near the passenger door as refrigerant. He
said that's where service trucks carry it. Its color corroborates this.
Why would a pipeline welder carry refrigerant?

The truck has welding hose on a reel beside the spare tire, but I see no
cylinders marked for acetylene or industrial oxygen. Could he get
anyone to put anything but medical oxygen in a tank marked for medical
oxygen? Carrying highly compressed gas in loose cylinders looks very
dangerous.

How about this scenario? Somebody who normally services vehicles in the
field applied for a job on a pipeline. He passed his welding test and
got put on a waiting list. A foreman told him what they really needed
were independent contractors.

The foreman gave him an old guide ring. The applicant got a pair of
discarded oxygen tanks that were no longer fit for medical use. If you
saw the truck a week later, the tanks would be certified and painted and
in a rack where the refrigerant is now.