welder to generator

[rainforrestgump]

i am trying to hook-up my arc welder to my generator, but, some tricks on logic now faces me. i live on a farm way off the grid where it rains 130 in. per year (WaaWaa, HI). I am powered by a photovoltic system that consists of 8 - U16 deep cycles (6 volt each, wired serial/parallel for a 24 volt system), and an "Outback" (pure sine wave) 2500 watt inverter (single phase, 120 volt only - although i dont understand what "phase" means!) So, with what knowledge of electricity i do have, i know i can count the inverter out for powering the welder - which leads me to my only option...a 5500 watt Sears Craftsman 120/240 gas powered gen unit. Now for my question(s): The gen unit has the standard 3 prong 120 volt recepticle (hot/neu/grd), and then a 4 prong 240 recepticle (NEMA L14-30). The welder has 3 wires, but is 230 volt! What is a jungle man to do?

[suemarkp]

Need to put a different plug on the welder, but only if that welder draws less than 22 amps. If its larger, its too large for your generator (and it still may be too large depending on how it works -- welders can draw a lot of current for short times because of their duty cycle rating. The generator doesn't care, but can only make so much power, but it can make that power continuously).

The welder doesn't need a neutral, so just don't put a wire on that pin on the new plug (which I'm assuming is a 30A plug like a dryer plug).