Ah the ages old dilemma of feast and famine or go for the "Security" of a real job (whatever that might be!). Welcome to the club.
Should you stay in pipeline work, the best thing you could do is get a credit card or a prepaid card with say $2K on it and stash it away. DO NOT break it out for anything but to get to and get set up on a gig. I have been doing the "Fest and Famine" Road Whore life for about 40 years. It got in my blood and I do not (As did you) fare well with the politics, personality conflicts and other BS of a steady job.
The decision is one only you can make. Most of the pipeline work is in a "Bust" downtrend now, the boom is over. I would seriously consider the fab shop until things pick up. Up here in North Dakota, everyone is of course saying "the BOOM will be back next year..."
But they always say that. I think things have played out in the Marcellus Shale and Bakken Fields. The next boom will be somewhere else.
In the 80's in Wyoming, we used to have bumper stickers...
Dear Lord, PLEASE let there be another Boom
I Promise not to Pizz it all away next time!.
I'm thinking about printing up a bunch more and selling them in NoDak.
Best of luck to Ya on your choice.
Get a strong plan together. Take the job and save more then you spend. You are in a perfect position right now. The oilfield is bust right now which means a lot of welders and rig trucks will start showing up cheep. Save untill you can rig up your own truck bit by bit. The oilfield may take years to come back. Dont count on the oilfield. Where there is a bust there is a boom In Something else. There are great paying rig truck jobs in other fields. Chill water projects, and structural projects just to name two of many. If you think OUT of the box and look there is a lot of rig truck work out there.