Wood burning truck!

[Paul_H]

farmerdoug,
where I'm working right now,the road is so rough from the frost coming out of the road that it takes 1 hour and 45 min one way,which is 55 kilometres from the shop yard
I got home early today and jumped right back on the project.


This is the bottom of the top tank and the opening will receive the 18" feed tank with nozzles and hearth.The 16 holes shown in the pic will hold the air tubes.The chalk lines were put along the tank as a guide for the coresponding holes on the top of the tank.



Once the holes were drilled I cut the 14" hole which will be where the wood is fed from.




The two tanks were joined temporily to check the fit and make sure that the tubes will slide into place.The J bends go up through into the hearth zone and will have the nozzles threaded in once I calculate the jet sizes.








It doesn't look like I'll get to it this weekend but I'm looking forward to welding it all together and then start work on the lid and air manifold.

[Fla._Deadheader]

 Looking good, Senor 

[pineywoods]

Please keep the pics coming. Looks great. I'v often wondered how one of these would work if you loaded a small round hay bale insteaad of wood chips. I had the guy who bales my hay to leave me some small ones that would fit, but I've never got around to welding up the burner. Got a 76 ford pickup to use as a test bed.

[TW]

Good luck with the project Paul_H and keep us informed. It will be really interresting to see how it works.

The wood gas was called "gengas" in Swedish
There is a retired lorry driver living less than a kilometre from here. He started driving lorries during the war. He has told me a bit about the gengas powered cars.
One time he was almost killed when the gengas pipe sprung a leak and intoxicated the air in the car. Luckily he fell towards the door and the door opened. The engines had much less power on that fuel so they had problems going uphill. Sometimes they run out of fuel on the road and had to steal some firewood. The gengas was hard on the engine oil so the oil should have been shifted often, but no new engine oil was available.
Only the army used petrol in some of it's vehicles. Everything else run on gengas or did not run at all.

The village museum has an old gengas gasifyer that was used to power a boat engine during the war. I wish I had a digital camera so I could post a picture of it.

[Paul_H]

Thanks for the encouragement,on the way home from work today(Saturday) I was wondering if my posts were making sense or was it a just bunch of pictures of rusty used water tanks and frying pans

pineywoods,

the plans I have,show how to modify a two barrel carb for a Ford if you ever decide to build a woodgas generator.I don't know whether or not they have run these on hay but if I run across any info,I'll pass it on to you.

TW,

I have a couple questions for you.

Is "puukaasu",the Finnish word for "gengas"?

Finland still has an active group building and running woodgas powered cars from what I've read.
Is this a Finnish website? It has some good pictures.

 Link

[beenthere]

Ya, I been seein dem rusty tanks and fryin pans, ya der.  You betcha!

But dat is excitin, jus by herself.   ya

[TW]

Puukaasu means woodgas, actually puu is wood and kaasu is gas. Puukaasutin means wood gasifyer.

The webpage is "The peasant farmer museum Yli-Kirra". The only woodgas related I found on the page were those pictures of a woodgas powered tractor (Fordson N?)ploughing. Actually I think Bolinder-Munktell made a series of tractors special built for woodgas. I am not sure about that.

There is a good site in Swedish www.gengas.nu

I am not fully fluent in Finnish but I understand it quite well. If you need any shorter text in Finnish or Swedish or Norwegian translated or explained, just tell and I will try to help.

I wish I had time and skill to try that kind of project myself.

[Norm]

Thanks for the encouragement,on the way home from work today(Saturday) I was wondering if my posts were making sense or was it a just bunch of pictures of rusty used water tanks and frying pans 

Well I was a bit horrified to see you cut holes in perfectly good cast iron frying pans but felt that if I said anything it just might tip you over the edge. Then I realized spring is really not that far away and soon enough you'll be able to get back to normal again.

[Jeff]

    

Norm, yer a "gas" 

[Paul_H]

  Norm,

I wish I had a rebuttal but I got nuthin 

TW,

I appreciate the help with the translation and I'll probably have some more questions for you. I'm going to try a webpage translator on the link you posted.

[Paul_H]

Well the webpage translation didn't work too good

Tillägnad alla oss idealistiska kufar som tycker om att bli sotiga, hugga ved och åka bil långsammare än nödvändigt.
Den är också tillägnad samma kufar som inte vill släppa ut mer koldioxid än nödvändigt i atmosfären, de idealister som genomför projektet och de drömmare som önskar att de hade gjort det.

became this....    

Dedicate all of us idealistic kufar as fancy if that become sotiga, chop firewood and travel auto slowest than necessarily.
The is also dedicate same kufar as nots shall dismiss more carbon dioxide than necessarily in ambience, they ideals as carried out plan and they visionaries as am desiring that they had done in.

[OneWithWood]

Paul, I admire your drive - and your ambition

It is nice to see folks who start a project, stick to it and actually finish it.  I have a gaziilion projects started and very few near completion.  Seems I spend a bunch of time just thinkin' about which project to work on 

Keep it up.  We can't wait to see the video of your truck in action. 

[Paul_H]

OWW,

Thanks but I have lots of unfinished projects too 
I'm trying to keep the momentum going for this project because I've been working at it over a year now just gathering info and scrounging parts.I just need a few solid days of welding and fitting to finish the generator and then move on to the cooler/filter.

Here is a link with good videos of a woodgas powered Jeep.The guy did a fantastic job,I just wish I could understand him

Link

[TW]

Well the webpage translation didn't work too good

Tillägnad alla oss idealistiska kufar som tycker om att bli sotiga, hugga ved och åka bil långsammare än nödvändigt.
Den är också tillägnad samma kufar som inte vill släppa ut mer koldioxid än nödvändigt i atmosfären, de idealister som genomför projektet och de drömmare som önskar att de hade gjort det.

became this....    

Dedicate all of us idealistic kufar as fancy if that become sotiga, chop firewood and travel auto slowest than necessarily.
The is also dedicate same kufar as nots shall dismiss more carbon dioxide than necessarily in ambience, they ideals as carried out plan and they visionaries as am desiring that they had done in.

Should be this
Dedicated to all us idealistic odd fellows who like to get sooty,chop firewood and drive car slower than necsessary.....And so on

Paul H
I will try to put together a translated list of content of the site so you can find what you are looking for. There is a big technical section too.

[OneWithWood]

Paul, I watched the video and I think I understand what he is saying.  Here is my rough translation:

First ve season da vood - ya use da goot hickory or sometimes da apple
Den ve light da fir
Den ve drive a bit
Den ve add da ham and sausages
Den ve drive a bit
Den ve add da beans - ya dat is crucial, da beans, dat makes the gas!
Den ve drive a bit
Ya almost all figgered out, jest need to figgure the cornbread, ya den ve have big feast!

I like the separate trailer rig but I bet parallel parking is a bit difficult!
Are you going to drive yours to the piggy roast?

[TW]

One with wood
Wrong translation. This text concerns the new improved model that runs on pea soup and sauerkraut instead of beans.

About www.gengas.nu

In the box to the left reads:
Hitta rätt=find your way
Vanliga frågor=common questions
Bakgrund=background
Bilder=pictures
Om gengas= about woodgas
Varför=Why
Litteratut=litterature
Kuriosa=odd facts
Byggbeskrivningar=building instructions
     leads to      Gasgenerator av SMP = gasgenerator by Statens Maskinprovning
                       Kubbmaskin= a kind of wood processing machine
                       Gasgenerator= gasgenerator
                       Glasfiberdukrenare=Fiberglass cloth gas cleaner
                       Cyklonrenare=Cyklon gas cleaner
Bestämmelser=government rules
Reseskildringar=travel narratives
Länkar=links

This might make it easier

[Paul_H]

OWW,

Don't forget da Kumpa

I like the trailer setup too,it seems that with a quik coupling it would be fairly simple to use on different vehicles with similar sized engines.

TW,

Thanks for the help with the translation!Was the fellow with the Jeep a Finn? He seemed to speak with a Swede/Norsk singsong.


I just got in from work but if I have time after supper I'll post a drawing that I need help with in regards to nozzle sizes.

[Paul_H]

I am trying to find the proper nozzle sizes for the generator.The chart shows that my 302 would fall right on the line at 300 cu in and 8 nozzles would be at .38 and the other 8 would be .27 My understanding of this is I would drill the orifices at .27=1/4" and .38 =3/8" roughly.
The nozzle area(Am ) on the chart shows 1.5 square inches at 2800 RPM

My problem here is that the number of nozzles are doubled in the newer design so we have 32 nozzles.Fast guesstamation is each nozzle would be 5/32 but it is stressed that nozzle size is extremly important so I want to get it right.
If anybody is willing to help me with the calculations,I can e-mail more information.I would like to be able to figure this out and make it available to others that may want to build a generator and have a good basis for making the calculations on any sized engine.



The ash has an angle of repose of around 50° and forms the outside of the cone,the bottom of the cone in this case is 14"(nozzle ring ) and the top is 5"(hearth restriction) The vertical distance from the Hearth restriction to the nozzle ring is 4 1/2" shown in the next two diagrams

[beenthere]

Do you know that the diameter between the nozzles is 14" so need the area of the 14" diam circle, or 154 in sq. ?

I suspect I'm missing something here. 

Interested in what it is.   

[Paul_H]

From what I can gather,it is the volume of the cone with the 14" base that is needed.My crayon drawing shows the upside down cone in Red.

I'll admit I'm out of my element but I'm enjoying the trip