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Wood burning truck!

Started by ellmoe, April 28, 2005, 08:18:40 PM

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Paul_H

It is nice and it's great to have all the tools handy as well.We have a shop at home but I would be afraid to grind or weld in it.If the truck was 2 feet longer it wouldn't fit ,even diagonal as it is now.
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

SwampDonkey

Yes, it is nice and warm when it's freezing outside. ;D

I've seen a lot of fellas work out on their lawns or drive ways over the years, but that ends when it's freezing cold. That ain't fun. :)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

JuniperBoss

Why aren't there wood-burning truck manufacturers? I've seen videos on it. A guy lit his barrel up, stoked it with wood and off he went going 45mph down the road. A thousand miles per cord sounds pretty darn good to me, compared to silly G-A-S-O-L-I-N-E. What's wrong with this picture?
"The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense." --- Thomas Edison

edstoddard

Mother Earth News built and drove a truck cross country on a cord of wood in the 70's.  They even hooked up an inverter and used an eletric chain saw to it to cut brush on the side of the road.  Also, the Germans during WWII built wood gasifiers for their cars, including the new Beetle and on Kubelwagens.  I have a collection of photos showing their results.  Wood gasification yields about 60% of the original power using gasoline, so you won't win any drag races, but the wood is usually free.

Paul_H

Welcome to the forum Ed.
You are right in all you said.Somewhere in the 25 pages of this thread it has been talked about also.
We'd sure like to see your pics.


Today at the shop,a old Italian customer came in for some oil and we got talking about fuel and different systems and I asked him if he ever heard about woodgas.He remembers them during the war and his older brother worked for a company chunking wood into blocks for woodgas systems.I took him out back to see the gasifier and he knew what did what.
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

Paul_H

I completed the cooling rack/condensor today and have it bolted in place and now have to plumb the cooling rack from the back of the truck up to the filter(cannister with blue stripe) and then from there to the engine and starting fan.

  

  

 


The rack on the passenger side is flanged fro removal or maintainance on the gasifier.
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

isawlogs

 Last I saw a pic of you working on da wood burnin' truck you where in your driveway with snow, this sure looks like a much better deal.  :D
   I like how the gasifier sits lower on this truck. Alos you have some box left to carry some tools with you.  ;D
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

Paul_H

Bonjour Marcel,
yes there is a full 6' of box plus the room between the gasifier and filter to store many bags of fuel :)
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

OneWithWood

One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

Mooseherder

Paul, Do you still have your other truck?

Paul_H

The original truck was a 79 F100 but when I brought it home from Pemberton it had a seized rear brake drum,bondo falling out of the box and a few other issues so I got this 82 Ford to hang the gasifier.A few changes are the cooling rack which is a lot lighter and no moving parts or pumps.It will have a better quicker starting fan which should cut the start up time in half and whill have bigger piping and eventually a higher comp engine.
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

r.man

Paul are all your mods based on trial, error and guesses?
Life is too short or my list is too long, not sure which. Dec 2014

Paul_H

The basic unit was built according to a set of $15.00 plans from Mother Earth News which based it's calculations on the historically proven Imbert design.There are a few graphs posted back at the beginning of the thread here and if a person wanted to,there is enough info to build a gasifier easily.
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

mad murdock

That is looking like a very nice build! Great work on the rack/ condenser piping 8)
Turbosawmill M6 (now M8) Warrior Ultra liteweight, Granberg Alaskan III, lots of saws-gas powered and human powered :D

Paul_H

Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

Paul_H

The truck is on the road and my daughter and I loaded it up last week and went on a 40 mile round trip and then today my son and I went the same distance.
Truck has been running well and I like it better than the '79 Ford.


http://youtu.be/3e3jG4OTS6M
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

mad murdock

That is a fine vid! Great job by the camera crew and the refueling crew! That looks like a very good gas plant on that truck! Thanks for posting the vid Paul 8)
Turbosawmill M6 (now M8) Warrior Ultra liteweight, Granberg Alaskan III, lots of saws-gas powered and human powered :D

ellmoe

Looking good, Paul. Thanks' for sharing. Question? Instead of miles/gallon, do you measure in miles/daughter? ;D It's good to see the family involvement.

Mark
Thirty plus years in the sawmill/millwork business. A sore back and arthritic fingers to prove it!

Paul_H

Thanks MM and Mark,
most all of the kids have been put to work on the woodgas system at one time or another,even the cat ;D
The things on the newspaper at 1:47 are a half dozen mice that the cat has been bringing to the front door so we also measure in miles per mouse now but it's a complicated formula. :)
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

Jeff

I must say, I love the hat. :)
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Paul_H

Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

Paul_H

It's been over a year since an update but we have been doing quite a bit with the truck.
Last year I took the truck to a couple local festivals and set the truck up on display with a couple posters that Jeff designed for me which shows quite well the inner workings of the gasifier and filter.

Here is the setup the night before.The idea was people could climb all over it and look into the top or under the hood



In October my grandkids came to visit us for a few days and they helped me and my daughters bag up the chunks and they got a ride for their efforts(ice cream later)





The truck ran really well and when I drove to the steam threshers show in Vernon on a friday night in September it was a good feeling driving there and back with no hiccups. I met up with FF member Magickmikey there and had a good visit on the Sunday afternoon.

Here is a vid I took.(turn the volume down if you don't like Bill Munroe)  ;)

That is Magikmikey at 0:15 secs with his arms crossed

http://youtu.be/Mm6bqXHX52I

I'll post a few more pics later of the problems I had this Spring and how we fixed it.
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

thecfarm

Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

mad murdock

Awesome vid Paul. Keep the pics and vids coming.
Turbosawmill M6 (now M8) Warrior Ultra liteweight, Granberg Alaskan III, lots of saws-gas powered and human powered :D

Paul_H

Thank you!

I mentioned problems with the truck this spring and it turned out to be so simple that I missed it but it all worked out for the better as it forced me to make a change that I have wanted to do for a few years.

To prevent bridging I used a steel rod to poke down through the wood chunks into the hearth zone  and one time must have got carried away and broke the welds where the two cast iron pans that formed the hearth were welded together.

The hearth can be seen in the bottom of this diagram Jeff made



Here is the old style from the side and again from the bottom with the SS grate. The cast iron hearth has the restriction(5") and the bottom pan serves as the reduction zone where the tars are cracked and the wood is chemically reduced to CO and H. The old style had too short of a zone so I wanted to add length like Ron Lemler did in his truck.





The ring welded around the hearthforms a lip to seal the hearth in the bottom at a certain distance from the nozzle ring.







With all that change,I still could not make proper gas and the system backfired and puffed and quit on me 3 miles from home and I had to switch over to gasoline to get home.I wasn't a happy camper.

One thing I had noticed was the air inlet to the nozzles hadn't been drawing like it used to and I had wondered if there were plugged pipes or some other restriction.Some earnest prayer led me to a very simple solution.

The spring loaded lid is sealed with a stove gasket and hi temp silicone but it had hardened over time and lost it's seal,allowing air to enter in through the lid but no prperly through the nozzle ring in the oxidization zone.
A good wire brushing and a new seal fixed everything.



My next drives after that were better than it had ever been and I beat my old speed records for the route I usually take up the mountain road and through Deep Creek valley.On the home stretch I found that we were gaining on the cars ahead of us  8)
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

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