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Wood burning truck!

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

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Paul_H

Today was a good day to have off.
We started out heading down to Armstrong where my daughter rode in a 4H fun day with her horse.It was fun to watch and I got to eat one of the burgers that were smelling so good in the stands.

The little VW in the background is our little bomb around vehicle in the summer.Almost a 1/4 the fuel of my chev PU and fun to drive and cool off in after a long hot day.



I had to leave early to meet Magicmikey who came over from Kamloops an hour and a half away to deliver some feed for my truck.Mike built a firewood processor and phoned me one day and asked what length of chunks I prefered.(2-3")
Mike arrived with his BIL Bob in his 1972 Ford truck with a Cummins diesel and a dump box filled with Fir cookies ready to chunk and bag for the woodgas truck.







Mike has been a good friend and a help with my truck and a welcome visitor at our saw shop. Thanks Mike!
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

WDH

Awesome.  You are very talented.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

OneWithWood

Well done, Paul!
Bill Munroe lived just up the road apiece.  Pickers still gather at his old place on an annual basis to pick and grin. :)
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

Paul_H

Danny,
more persistence and passion for woodgas than anything. :)

Robert,

Are you still running the bio diesel?
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

ellmoe

    Watched the "Mountain Man" show on the History Channel tonight. Eustace, in N.C. (?), was operating his circle mill and then decided he needed to build a gasifier for his truck. Seems like this episode was geared to The Forestry Forum membership!
Mark
Thirty plus years in the sawmill/millwork business. A sore back and arthritic fingers to prove it!

Paul_H

Ellmoe,
Wayne Keith and a couple other woodgassers were approached by the producers of the show to build a woodgas system for the show but they didn't like what they saw and felt it would be portrayed as hokey and dangerous and so they declined.

To start and drive a woodgas vehicle should be straight forward and low risk.

1. Start fan and light
2. Wait for temps to get up
3. Start and drive

While driving there is absolutely no visable smoke and the exhaust smells of wood but not smoke(no gasoline smell) Once the engine is shutoff there is visible smoke from the lid for a minute and then nothing.
A proper system has reliefs built into the lids to take the energy away from a potential explosion.Mine has one on the gasifier and another on the filter tank.

Straight forward and low risk makes for boring TV  :D
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

Paul_H

A video of FF member Ron57. Ron built the truck shown here in the vid and also a woodgass powered tractor.

http://youtu.be/5FP6nHoF1uA
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

OneWithWood

Paul, sorry for the tardy response.
Yes, I am still doing the bio diesel thing.  We use about 3000 gallons a year fueling my 2005 F350, Linnea's 2007 LWB Sprinter, a JD4520 tractor, heating the workshop and back up for the OWB that heats Linnea's greenhouse. 
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

isawlogs

 thats alot of peanut oil,  :)

  How much do you do in a year?  Any issues getting the used oil? I remember reading about your making of, have you changed anything on it since?
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

OneWithWood

Collect my canola oil from a few restaurants in Bloomington.
I average about 3000 gallons processed a year.
Haven't changed anything in the process for a number of years.  Still producing high quality fuel, so why mess with a good thing? :)
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

isawlogs

 That is a pretty good savings when all said and done.  :)

A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

mad murdock

That is pretty impressive OWW! How big of a batch are you set up to process at a time? Do you you make your own Lye and alcohol for your process as well?
Turbosawmill M6 (now M8) Warrior Ultra liteweight, Granberg Alaskan III, lots of saws-gas powered and human powered :D

OneWithWood

I process 50 gallons per batch.  Each batch takes 48 hours total time, but only about 30 min of hands on time.  I purchase potassium hydroxide flake for the lye.  The KOH is dissolved in methanol that I purchase.  I do a 2 stage process using sulfuric acid and methanol in the first stage and the KOH and methanol in the second.  Average cost per gallon processed is 86 cents.
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

mad murdock

That is very cool. A question for PaulH. Have you seen his report?

http://web.ornl.gov/info/reports/1989/3445602994393.pdf

It is pretty cool.  I am going to start building a gassifier to tinker with, and get the hang of. We have tons of biomass on our tree farm that we can use for an endless supply of fuel. Your pcs and posts are inspiring me to get off my perverbial bahouckey and get it done.
Turbosawmill M6 (now M8) Warrior Ultra liteweight, Granberg Alaskan III, lots of saws-gas powered and human powered :D

Paul_H

Hi Murdock,

I can't open the link,I tried going in to their main menu and finding it but couldn't. I sure hope you start cutting steel and building a woodgas system and post about it when you do.

Robert,
I didn't realise you made that much fuel!
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

OneWithWood

Quote from: Paul_H on July 03, 2014, 11:32:38 PM


Robert,
I didn't realise you made that much fuel!

Since I began making Bio Diesel I have produced something north of 18,000 gallons.  Saved a bunch of money!  8)
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

isawlogs

 Thats a lot of fuel, did you put the difference aside to buy a Ferrary  ???
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

OneWithWood

Not particularly fond of Ferraris.  Too loud and not really practical for much.
I did acquire a number of woodworking tools and put a good bit of the saved dinero into a 28x40 addition to my barn that will provide a climate controlled space for woodworking.  When the addition is finished I will post some pics in my wannabe thread.
Don't hold your breath waiting for me to finish.  It is but one of the many projects going on around here.  smile_juggle
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

thechknhwk

Onewithwood, Can you run your bio diesel in colder weather?

OneWithWood

Yes, I run bio diesel most of the year.  I start blending with petro diesel when the temps fall below 35°F and run straight petro when the temps are consistently below 20°F.  During a 'normal' winter that means running straight petro d for a couple of weeks.
I put off road petro in my tractor, crawler and mini-excavator December thru February just to make sure there are no issues should the temps take a nose-dive and I need them to start.  The F-350 lives in a garage so I can risk the bio better in cold weather.
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

Ron57

  Hi Paul ,Thanks for sharing the video of the Threshers meetup these are always interesting. Those old machines got the job done!!

billschi

Thank you Paul for this post.
I spent my morning reading it instead of getting some work done. I was glad to see pics of Wayne Keith and Ron L. in here as well as the wood gas meet up. I was there the last 3 years and it's an amazing weekend. They are the best bunch of people a guy could meet. At last years meet up, Ron hooked up a turbo to his truck. It had some bugs to work out but it seem to take care of the loss of power.
Great strides have been made in the recent years with driving on wood from Wayne and others on the driveonwood.com site.
I built a mini Wayne Keith gasifier for my 15hp Sears riding lawnmower. I used it to process wood for the gasifier and generate electricity. Fun stuff.
I am curious if you still drive your truck and if so, what do you use to process your wood?
Bill S.

Paul_H

Hi Bill,

It's been ten years since I built my first gasifier and I still drive the truck.It's insured and is in the driveway with a new windshield and ready to go. I've started a second gasifier according to Ben Petersen's plans and really like the design with all the heat exchange and recycling. I am close to completion of the gasifier itself but still have another couple days cutting and welding. It will power a 35 HP tractor.

I still process the wood chunks with a hatchet and a tall chopping block and have many miles of driving stored up in burlap sacks under a shed roof.(I like to unwind after work by chopping) We own a saw shop in town and we cut 2" rounds in the test log and I bring them home for fuel and Magikmikey also has brought me a couple loads from his processor he built.
Mike also built me a cool charcoal grinder with a trommel that cleans and sorts the charcoal into 3 differend sizes for our charcoal tractor.

I might someday build a new gasifier for the truck but in the meantime it works just fine.I look in at DOW once in awhile and am glad there is finally a good woodgas forum for more normal everyday people to become builders builders.
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

billschi

Thanks for your response Paul.
Glad to hear the truck is still on the road. You say your truck is insured. Does that mean the insurance company knows it runs on wood gas? Some of the guys on DOW have had problems with insurance companies once they found out.
I would love to see what you are building for your tractor. I have a IH 340 Utility I want to run on wood. I will hook up my stationary unit to it soon to see how it does.
Here is the wood processor I made for my gasifiers.

https://youtu.be/K3T7QtbNYvk

mad murdock

That is one cool wood eating machine!! And powered by woodgas too, how cool is that!?
Turbosawmill M6 (now M8) Warrior Ultra liteweight, Granberg Alaskan III, lots of saws-gas powered and human powered :D

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