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Wood burning truck!

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

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Ron57

 So far the farthest has been 50-60 miles, but a sawmill in Grayling MI said if we come up they will give us wood to get back. Grayling is about 350mi or 500lbs of wood. I am kind of chicken but dont see any reason it wouldnt make it.

SwampDonkey

Quote from: Ron57 on April 12, 2011, 06:07:48 AM
a sawmill in Grayling MI said if we come up they will give us wood to get back. Grayling is about 350mi or 500lbs of wood.

:D :D 8)
"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)))

jpgreen

Quote from: Ron57 on April 12, 2011, 06:07:48 AM
So far the farthest has been 50-60 miles, but a sawmill in Grayling MI said if we come up they will give us wood to get back. Grayling is about 350mi or 500lbs of wood. I am kind of chicken but dont see any reason it wouldnt make it.

Ron- I may have missed it as I haven't been around here that much these last few years.  Is your truck shown somewhere here?

I finally got around to designing a wood chunk/block processing saw for wood gassers.

You can easily process 300-500 and more blocks per minute depending on the block size you need, density of wood species, from small diameter logs, branches, and specially mill ends, or sticker like milled logs at the thickness you desire.

It is fully adjustable for chunk size.  Runs on 110-220v or can be gas or hydraulic powered. Simple engineering and no specialized parts. Heavy duty and user serviceable.

Very easy and safe to use. Even a petite young lady could operate it.

This is what I do for a living, so it's not something I'm posting for the public good, but would be a product for sale.  I'm trying to determine how much of a potential market there may be for it.
-95 Wood-Mizer LT40HD 27 Hp Kawasaki water cooled engine-

beenthere

jp
Have you built it, or just designed it?

Any pics or video of it chunking wood?
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Ron57

  Hi J.P.; There are some photos in my photo gallery, I cant figure out how to bring them up to my posts. Does your chunker work like a block cutter for pallets? Right now we produce enough fuel just fron our cut offs that are the right size.Do you have any photos of your block producer.

Jeff

If you come up to grayling on 127, you come right by my house. My property line is not but 50 feet from the X-way fence.
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

jpgreen

I don't know how a block pallet cutter works.

No I don't have it finished yet to post a video or pics, and I won't be until I make an arrangement with someone to fabricate it for sale to the public, and I will patent it.

I do tool and die manufacturing now, and I don't do manufacturing with welding or fabricating any more.  Found an easier cleaner way to make a living, specially for a guy approaching his mid 50's ... :D

It all hinges on the size of the Market. It would definitely sell for under $4000 retail. Probably closer to between $2000 and $3000, electric powered.

The only thing I have seen that would process fuel faster is the Laimet chipper. It will out produce anything else I've seen and safely. That is a huge issue for me. I would not build one, unless it was totally safe.

If there's no market numbers for it, I'll just show it and let home users have at it. Someone with basic sound fabrication skills could build it.
-95 Wood-Mizer LT40HD 27 Hp Kawasaki water cooled engine-

Ron57

  Hi Jeff we go right by your house every year. We go up to Grayling to camp to get away from the crowd down here. When I was in the National Guard we went there everyother year to train in the summer.but that has been about 30 years ago.
   There are a lot of sawmills in that area. AJD supplies our palletmill with a lot of aspen, they are good people to work with and pretty good quality lumber.
   Do you have a woodgas producer?

Jeff

AJD was probably our biggest competitor for aspen logs when I worked at the mill here in Harrison.
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

timerover51

Ron57, did you make that wood gas producer off of some plans or did you design it yourself?  That seems like it would be a pretty viable alternate to normal petroleum fuels in some more remote areas of the world, like the Solomon Islands where I hope to be next summer.  I am thinking of taking out a small steam launch to use for running around in the islands, powered by wood and water.  They are never going to run out of wood there.  That wood gas powered pickup would work nicely out on some of the islands too.

Ron57

   Hi Timerover; The Mother Earth News magazine sells plans for 15$. I dont know if these are the best designs but they seem to work well enough. I have made a few changes to make it easier to service and adjust.

Paul_H


Here are a couple pics of Ron's pretty little woodgas truck.






Ron,

I hope you take the truck to Grayling.Stop in and see Jeff on the way by and he might even have some wood chunks for you. :)
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

Ron57

  Hi Paul, thanks for posting the pics I have loaded some new ones into my photo gallery but cant figure out how to bring them up to the forum, I tried 5X it says they have been copied but I dont know where they went.
   So are you thinking of firing up your truck? There was an older gentleman from Tenn who was building a MEN gasifier and had some hard questions I told him he could contact you through Forestry Forum last year. I dont know if he ever got it running right . He finally found part of the problem he used galvanized pipe for the preheat tubes and when he welded it the galvanizing fell down and plugged most of the tubes.

timerover51

Thanks for the picture post, Paul.  That looks like it is a very straightforward and compact setup.

Ron, how hard was it to set up the engine to run on the produced gas.  I know that in World War 2, there was a lot of wood-burning trucks used in Europe, and I have seen mixed reviews on the experience.

With respect to fuel, does it make a difference if you use green verses seasoned wood?  And have you tried running it on charcoal?  I cannot see doing that on a regular basis here, unless you make your own, but I will be doing a fair amount in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific next year, and they have an unlimited supply of tropical hardwoods.  Something like your pickup would be a nice thing to have there.  It would be interesting to see if that could be adapted to run a internal combustion engine on a boat or landing craft as well.

Jeff

I would suggest reading this entire thread. Paul takes you from the beginning of his project to video's driving around within it's content.
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

timerover51

Quote from: Jeff on April 13, 2011, 05:28:37 PM
I would suggest reading this entire thread. Paul takes you from the beginning of his project to video's driving around within it's content.

Okay, Jeff, will do later tonight.

timerover51

I have gone through the entire thread, and found it most interesting.  One thing I would say it that someone, with Paul's permission, should compile all of his comments, pictures, and drawings, and put them into a handbook format for others to use in building wood gas units.  I suspect that if might sell pretty well.

Second, that a pickup truck appears to be the ideal vehicle to mount the unit on, having plenty of space for it, while retaining a fair amount of capacity, and keeping it out of harms way in minor fender bender type accidents.

Third, am I correct in saying that it will work only with a vehicle with a carburetor and not with a vehicle with fuel injectors?  If that is the case, it looks like you would need either an older vehicle, or some way of converting the engine from fuel injection to a carburetor.  If I am wrong, please correct me.

Lastly, is there any difference in performance when burning a soft wood such as pine or a hard wood such as oak?

pineywoods

timeover51, try this link. http://victorygasworks.ning.com/ It's another forum devoted entirely to woodgas generators. On the question of carburator vs fuel injected, remember woodgas is not a liquid, it's usually just mixed with the proper amount of air and squirted right into the air intake. Probably would take some backyard engineering to run an injected motor. Most of my research (no experience) says softwoods generate a lot more tar and creosote. I am in the process of building a small gasifier just to get some experience. IF it works ok, may hook it up to an old gas massey ferguson tractor or a 1930 model A ford pickup.
1995 Wood Mizer LT 40, Liquid cooled kawasaki,homebuilt hydraulics. Homebuilt solar dry kiln.  Woodmaster 718 planner, Kubota M4700 with homemade forks and winch, stihl  028, 029, Ms390
100k bd ft club.Charter member of The Grumpy old Men

beenthere

south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Ron57

   Hi Forestry Forum, I have built 3 hearths and grates using the frying pans they work good but only last about 1500 miles.Last year I discussed with Paul briefly how to build a better one and he suggested making one with a deeper reduction, so I put this together to drop through the top frying pan.I made it 6" wide inside and 5" deep, hopefully this will help get a more complete reduction and 0-6o in 6 seconds lol
  Thanks Ron L

Ron57


Ron57

 sorry I accide >:(tly deleated my photo album I cant believe it :(

timerover51

Ron, that is not a good thing, although I have done a few things like it.

Ron57

 








The first photo is of the origional MEN hearth with about 1500 mi,
The second is the grate end of the hearth
Third is the restriction end of thehearth

Ron57

 




   Top photo is the Gasifier, dry filter and coolers
   Bottom is a load of boxes headed to South Bend IN about a 75 mi round trip. The truck ran good!!!

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