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Wood burning truck!

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

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timerover51

Ron, how much would it cost for you to build another unit like that?  Not including the truck.

Ron57

 Hi Timerover,
The cost of building a unit depends on how good of a forager you are. Part of the challenge is to build it for nothing but, that probably won't happen. I have between $500 - $700 in it. My biggest source of parts and material was from a local plumbing and heating business that let me scavage through the scrap they had from repair jobs they had done. So if you are a good welder and a good source it won't cost that much. Local scrap yards are paranoid about liability. They wouldn't let me have any scrap for my project. Hope this helps. Let me know if you start one. It will be interesting. Paul Halverson was a tremendous help when I built mine.
Thanks, Ron Lemler 8)

jpgreen

Is the problem with the pans cracking?  Cast iron is really pretty weak. Specially a pan as it would continually warp from heating and cooling, and it looses it's original strength to handle warpage with the center cut out.

If you could weld one up with heavy plate in an octagon shape and compound angles, it would never do that. Be a lot of work, but would probably last years.
-95 Wood-Mizer LT40HD 27 Hp Kawasaki water cooled engine-

ibbob

Hey Ron,

I've seen that rig on the road.  8) 

Say sumpin if you go back to the Apple fest or anything like that.  Sure would like to see it up close.
Bob

Ron57

 Hi Bob; I am planning on entering it in the Apple Fest again this year. My kids have a lot of fun there handing out candy and walking in the parade.
They have a hard time figuring out what catagory to enter the truck in one year it was in in with all the fire trucks,last year it was misc automotive. It was alot of fun
  We are from Bourbon not far from you, With gas almost $4 gal I have been driving it alot and making small deliveries of pallets and misc parts to local businesses.

timerover51

Quote from: Ron57 on April 23, 2011, 06:46:12 AM
Hi Timerover,
The cost of building a unit depends on how good of a forager you are. Part of the challenge is to build it for nothing but, that probably won't happen. I have between $500 - $700 in it. My biggest source of parts and material was from a local plumbing and heating business that let me scavage through the scrap they had from repair jobs they had done. So if you are a good welder and a good source it won't cost that much. Local scrap yards are paranoid about liability. They wouldn't let me have any scrap for my project. Hope this helps. Let me know if you start one. It will be interesting. Paul Halverson was a tremendous help when I built mine.
Thanks, Ron Lemler 8)

Ron, I am not a welder, or mechanic, I am a lot of things but not those.  I was wondering how much it would cost me to have you build one for me?  It would be nice to have something like that next year in the Solomons, or even for here is gas keeps going up.

JSNH

This is a really fun thread to follow. Wood gas is really for the extreme DIY person. I ran into a site that is pushing wood gas along and selling parts and units and has an active discussion board. I though some of us who has been watching this thread woud like to also check out it out: http://www.gekgasifier.com/

JSNH

twobears


i,am looking into building my own woodchip Gassification unit to boil maple syrup. i,ve done some research and some people seem to use this same idea to do it..has anybody here done it or tryed it??
one patent i looked at uses a unit like the men unit but skips the filters and pipes the gas into a firebrick lined steel box and lights/burns it there and there flairs it off into the furance.

delbert

Ron57

  Hi Forestry forum members; Mr Wayne Keith stopped in on his way to Michigan. Driving his wood burning truck , it is over 600 miles from his house to here he was burning wood all the way. He gave me a ride in his Dodge Dakota with the 318CID we were going the speed limit + that thing will move. I gave him a couple bags of Indiana hardwood chunks for on his way home.
  Indiana hardwoods are like Indiana Maple Syrup it is just better.
I posted a picture of Wayne and his truck in my photos.


Paul_H

A few years ago in this thread I posted some pics of a trip to customer/friends that we had milled,dried and planed a T&G floor for,out of Birch logs from their property.

Link to woodgas trip

I had bought the planer from an oldtimer and logger(Bob) in 2002 and he told me I had to move it off his property within the year.I never did move it and he told me he liked the activity so I was welcome to keep it there.
Just before we moved he asked if I could run a 1x8 floor for him so I obliged.
I left the planer with him in appreciation for keeping it on his land.

The video shows Bob and me running his floor.

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

Okrafarmer

Wood gas is becoming more mainstream. I have met a man here in South Carolina who has built a wood gas truck and a wood gas generator.

By the way, for those who would like to read something that included the use of wood gas burners in the WWII era, I read a book a while back called "China Changed My Mind"  I can't remember the author's name, but he was an English Conscientious Objector who joined the Quaker's ambulance service and was sent to China, and there he operated trucks over the Burma Road and other roadways there in that area, hauling medical supplies. He does not go into many technical details about how the wood gasification works, but it was a fascinating read about a little-known part of the second world war, and the hardships the truck drivers faced.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1

Operating a 2020 Woodmizer LT35 hydraulic for Upcountry Sawmill, Dacusville, SC

Now selling Logrite tools!

Writing fiction and nonfiction! Check my website.

OneWithWood

Thanks for the video, Paul.  Sometime in the near future I will be running some t&g for ceiling and wall paneling.  Unfortunately I will be running on a router table and probably not having near as much productivity.
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

bandmiller2

Guys I must read this thread from the beginning.Quickie question with a truck what do you do for A sticker emission test, I know in my anal state it would hit tilt. Frank C.
A man armed with common sense is packing a big piece

sawdust

I bet you could test it for NOX and get zero  8)
comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.

Paul_H

Quote from: bandmiller2 on March 20, 2012, 08:59:03 AM
Guys I must read this thread from the beginning.Quickie question with a truck what do you do for A sticker emission test, I know in my anal state it would hit tilt. Frank C.

Frank,

I copied this from Wiki on Woodgas

QuoteAgainst general belief, exhaust gas emission from an internal combustion engine is significantly lower on wood gas than on petrol.[6] Especially the HC emissions are low on wood gas.[7] A normal catalytic converter works well with wood gas, but even without it, emission levels less than 20 ppm HC and 0.2% CO can be easily achieved by most automobile engines. Combustion of wood gas generates no particulates, and the gas renders thus very little carbon black amongst motor oil.[8]

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

biker250

Well, I just read every post in this thread......my eyes are dry, but my brain is bulging with info and anxious to try this out for myself.  Ron, I live in southern Indiana, a good trip from your place, but neat to see other Hoosiers trying this out.

Paul, awesome work.  Thanks for sharing all the details.
Self-reliance is the only road to true freedom

Ron57

 Hi biker 250,  Indiana hardwoods make the best truck fuel I am biased of course.
  May 18,19-20 at the Marshall Co. fairgrounds in Argos IN there will be a meeting of woodgassers from around the Midwest. Wayne Keith from Alabama is coming, he holds the world woodgas speed record, and so far about 30 others are coming,most of which are driving a vehicle or bringing some sort of woodgas demonstration.
  Any one driving in on woodgas will be provided wood for fuel to drive home on, it will be an interesting meeting.
Paul you have been wanting to get your truck going again this will be a good opportunity!!

 

Paul_H

I won't make it Ron but please take a lot of pictures  8)
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

beenthere

Ron
Is the trailer loaded with your "fuel" for the trip?
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Okrafarmer

It's either that or he is smuggling some kind of contraband...
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1

Operating a 2020 Woodmizer LT35 hydraulic for Upcountry Sawmill, Dacusville, SC

Now selling Logrite tools!

Writing fiction and nonfiction! Check my website.

Mooseherder

Wayne Keith and his Wood burning trucks are featured in the newest issue (issue 251) of Mother Earth News.  He mentions having saved 40,000 dollars worth of gas by converting his trucks to wood gasification since 2004.

Okrafarmer

Quote from: Mooseherder on April 17, 2012, 10:22:41 PM
Wayne Keith and his Wood burning trucks are featured in the newest issue (issue 251) of Mother Earth News.  He mentions having saved 40,000 dollars worth of gas by converting his trucks to wood gasification since 2004.

But how many dollars of gas or electricity to cut all the wood? Maybe none if he did it by hand....
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1

Operating a 2020 Woodmizer LT35 hydraulic for Upcountry Sawmill, Dacusville, SC

Now selling Logrite tools!

Writing fiction and nonfiction! Check my website.

Al_Smith

The Mother Earth news thing ,way back .They used a Pontiac Tempest 6 cylinder engine with producer gas to run a generater .Captured the heat from the exhaust to heat water etc .

Typical Mother earth news stuff they didn't get into any details on how it pretty much turned the engine into junk in a short period of time or the fact it only produced at best 40 horse power if that much .Unlike Paul Harvey they often left out the entire or "rest of the story " .Eventualy because they were more interested in selling plans on the side most people as did myself got rather annoyed  reading 40 pages of ads and 10 pages of usefull information . They started out good but ended less than IMO .

Al_Smith

Another thing those wizards did was make a hybrid auto from a Chevy Chevette .Used a starter motor from I think a B29 ,a bunch of deep cell batteries and an Onan pancake 18 HP engine with a generater .

Sounds like a plan but the rest of that story .1974 Chevette at 2 grand ,about that much in batteries plus the Onan and just where does one find a starter motor from a B29 .It isn't like you can just trot off to the local junk yard and round one up .

Yeah so it got 60 MPG if that ,would at best run 65 MPH going down hill .You've got 7 grand in it plus a year to round up the parts and put it together .All along a '78 Chevette got 35-40 MPG and cost 4500 bucks and gas was 65 cents a gallon .

So just what did all that prove ,nothing in practicality other than something to do for those with time on their hands and a lot of money .

Paul_H

Quote from: Okrafarmer on April 18, 2012, 08:37:53 AM

But how many dollars of gas or electricity to cut all the wood? Maybe none if he did it by hand....

He uses a cutter built from a old rear axle out of a 5 ton truck powered by woodgas,of course.Works slick as snot.
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

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