Have wood will travel

[Norman89]

What will you do when the gas is to high priced? I have been working on this project for over six months converting my 1983 Toyota pickup with a small block Chevy V8 conversion into a alternative fuel truck. The title of the thread is the name of the book written by Wayne Keith from Springville Alabama, who started playing with woodgas some 20 years ago when his limit was reached when gasoline hit 1.80$/gallon. The book details the design and complete construction of the WK gassifier wich I have replicated in my truck. Many years ago I built this truck as a go fast look at me burn tires fun machine with the help of @recovery and his son Danny. Now with rising inflation and gas prices at crazy prices I have made it possible to once again affordably drive my little rat rod truck, now dubbed the Chevotafire. It runs purely on wood, with the gasoline carburetor as a backup. Over 200hrs of fabrication and still some more to do but this last Friday I brought it home from the shop and fired off the system for the first time. Very pleased to say it wasn't a pulling your leg on the internet result, it runs on WOODGAS! For those that don't know woodgas isn't a new thing it is WW2 technology when all the fuel was being shipped to the front lines for the war effort people in small villages had to find a way to power there cars and trucks to get around. The technology pretty much stalled out when the war ended and fuel came back, but has had a resurgence with people seeking more independence around the globe. The driveonwood.com forum is where all this can be seen, a true world over group of woodgassers I joined to ask all the dumb questions of a new guy getting into a new project that no one locally knows anything about or has done. At this time there are only 2 functional driving woodgas trucks in Washington state and I made number 3. In a world of uncertain times when the gas runs out or is unattainable due to cost, what would you do? My motorcycle gets great milage, but it can't haul much. This truck still has five feet of usable bed space and can haul a small trailer. Lots more bugs to work out and learning to drive it, but I view this as another preparation in place when shtf. A way to move about not requiring the infrastructure that seems to be crumbling around us. Thanks for reading here are a few short videos of the truck running on WOODGAS!
https://youtube.com/shorts/JDsz3jm2oI0?feature=share

[JJB11B]

That’s pretty cool, I’ve heard of gassifier mods, even saw a guy in North Carolina build one on the history channels show “Mountain Men” that’s pretty awesome!

[Special T]

Very cool!
One of the things I read was that wood gas significantly increased the wear on engines. What mitigation can/is done, and what driving conditions are best for woodgas?

[Norman89]

Eustace on mtn.men built one yes his was a modified FEMA design which is a very simple system but requires very dry hardwood to operate but is know to run cold and produce a tar like substance that will gum the motor up and cause some failures. This design on my truck started as a fema and had design features of a imbert added to it. The imbert was the one build overseas during the war and both had drawbacks for longevity, which is my goal here. Wayne himself that authored the book has logged more miles on woodgass then anyone know, over 300,000 miles at this point. One of the members of the driveonwood forum is at this moment setting a Guinness book of world records traveling coast to coast in a wood gas powered V8 Dodge Dakota pickup he left Alabama I think 7 days ago and hit the Oregon coast yesterday morning and will be driving over to Minnesota before heading back home to set the record for the world's longest wood gas powered road trip

[Norman89]

Very cool!
One of the things I read was that wood gas significantly increased the wear on engines. What mitigation can/is done, and what driving conditions are best for woodgas?

A lot of people say it will deteriorate the engine much faster than gasoline but the only adverse effect that anybody on the forum has found so far is on long trips it's not uncommon for a little bit of soot to make it up to the engine and can clog a carburetor for gasoline use and potentially can make it past the rings and make the oil a little bit too thick most guys with wood gas trucks are changing their oil every 2,000 miles other than that if the system is running properly and not producing any tar there are trucks that have gone over 100,000 miles so far problem free. It is much like running a propane fuel

[Norman89]

Yesterday was the first ever west coast woodgas meet up couple pictures of the three trucks there mine wasn't ready yet
White 460 automatic ford f250 owned by Mike Gibb of Kent, black 318 automatic dodge Dakota owned by Bob Mac of east Wenatchee, and the orange 318 automatic Dakota owned by Jakob North of Alabama and yes he drove it on wood power all the way from Alabama. He is currently attempting the longest woodgas road trip that we know of and will be over 9000 miles by the time he gets back home. And he is 17 years old and built the truck himself. His family owns several woodgas powered trucks and he and his dad built them all

[Norman89]

This is jakobs truck at his first stop in Washington to meet a few people for lunch

[Norman89]

Little test drive in the wood burner today

[Zardoz]

Very Nice work...

[Norman89]

Little video from this morning and cleaning condensation out of the system

[Norman89]

https://youtube.com/shorts/TU1ACQJue7s?feature=share
Coming home last night

Video from my drive in this morning, milage is getting better the more I drive it

[Norman89]

Video walk around of the truck and how the system works for the curious. WARNING 32 MINUTE VIDEO

[Norman89]

Y'all hope in and let's take a joy ride out through enumclaw on a beautiful winter day, a joy ride with no FUEL COST!

Checking over the temperatures after a drive in to work, you can see it's very safe to be around and makes a nice radiant shop heater when I pull in in the morning 

[lokidog]

This is really cool!

[Norman89]

I tell you it's a lot more fun to drive when you know you don't have to stop at a gas station ever unless your thirsty

[Norman89]

I failed to mention in the video there is about 400lbs of lumber mounded in the bed, the heaviest load I have put on the truck yet

[Norman89]

Seemed to blend right in today, out running errands in bonney lake and no one questioned the little bit of steam escaping the hopper while it was sitting in the parking lot. Had a Tesla and Prius driving around the parking lot, no clue I was running greener then they ever could be

Sent from my moto e6 using Tapatalk

[Norman89]

Spent the last 2 weeks in my spare time building a wood chunking machine to produce fuel for the gassifier truck, here was my test run of it yesterday, had a big run with it today

It's very dangerous and definitely not OSHA approved but makes fuel for the wood powered truck very quickly. It will end up with some safety guards soon as I have the time and material to build them. Did a full build series on my YouTube channel 8 videos if you want to know how I built it

[Norman89]

Time to clean the dirtiest carb you have ever seen truck is running awesome, but it was past time for some maintenance

[pianoman9701]

That's pretty neat! Good job, Norman. 

[Norman89]

Working on a clean out video right now, I'm black with soot from head to toe 😂

[NRA4LIFE]

That wood chunker is uber cool!

[Norman89]

That wood chunker is uber cool!

And wicked dangerous haha but it's a lot of fun to run it, seeing wood get sheared in half faster then any saw could cut it

[GWP]

You really don’t know what ‘covered with soot’ means until you crawl into a firebox and ‘punch the tubes’ on a large boiler. Did that when I was younger.
Fun vids!

[Norman89]

Cleaning out the hay filter and inspecting the drop box

[Norman89]

Finally did a light up and drive video, but y’all feel free to enjoy the ride after. Turned into a 43 minute video so I put “movie” in the title

[Norman89]

https://youtube.com/shorts/k7UW9aV8vuU?feature=share
https://youtube.com/shorts/Tx0x5n6GiAY?feature=share
https://youtube.com/shorts/QjyeaGnpA-E?feature=share

Couple more videos of the truck running on wood

[Norman89]

Is my crazy contraption looking a little less crazy now?Lots of people doing small land clearing, starting gardens. Any piece of brush can be chunked and run a engine! Ya I use kiln dried lumber but just cause that's what I get for free. And I'm only getting wood from one of my yards, I have 5 other yards throwing away all these same pallets and paying to get rid of them. Free fuel, if nothing else free firewood with a little processing. But from my numbers a chord of firewood would fuel my truck just over 5000 miles, vs heat my house for 2 months. Free wood on craigslist and OfferUp everyday.... If you play with diesels, used oil has lots of uses as fuel, biodiesel. Or a older 12 valve or 7.3 with good fuel filters you can strain the oil and run it 50/50 with regular diesel. Legalities aside, it's free fuel. Russia Iran and Saudi Arabia wouldn't like it but to hell with them, if the goobermint won't make the country energy independent I'll make myself energy independent. Building a V10 dodge gassifier right now for my heavy hauling needs, and after that I plan to pickup at least a 25kw generator older one with a gasoline motor and woodgas it for off grid needs or when I need to run welders and compressors and the solar system can't keep up

[Norman89]

y'all hop in I'll show you how easy it is to drive on woodgas

[Norman89]

Here I show a no gasoline startup, straight woodgas. Feels good not buying that 4.60$/gallon junk

[Norman89]

Here is a video on how I refuel the truck, you know without that pesky 5.60$/gallon stuff 

[brew]

That's pretty cool...wondering about why you needed a GPS in Orting but figured it was used as a speedometer ?

[Norman89]

That's pretty cool...wondering about why you needed a GPS in Orting but figured it was used as a speedometer ?

Yep, I swapped the transmission in this truck to a later series that used a electric signal for speedo, so I just use my GPS as the speedometer and trip meter so I can see how good my mileage is. Last tank was 1624 miles on 10.5 gallons. I'll let you do the math

[Zardoz]

Here is a video on how I refuel the truck, you know without that pesky 5.60$/gallon stuff 

Excellent. Thanks for posting the vid.       

[Norman89]

Finally finished my v10 build and took it on a good test drive, 90 miles to set a beaver trap line all on woodgas power

[Zardoz]

Excellent. 

[highside74]

What the heck? Never heard of such a thing. Nice job.

[Norman89]

That's funny, I should have driven the toyota when we met at barney's when I sold you that pistol ammo. I think I drove the wifes car for some reason. Diesel shortage talk, pipeline this, strategic reserves that. I'll still have a way to work and get out in the woods, whether there is fuel at the pump or not

[highside74]

That's funny, I should have driven the toyota when we met at barney's when I sold you that pistol ammo. I think I drove the wifes car for some reason. Diesel shortage talk, pipeline this, strategic reserves that. I'll still have a way to work and get out in the woods, whether there is fuel at the pump or not

Nope you came to my place and took the dead yotes

[Norman89]

Oh that's right, think I was in my green dodge. I'm looking forward to driving my v10 east side to do some coyote hunting with no gasoline bill involved

[Zardoz]

What the heck? Never heard of such a thing. Nice job.

Technology developed/perfected during WW2. Cool stuff.