Greetings everyone. I am very new to the whole concept of “woodgas”, The concept seems simple enough and I am very stoked about the Idea of next to free fuel I have an old school bus that I would like to convert into a woodgas burning home on wheels. It originally had a 292 six cylinder but has been swapped out for a 350 V8. I need some pointers and or ideas on the best way to go about this.
Should I build a partitioned off insulated and tin lined firewall / room for the woodgas unit? … if so, how large should the unit be to allow me to produce enough gas to adequately run the 350 motor for extended periods of time.
Can I build it in such a fashion that I could use larger blocks of wood?
Could it also be set up to run my propane camper stove also?
Any thoughts … pointers or comments would be appreciated thanks
If your going to be turning a housebus into a wood gas fueled rig you want the everything woodgas OUTSIDE…carbon monoxide takes no prisoners.
Here in New Zealand back in the 70’s&80’s there were a fair few housebus and house trucks on the road and a number of the harder-core Hippys amongst them had woodgas powered ones so it can and has been done before.
as for your ‘camper stove’ it wouldn’t be able to be run on woodgas due to the gasifier not being able to put out the miniscule amout of gas needed and stay gasifing cleanly…there is only so far you can turn them down without problems.
a small wood cook stove would be a better idea for cooking and it heats as well
BTW i’m currently building a 28’ housetruck…altho my one is diesel
Safety dictates that NO WOODGAS can ever be inside a vehicle. No pipes, hoses, certainly not a gasifier. So you would need a firewall between you and it, and very good ventilation or remove the roof over the gasifier. Check out John Stout’s build: http://driveonwood.com/blogs/john-stout/prehistoric-van
The size of the schoolbus means that it will be pretty slow. 0-60 time is usually half what you get on gasoline. However I can’t imagine its too peppy on gasoline either. Any idea on the curb weight? RPMs at 60 MPH?
You can certainly cook on a gasifier. Open the lid, lay down a wire rack and you have a rather wild barbecue grill. Smoke piped from the hopper can be used for hot or cold meat smoking, provided you’re burning hardwoods and not trash. Also the unit itself gets hot enough to cook on in certain spots, you could easily build the gasifier with an eye to cooking on it.
Woodgas itself won’t work in a propane burner without modifications. But right out of the pipe it’s ready to burn. Many folks like to flare the gas to test its quality. Just put your pot over the flame. A small bilge blower will supply plenty of gas. Keith units will not make tar running on the blowers. You can build a simple stove like this. This must be done outside! Woodgas is poisonous!
If you’re building a Keith gasifier we’d be glad to help you size the unit and the fuel properly. You’ll want to get the Premium membership first so we can show you what’s inside. You can contact me for details here: http://driveonwood.com/contact
I have an old school bus that I would like to convert into a woodgas burning home on wheels. It originally had a 292 six cylinder but has been swapped out for a 350 V8. I need some pointers and or ideas on the best way to go about this.