Where do you get it when you deplete what you brought along ? I see that wayne has driven quite some distance from home what do you do ?
About 1000# wood. About 1000 miles. Individual mileage may vary. There is a thread somewhere that lists fuel suppliers. Maybe Chrisky can find it.
Hello Terry and welcome to the site ,
Wood gas vehicles work best when operated in a certain radius from home ( wood pile ) . Two or three hundred miles works out good. If I am planing 500 - 600 hundred mile trip I can through enough wood in the back of the truck to make the trip . I and others also have small trailers we can tow and haul more wood. If I know I’m coming back the same route I may leave the trailer mid way or leave some wood ( ground squirrel ) here and there. Many times I have ask at McDonald’s and leave wood behind their garbage area . If necessary DOW as far as you can and finish the trip on petrol.
I am out the door now to DOW.
You can also bring along a chainsaw and a spliting hatchet if you’re traveling in that sort of country.
We have laws here in Wisconsin and surrounding states that prohibit the transportation of “firewood” more than 50 miles from it’s point of origin onto state lands. Obviously state lands includes state highways. Wayne likes to use fertilizer bags. I laugh every time I see him. If it were me I’d be hassled all the time for obvious reasons. He used to use deer feed bags which is illegal here as well. On my latest setup I keep all of my sacks in the enclosed and locked area of my truck which is also living quarters when traveling. Get a search warrant. I throw a couple of sacks on the trailer at a time for reloading. I don’t go very far anyway. Regards, Mike
One could use animal feed/food bags, burlap sacks (coffee roasters, potato vendors, etc are good sources), or make your own fairly easy from sturdy cloth and a sewing machine.
I usually put my onion sacks inside a calf milk replacement bag to keep the chunks dry. Nobody pays mind to them. They generally have a wax paper lining in between the thick paper. It is against the law to openly burn any plastics in Wisconsin. Wayne’s plastic fertilizer bags would not be a good idea while crossing the George Washington Bridge into the Bronx in New York City but in most of the mid section of the country they are the perfect bags. ML
Mike I’m in Minnesota and we have the same laws but they do not cover processed wood ( scrap lumber) ect.
Hi Dave, Dimensional lumber is accepted everywhere but most of what I use is local downed branches and the such. I remember one time I was cutting up some elm and these weird looking wasps were laying eggs in some of the borer holes in my cut wood while I was working on it. I would assume their young ones would eat up the larvae that was in the hole. They didn’t stop me from chopping. I always kept a can of bug spray with me in case I ever got confronted and planned to tell the nice officer that all was kiln dried and then treated with insecticide. I never had to play that game as the general public has no clue about what we do. I have driven on wood in probably 20 states now. It’s fun. I’m tempted to list them but I’m off to bed … Mike
Oh, Hope I didn’t stray off topic too much. I usually pick up branches where ever I go and take my saws and long extension cord and make chunks where I camp or visit. My old truck has a nice inverter in it and runs the saws fairly well if I can’t borrow power from the natives. Mike
Dave: Here is Washington State, we have the opposite problem… Here one can’t “salvage” (without a Salvage Operator’s License) or burn “construction materials” which includes dimensional lumber, pallets, etc. Almost nobody cares/knows, but it is still something to worry about.
Why on earth is it illegal to transport firewood?
Magne, Around here they are trying to prevent the spread of the emerald ash borer. They were originally brought in on pallets on ships from China. Ash is a favorite wood for stakes and the such. There are none on my property anymore so I know I’m not carrying any. The ash trees at the Saint Louis Arch are starting to die from them and they are all the same species. Mike
Aha! Thanks.
mike,
i guess what is ‘not’ against the law up there would be a much shorter list !
carson
Hi All
I had this quoted back to me recently in an E-Mail from an english as a second language woodgas fellow:
“In Europe everything is Illeagal that is not specifically allowed. In America everthing is allowed that is not specifically Illeagal.”
Great laughing about this.
Then reflect the history of the USofA tried to force the total Prohibition on the manufacture, distribution and selling of all Alcohol. And now the same thing for my whole lifetime with that evil killer weed that causes people to run amok and go berserk. Good thing we are right on top of this stuff, eh, yeah!
It’s those Fer-rin-er’s that are permissive and tax greedy allowing all of this harmful, shameful stuff to continue on and on and on.
Ah. Don’t try crossing the US/Canadian border with wood on board unless you are really up to snuff on the Current status of our ongoing bugs and taxes cross border wood wars. You will get nailed one way or the other. Changes all of the time.
Best attutude is to know your laws and regulations better than the enforcers. THIS is how you gain that “common sense”. “The Smile” only works for the Wife. I have to be real, downright studious to ever be sneaky good. I can’t depend on luck. And just too damn old to be quick anymore.
Regards
Steve Unruh
For those that have not seen it before, this guy went round Australia cutting wood from beside the road as he went. http://www.angelfire.com/ak5/energy21/woodfire.htm Of course most of Australia is quite dry and dry dead wood is not hard to find beside most roads.
Hi Steve and Gary, The Australian couple’s site disappeared years ago and I’m glad you found the new site and posted it here. I will post on the other groups. Too bad we lost Rob Windt over there. Steve, I think there is another post on here from one of your locals. I cut a dead limb off of the huge maple in front of my trailer last weekend. It actually belongs to the State. I then piled the small branches on the gravel shoulder and had a nice bon fire and sat in my chair and watched it. Lots of waves from the folks going by as they know the rest was going to run the truck. I got up this morning and could walk and also breathe again. I figure a blood clot or a chicken pox scab was stuck in my left lung for the last month and a half. Damn shingles. Hope it lasts and I don’t get messed up again … Mike
What happened to the “Naked Mechanic” Rob?
TJ
Terry, He died from cancer. He was a bit younger than us. He had a blog and his daughter made some posts there. Mike