John Stout's woodgas Rat Rod build

[woodrat]

It an air bed. An off the shelf gasbag.

[abnervalbuena]

Hi John, that´s realy cool. I have a question: what tipe of valve did you use? Is it a check valve? Can you give details of the valve and where did you located it? THANKS

[woodrat]

Hi, Abner.
The valve is not a check valve. As you can see in the schematic drawing, there is a “thing” on top of the cab. That thing is a Kirby vacuum sweeper motor+vacuum pump, labeled “K”. In this photo you can see the actual kirby with the valve attached. The valve is a “blade valve” often used in swimming pool plumbing. The valve handle will pass through the cab roof into the cockpit. Abner, this is a build project, and I am stepping into places new for me. However, I am hoping to know within a month of good weather how this gasbag works. Stay tuned.
Are you running a woodgas vehicle? Or planning?

[TomC]

Ahh! A good old Kirby. Love them. I was afraid of the plastic in the valve you used so I spent a lot of time lapping in a slide valve. I see now I wasted a lot of time Youes works better. What are you going to use for electricity for the Kirby. I have a 25 ft elect cord real for when I am at home. I have a HF 800 generator when I’m away. I think in retrospect an inverter would have been better, but it takes a lot of cranking to get the engine running on wood. TomC

[woodrat]

Hey, Tom. I have a Kirby under the hood, well I guess there’s no hood on the hotrod. I have a Kirby that I use for starting and I’ve been using The same one on all my previous builds. And yes I do use an inverter. I find it works very well and it is very reliable. I generally run two batteries which seems to provide plenty of stamina for getting the fire going. Also I have been able to run the engine on gasoline to power up the inverter while idling in the morning.
This woodrat Rod build will not have a gasoline tank. Same as my first build in the Mitsubishi pick up, I took the gasoline tank out of that one too. I love Kirbys! Of course, in this application I will only be running one Kirby at a time. As I mentioned I put a dimmer switch on the Kirby so when the inverter starts to whistle I can turn down the amps. The Kirby keeps running at a little slower speed and it works fine.
I have carried a small generator along for security in the past, but two batteries with the inverter is more elegant.
Hopefully, if my untested cooling system works, the valve will hold up. I have used other plastic valves very successfuly in the past. I belive Mike LaRosa uses these blade valves as well.

[abnervalbuena]

Hello John, thanks for answering; …this the thing: when I saw your gas bag project I inmediatly took back my project of building an Al Frick´s tipe of gasifier (portable), by that meaning makeing it portable, that will give me the chance of using it in our ceramic and fruit concentrate artesanial shop we have in the farm. At the same time it would work as the gasifier for a 1978 CJ-10 Jeep 4x4 truck to witch I adapted a Cherokee 2010 motor. At the moment I´m in the city of Valencia (Venezuela, South America) where I work as a Phisician MD In a Hiperbaric Oxigen treatment unit, but next weekI´ll be back in my farm in Mérida and I´ll take pictures of what I´ve been gadering in junk yards for my project. Your gas bag desgine will solve the problem of starting the ovens of both shops and I can also use it in a trailer on my 1995 Bronco. Those are the reasons for me being interested in your projects; It´ll be a hybrid between Al Frick´s portable and yourg Gas Bag system. Forgive my English grammar errors, alldo I speak it very well, I´ve lost lots of my grammar. Have a nice day.

[r_wesseling]

Hey no fair! John stole my idea!!! LOL I was going to make something or parades, county fair and things like that. But I don’t have a place to store it out of sight, and I live in a semi nice neighborhood. So my stuff just can’t look that gnarly. But Longmont, Colo has a yearly ‘cruisin night’. ALL the local rods come out, even a willies jeep. The whole town stinks like back in the 1970s. I can still go to that.

[MikeR]

Funny, If you had a Rat Rod with a famous hot rod builder label on it, And you could boast how much you paid for it, and what it will be worth someday, and it had “patina” instead of rust, you could park it in your front yard! (with an armed guard)!

[woodrat]

hey, thanks for the holler! although it doesn’t seem like it I am still a wood gasser! And I’ve got my 46 Chevy wood rat licensed and insured and ready for spring. I will post a new pick if I can figure out how…

[woodrat]

[don_mannes]

Fancy tail lights for a '46 Chev.
I can’t determine from the pics what engine and tranny is in there. I don’t see a shifter anywhere in the cab - on the floor or 3 on a tree.
Looks like a fun ride!

[woodrat]

Right, Don. It’s sitting on a Mitsubishi frame and when I realized I had to get a license plate I got the brilliant idea to put the Mitsubishi tailgate on the frame and stick the license plate on that. Seems perfectly legal to me. The engine 350 Chevy has an automatic transmission. Shifters on the floor all the way forward in park.

[r_wesseling]

Lookin pretty snazy there John. I want to see you take a knee in front of that fine machine. Pompadour, Brillo … the whole bit. Your soooooo cool man.
Rindert

[r_wesseling]

park it in your front yard! (with an armed guard)!

Well… Yer a bad lookin dude there Mike. You want the job?
Rindert

[MikeR]

Designing the Rat Rod? Sure! Armed Guard? No, Thanks for your confidence!

[BillSchiller]

Glad to see you’re still with us John!
That truck shows you are an innovator and an artist.
I love the truck.

[Carl]

A thing (truck) of beauty, is a joy forever! Love it!

[Bobmac]

WOW John , sorry about the mishap, glad you Didn’t get hurt. Everything can be replaced and fixed. But we can’t replace you. You are truly one of a kind guy. You have the only true from the start Rat Rod Build. May be it was good the wood pile stop the Rat Rod Truck before it rolled over or had a bigger crash. I know you will have it fix up soon, better than Rat Rod New.
Bob

[woodrat]

Thanks Bob. I’m actually all excited about fixing it up. My wife thinks I’m nuts.

[woodrat]

It was rather amazing when it happened, when I replay the plowing in my mind. There was no sound, but firewood was flying right and left. I was certain of going right over the edge, into the pit. But then silently, glacially, the flow of wood and woodgasser ground to a teetering hault. And I turned off the key and shut all the valves, not quite realizing what had happened.

Reminds me of one day years ago, I was creeping slowly through an intersection in a big 24 foot yellow Ryder van. I looked down to see a collector car (fifties something) slowly plowing into the broad underside of my truck. The driver of the car got out, unharmed, and exclaimed, "I just KNEW that if I took her out this morning someone would crash into me!