I work a little, in my free time, to gasify my new pickup toyota.
J 'hope to finish this project for the next spring. I would open a new page as soon as I have some developments and photos
Thierry
PS.Enjoy your stay in Argos, Jan and Kristijan.
5 Likes
I sort of agree with TomC, there’s not enough DOW on DOW these days. So, I turned the camera on going in to town today.
Apart from having trouble keeping the hopper juice liquid enough to empty it, the gasifier seems handle the -15C just fine.
No snow yet but the cold did a good job squeezing the moisture outof the air. Looks like it all ended up in the trees.
11 Likes
Thanks for the ride JO !
4 Likes
Hi JO, even if you didn’t speak one word, it was a beautiful drive with you this morning. Thanks for sharing it with us.
I notice the large piles of trees along the side of the road. There is so much growth that has to be cut down. Is it just cut down for fire wood?
Bob
2 Likes
The only draw back to those VFD is they will not go to zero volts. They require an on-off switch.
3 Likes
Sawlogs and pulpwood are probably already collected. The thin stuff will stay put until needed during winter for chips in local district heating facilities. It’s mostly spruce and pine.
Most people prefere species with leaves on for firewood.
Southern Europe protects a great deal of their forests for enviromental reasons. Different approach up here. We like to think we can keep both enviroment and economy happy.
2/3 of our country are forests. We’ve pushed forestry pretty hard for a long time and still the volume of growing trees doubled in 100 years. Forestry (and steel) has been the fundation of our economy for hundreds of years and if only EU allows us to continue doing it our way it will stay that way in the future.
7 Likes
We had a storm passing the other day and there are a lot of trees down.
I have more than enough firewood hauled home already waiting for spring to be cut and split. But with not much snow in the woods I decided to go for a workout anyway.
With the plowing equipment attached to the Fergie and the small trailer stored away for winter the Mazda got to do the work all by itself. Since fuel is free I don’t mind DOW four trips instead of one 
One load was limbs and I get to run the rebak too. All in all a good day.
Below is a hollow aspen knocked down by the storm.
15 Likes
Gives new meaning to, "make hay while the sun shines!
4 Likes
Pepe, our saying translates something like “forge while the iron is hot”.
3 Likes
Sluggish performance lately. Hard time reaching 50 mph without hybriding. I’ve flushed pipes, hayfilter, cleaned out ash from the grateless dump area and burned the intake over and over again. Also the guages responded sluggishly and even running the airmixing valve almost closed I wasn’t able to reach the vacuum I’m used to.
The other day I had a smoky starttup. I shut the blower down and jumped down from the bed to crank up. That’s when I saw smoke coming from behind the cab, right where the twin pipes connect with rubbers down through the bed. The rubbers where old and crispy when I installed them. Now they are even older and crispier
Made new connections. What a difference. I can peg the guage again and the mixing valve is more sensetive than ever.
13 Likes
Hello JO .
Yes , Many times fixing a problem can be simple and easy . Finding the problem can be a PIA
11 Likes
Several times I have found pin hole leaks in my rusting system at a hot shutdown with valves closed and
Say is that smoke?
10 Likes
Hi JO, yup with old hoses cracking slowly it probably didn’t happen over night. As the cracks got bigger that added air making for weak vaccum and weak wood gas and the performance droped off. With my truck it was one little leak at a time developing not very noticeable, it was a slow process in the making. Glad you found them and it was only 2 rubber connections, replace them and it is fixed.
Thanks for sharing this. I hope it will help others that have a similar problems.
Bob
8 Likes
Thanks guys,
I remember when attending the Swedish woodgas meetup, 83 year old Ivar stressed over and over again the 3 major reasons for a gasified vehicle not running right - LEAKS, LEAKS and LEAKS
9 Likes
With days off and the truck running as it should again, I’m looking for reasons to DOW. So, I brought the dogs for a ride to check out the lumber I milled this fall.
11 Likes
Great ride. Makes me want to get out in the bush…
Looks like the dogs had a great time.
My brother has a Scottish terrier much like yours, I think he wants help getting in vehicles too. 
4 Likes
Yes, “LEAKS, LEAKS and LEAKS.” Would someone please comment on the relative merits of using smoke versus soapy liquid and any other tips for checking this biggest problem.
6 Likes
From my bicycle days I’ve always used soapy water and never had a reason to change.
If you’re out of matches in a situation, you can always spit or p.
3 Likes
With my wood gasifier I can cap the wood gas line before it inters the motor , cap off at the heat exchager ( if this conection is high enough it will not need to be caped ) also cap off where the starter blowers are connected . Pipe water in to the top of the hay filter and let the system fill with water . Let the system flood with water except the heatX and the gasifier . Any leaks should show up .
The easiest way I have found to detect air leaks is light a fire above the charcoal in raw wood . ( this will cause lots of smoke ) Reverse and forward the air until plenty of heavy smoke is in the system . Cap the fuel hopper and continue reversing and forwarding the air direction . Leaks should show up .
9 Likes
Hi Bruce, because my 92 Dakota truck gasifier was built in 2012 most of the original metal parts built by Wayne have been replaced by Chris S. Or myself. The Cooling Rail Trees that Chris S. built connect the cool rails together have been developing leaks. And the other leak areas are rubber coupling connections leaking. The easiest way to find leaks for me is after getting the gasifier started and before it gets up to running temperature shut the suction blower off and look all over your gasifier for leaks. Also after running your gasifier after it has warm up to running temperature shut it down and start looking for leaks, there is a positive pressure inside the gasifier when it is down. Not a lot so you have to look carefully. Most of my leaks are found at the starting up of the gasifier when it is cold. If I think there is a leak I can verify it with some soapy water.
If you want more positive pressure to check for leaks just turn your intake pusher blower on if you have one. Put some soapy water on the spot that you think there is a leak, it will make bubbles at the leaking spot.
I think it was @gasman Max that suggested to turn your pusher blower on with the gasifier cold, do not light it up, leaving the gasifier cold the leaks will be more prevalent. Putting soapy water on all the piping and gasifier just give it a good old hot soapy wash cleaning it up it probably needs it anyways. If there are leaks they will show up bubbling out the leaking spot.
In the hot summer time when all the connections are expanded your leaks might disappear, but when it gets cold the connections might start to leak again. Cold weather is a great time to tighten things up. I have found lots of loose fittings at this time of the year. Heat cold, heat cold a never ending battle on connecting parts and connections.
Bob
6 Likes