If I wanted to make this for charcoal I would use the propane tank as the bottom, with little to no reduction and just cold ambient air intake without bothering to preheat it.
I’m still interested in the Mako designs, and I could benefit from that in something like the Sierra maybe. I would be more comfortable with a Mako once I can get my hands on thicker material or get good at working stainless steel.
Tomorrow I am going to have another try at looking for PVC adapters to go from 1.5" to 3/4". Per Kristijans advice to use an even smaller valve for air adjustment. I’m also looking to use a different valve because I cannot find a lever to attach to my 1.5" butterfly valve, and I’m lazy and don’t want to make one from scratch. I’ve already got a few good brass bodied 3/4" ball valves that I can attach a choke lever to.
Maybe once I size down enough it’ll get more demand to the reactor.
I’ve also thought of a decent way to secure the barrel into the bed. I originally thought to use plumbers tape and turnbuckles but I’m worried of the tape breaking from stress. So I have the bolt tightened barrel lid rings that fit nicely on the ribs of a drum, and I despise these hoops so much I never use them except for long term storage.
I’m thinking of welding some D rings to a hoop, and holding the barrel down with turnbuckles.
The turnbuckles would give a good stiff arm to hold the barrel in place. I have a few anchor loops in the bed I can attach them to.
I also am going to cut out some pieces of my aluminum diamond plate to keep the reactor from melting my bed liner 
already got one little spot from where the end of the flute was touching my tailgate cover.
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Here’s the reducer. I figured to give it a good length to make the engine try to suck more of the producer gas instead of just air. Not sure if that will really be what helps, it’ll most likely be the smaller valve that helps more.
Cody,
I thought Kristijan had a neat idea for “remote” air mixture control. For a while he had a hose running from the point of air mixture near the engine to inside the vehicle and put the valve on the end of the hose inside the car where he could adjust it while driving. The noise from the air sucking in the valve bothered him while driving, however
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I have the 3/4" ball valve installed. It seems to not have altered the idle too much.
I have the air mixture screw on the carb turned all the way in to as lean as it will go and idle is still smooth.
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Got the reactor situated to a more ideal spot. Hopefully I haven’t messed up the flex hose yet. Also got the ball valve glued in.
I might move the air filtered section to more towards the radiator to get less hot air. Those are just threaded ABS nipples so I can tweak that a bit.
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Can’t seem to get the cable just right to shut off the ball valve or open all the way. Might just do it the old Kristijan method running into the cabin. I should have some flexible hose somewhere for that.
The 90 degree throw of the valve is really throwing it off for the throttle lever I have for the air adjustment. I guess the throttle lever doesn’t have enough cable throw. Tried in various places on the valve handle but it’s fine, I can always run it into the cabin and adjust that way.
At least my intake air will be cleaner!
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Also it’s pitch black out so pictures wouldn’t do it justice, but the spare locking rings I put on the ribs of the reactor barrel work great as attachment points for my ratchet straps. I think this will help keep the straps from getting cooked. Very solidly mounted now, the straps pull down at an angle from two points so it really holds it to the bed.
I’m planning on cutting up some of my aluminum diamond plate as heat shielding for the bed like I’ve stated earlier. Luckily the nozzles aren’t touching anything so I might just cover the very bottom and the part facing the back of the bed.
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Good morning Cody.
Be very careful when running a hose in the cabin for air mixing . There are certain situations where the gasifier will have positive pressure that may let CO up through the air mix hose .
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I had a feeling that would be the case. I’m just not sure how I could get this throttle lever to be able to throw the full arch. I tried using a choke cable and it didn’t have enough leverage to move it, which was disappointing because the choke cable had enough throw to it.
The truck has no AC so I leave it on fresh air, and windows are usually cracked open at the very least.
I could always just leave my controls in the hard headed way and pull over when I need to switch over.
Battery powered CO detectors go for around $20 at Home Depot.
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Cables are good at pulling but poor at pushing . In some cases I will add a spring on the lever to counter the pulling and help with the pushing.
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I have a pile of junked moped carburetors that I might use for air adjustment. I’ll have to see what I’m working with when I get home.
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Here’s how the hoops are placed. Pretty sturdy and it’ll work even better when I get some turnbuckles and cable.
Also I managed to snag an old hot water heater from the side of the road. Guy made me take an old air conditioner with me as well since I was picking up garbage he couldn’t haul.
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What Wayne said also may want to upgrade to a PTO cable.
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Okay so with the 3/4" reduced fresh air, the engine wants to stall on gasoline when I apply throttle and don’t blip it down to idle. If I just let off the throttle she dies.
Edit: it was the hose extension I tried out. Just made it work too hard. It would stumble and I guess run out of air.
Yes what Wayne sayd. What l had was only a test settup to determine what size of valve l need etc. For a test its good but its anoying and possibly dangerous.
I had a rod trugh a firewall on my chevy other thain that l like to use 1.2mm SS welding wire for cables. Sturdy and smooth. For the cable housing l use this
Its a sink declogger.
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Cody, I use an old clutch cable for air-mix control. Somewhat overkill, but it runs very smoth and is sturdy enough to be able to both push and pull.
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Kritijan’s Method works even if you are worried about CO in the cab. All you have to do is put the valve in the cab the air inlet can be run outside again.
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I wish it worked for my truck but I think it suffocates it too much.
I have a 30mm slide carburetor as my air control right now, only issue is the return spring is just a little too strong and wants to close while running.
I think I’m going to re attach the ball valve, add a return spring to closed position and use a vernier cable so I can lock it into position but still tug it open when i need to switch over to gasoline.