Thanks Bill !!! I’m grateful to have the strength back to do this stuff again. Wifey has a pile of honey-do’s for me so I have to sneak it in when I can … Her honey-do’s can wait :o) … M
PS, I’ll catch you on the tele on the latest crap sometime … diversions diversions diversions … I’m listening to RHC right now on 6164 … At least they counter balance some of the crap we get spoon fed here …
Hi Mike,
It is amazing how fast stuff disappears in the woods. I am still looking for some steel I know I put in the hedgerow just a couple of years ago… Now that I am building my own trailer, I am looking at your trailer layout more closely. Most of your equipment on your old trailer seems mounted in front of the axle, is that mainly to keep tongue weight up and help truck traction or to shorten the path the woodgas needs to follow?
Hopefully you are feeling better, maybe the warmer weather helps. Why are you so keen on resurrecting the Studebaker as opposed to some other members of your collection, say, the 66 Chevy or the Travelall?
Rick
Right… or the Wildcat. 
Hi Rick, The Studebaker is a neet car. It has a V8 that runs real low RPMs … The International will be next.A large spruce tree fell in front of it so I have to cut that up first. I plan to park it where the Studebaker is now.
I had a bad experience driving from Buffalo here with a full trailer of my stuff 30 years ago. I had too much weight in the rear of it and it wiged and waged over 50 mph. I finally had to get in it and throw the heaviest stuff to the front and I took out several tires and mounted them on the draw bar. It settled down some. I didn’t build the base trailer. The axle should have been a foot or more further back. It was abandoned on one of the properties I managed and I built an enclosure on it.
The gasifier will be just ahead of the axle and the rest of the stuff to balance. I’d like around 75 to 100 pounds on the tongue so I can “just” pick it up by hand …Mike
Hi Mike,
I had an uncle who was a Studebaker-Packard dealer on Long Island. My somewhat-out-of control cousin would sometimes drive the trade-ins. I remember being afraid for my life when once he was driving an early 60’s Studebaker Lark with a V8 powering around the curvy neighborhood streets. It certainly had lots of power, handling was a little iffy. After Studebaker-Packard folded, he became a Mercedes dealer but was too far ahead of his time, he went out of business in the late 60’s.
I will aim for a tongue weight that I can handle based on your experience. I originally built the trailer from a VW Rabbit rear subframe for carrying canoes, it has an approx. 7’ tongue that I plan on shortening, I am considering making it about 4’ long or so.
Rick
Hey Mike, I’m a Studebaker fan from way back, late 60’s I needed a car and of course didn’t have much money, found this old 54 Studebaker in the back row where I always bought my cars back then, it was a two door hardtop, 304 V8 three speed with overdrive, I asked the guy if I could start it up and go for a ride, the clutch slipped bad, he wanted 80$ for it, the more I drove that car over the next few years the less the clutch slipped and the better it ran and ran it DID! They were great cars, that 304 V8 screamed, this is back when the best thing Chevy had was a 6 cly splash oil system, total joke of an engine, of course Ford had V8’s for years by then but they didn’t scream like the Studebakers!
Hey Herb .
I bought a studebaker lark once for $25 and drove it about a year… Three speed with OD.
Do you remember pushing the clutch all the way to the floor and applying the brakes . The clutch wold stay on the floor and brakes locked until you hit the brakes again . This was their system for parking brakes but I could see where it could get you in a bind.
My first car was a '49 Study convertible without a very good heater. The Larks came long after mine, but as I recall, that clutch brake was put on there so the car wouldn’t roll backwards down hill when you had the clutch in. It freed up you right leg from having to hold the brake so you could switch over to the accelerator. The brake was released when you started to let the clutch out. Dad bought a new Study in '53 and at 3000 miles a rod went out. Thank God he hadn’t let me drive it, or he would have blamed me. He always thought I was too much into cars.
This Stude is an automatic. Reverse is all the way down. Don’t slam it down into low when climbing a steep hill. The brakes seem to be pumping up. Master was dry. Battery next. On my 60 Buick you have to push the gas pedal to the floor to make the starter switch work. When I bought it 20 years ago I had to call the local mechanic to find out how to start it. He barely remembered … There is a vacuum switch that kicks in once the engine is running to prevent the starter from running when you go to pass someone. M
Finally got the heat recovery shroud on the new gasifier so it is complete except for some sheet metal and RTV. Need to build or find a cyclone next and steel plumb it all together. I hope someone will upload this picture and thanks in advance
EDIT: Thanks Bill, The Drain King :o) …
Mike
Shroud and gasifier is complete except for a couple of pieces of tin on the bottom and a spring for the puff lid. I ran out of steam today. I need to slide it back on the trailer and rotate it to it’s “real” position and weld it down and attach the struts. This particular trailer (4’ by 4’) is very solid with the 2 rear struts and the positioning. I have already driven thousands of miles with it on the old gasifiers. I need to build a new cyclone so that is next. Too bad I still have to get paying work out the door.
Somebody upload the pic please and thanks in advance. This gasifier has already had 3 full hoppers through it at full bore and has held up well. I just finally added the heat recovery shroud and waterproofed it for rain as well as adding some structure to the lid … I’m not sure what I will use for a spring. The one on my current trailer which some of you have seen was off a carriage seat from around 1840 or 1850 … It was buried in my neighbor’s yard.
Mike
Thanks Don, I have rotated it, welded it to the trailer and attached the struts. It is solid as a rock and ready to bounce down the road. Now I have to make a cyclone … They take me a while to build …
Thanks again in advance to whoever uploads this picture.
My internet days are probably numbered … The rest of the world wants more of it and I want to turn it off and just stay busy as long as I can. After being paralyzed last year and am still slowly recovering from that I don’t need to spend too much time on the internet. There is real stuff to do. Back in Iraq again … GFYS … SWEM … Mike
I used to collect all the beheading vidoes back when but fortunately that computer died … The Korean guy was the worst “I want to live, I want to live, gurgle gurgle” … Please do what you can and keep building … Thanks !!!
Thanks Terry !! That old drum is the next hay filter. Will go from gasifier through cyclone to cooler to hay filter and engine … I will put sumps on the ends of the cooler to collect condensate … Still trying to figure out what to make the cyclone from. The one on my current trailer is a grain vacuum. Works better than any cyclone I ever built. It has a bigger diameter and a “ramp” in it … Thanks again, Mike
New Cyclone top is done. Now I need to drive to town and get some autobody putty, Argon, Acetylene, and oxygen !!! It’s amazing how much of that stuff I go through once or twice a year … WORTH IT …
This baby is gonna sing …
M
Thanks Bill
Glad to see you making progress Mike. I have made some myself but was without computer for a few weeks so have not posted. i’ll have to catch up with photos and all. Still trying to get my hands on a non rusty Dakota but at same time moving forward with what I have. Looking forward to seeing you get her fired up
Jim, I swapped out 3 welding tanks today … I’m wore out just from that. Undoing regulators, carrying tanks, unloading at the welding supply place, loading new tanks in truck, unloading back here, re-installing regulators, and then testing them all. At least they were all full !!! We’ve had rain since early last night and all my joints are swollen. I will probably cut and weld a tailpiece on the cyclone later today. I wanted 3" inlet and outlet but will probably reduce things later. I want the gasifier to run a full sized truck. It is similar to the trailer I am currently using which runs my 4.3L just fine. I think I still have some 4" pipe to use for the tail piece. Mike
My camera died … Probably had some small spider crawl in through a jack and then get stuck in the lens gears … I need some kind of 3 blade screwdriver to get it open enough to work on it. I had both a cave cricket and a moth get into my printer on Friday and jam that up. Took 2 hours to resolve that. At any rate I have the new cyclone mounted and a temp hook up to the cooler so I can run more tests … I put around 100 wood miles on the red truck with bigger trailer over the weekend … It worked well but piles of condensate with the damp wood … Mike
Found a camera. Just hook this up to a hose and to your truck. Puff spring is from 1840. I just need a few turnbuckles etc etc … The aluminum is from 2005 and is not corroded but I will replace with steel. The aluminum from around 2009 on would corrode through in just a few months.
Hopefully someone can upload the pic here … I am hooked up at 19.2 kbs after our rains …
Getting close now Mike. What did you use for an ash dump on there? A second amo can has been holding me up, but also dragging my feet trying to shake out a decent Dakota I can trade my sleds or something for. You guys got me scared to go any farther being all my junk still has carburetors aside from my van with TBI. been cruising craigslist barter section. Looks like a decent Dakota is going to run about $3000 with the travel to find one worthy of the work to convert.
Here you go Mike.
Jim, I too found the same thing. My experience is any used vehicle I have bought I’ve needed to put $3000 into it. So I bought a $400 truck with the expectation of dropping $3000. I am able to do most of it. What mattered to me is the condition of the engine and the compression test and had good results. I may have $3000 into it when I’m done but everything will be new including the fenders and doors. Just my 2 cents