Restoring the Beast

Chris glad you made it home safe and sound. I sort of wondered seeing those straps. They are plenty strong enough but I have had them cut off hauling metal things. I am old school when it comes to hauling metal I like chains and load binders.
So did you get the fire started yet? Can’t wait to see how you like your new truck. Given my welding skills I would be best off to get one the same way…
Hope you enjoy it but after 12 hours on the road you are probably not in too big a rush to take it for a road trip.

Those are 8,000 lb straps, same thing the truckers use. You just find a smooth area like an axle tube, that won’t abrade them. They didn’t even loosen on the way home, I checked several times.

It’ll need a little TLC before I can hit the road. As mentioned the trans is no good, and the firetube needs replaced. I could fire it up as is, but it’s pouring rain today… and yeah, I could use a nap. LOL.

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Hey Chris, I think that tube has closer to 20K miles on wood now,…glad you made it home safe.

I know I’d like to meet Arvid one of these days, here’s hoping.

Steve, I can’t say I ever had trouble finding enough fuel for her, the wind downs trees by the cord here in East Lansing, the trouble I had was the motivation to keep processing it! Like you’ve always said, there’s no free ride.

I’m taking a break from woodgassing to pursue a couple of other more urban friendly projects. I also want to migrate towards a rural homesteading lifestyle, this just isn’t the time unfortunately. I’ll still be around in the occasional hangout and if I can swing the time i’ll be down to Argos as well. I was happy to see this old truck staying within our community.

I do have to admit there were a few moments of “sellers remorse” as I watched her leaving, but… on to the next as they say.

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First order of business… ignition lock cylinder. Very common on old GM vehicles, either the key falls out, the barrel won’t turn from “Lock”, or both in this case… A new one is $15 and installs in about half an hour. Works great now.

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Now you can get started. :smiley:
It is always a good sign when people pay attention to the small details it proves you will fix it right.

Well Henry, you know this truck will NOT just sit and rust away and not ever DOW again. It will be better than ever by the time Chris gets through with it. Glad you sold the truck to Chris.
Bob

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Good call, you’re in town, security was pretty loose where I was keeping her!

Ha! Ha! Good responsibility action indeed.
ChrisKY has younger brothers and sisters running around.
He will be gone away, working.
When mt Dad was away long distance truck driving anything he left on the place runable did get ran-around by us, his kids.
'Course back then nothing had locking steering/shifting. Easy then to IG bypass. Just bits of wire.
When from a book I learned to rake-pick locks as an; I can do it, challenge. Only had to make it past one lock position. These new IG locks you have to re-pick past up to four positions from OFF/locked, to start, back to run.
Chris I really doubt your youngers will be slid-hammer bypassing. But . . . you got one (a slide hammer) take it with you too.
J-I-C Steve Unruh

First test run!

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So glad to see you are enjoying your new toy. Your voice reflects the joy you feel. SWEM perhaps??

A fire hydrant in the front yard of a wood gasser, funny.

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Hi Carl, this ain’t a toy. I expect this truck to work hard. I am definitely enjoying it though!

If woodgas is an addiction, I’m 100% in relapse. :smile:

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Very nice, Chris, glad to see it up and running. Thanks for a tour of the neighborhood. I did a street view thing way back but could’nt tell if you were right on the corner or not, now I know.
Pepe

I think your block drive a rounds are like mine about 5 miles. But here it’s 5 miles to work but 40 home too. Good on ya

The satellite view captures my various projects quite well… This is from spring 2015 (click to expand).

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You got the Chev up and running pretty fast. In hind sight wouldn’t it have been cheaper to get it running in Michigan and driven it home.? What kind of temperature gauges dose it have. I am sick of the cheep-o ones I have been using. What happened to the gasifier you were building? Is that a done deal? TomC

It was already “running” but the trans is no good. Just enough left to run around the block. Also the firetube is shot, so I’d have driven back on gasoline…

Total cost to rent a (really nice) truck, drive up and tow it home was $273, that’s including fuel for 800 miles and full coverage insurance. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

The gauges that are in it are Celcius, but I have a good recommendation for similar ones that are Fahrenheit friendly.

It’s still waiting. I haven’t had much time for it. I really don’t have time for this either, but it fell in my lap. What could I do…

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I bet Allied electronic has temperature gages like that. That is the sort of thing they carry tons of.

I forgot you said the transmission was iffy. I would have never thought you could rent a truck and make that trip for that kind of money. Good job. The temperature gauges you recommended— I didn’t see any dimensions on them. And is the one reading C and the other F or will it read two thermocouples with one meter?? I understand that if something falls in your lap, you need to grab it and run. I to often, timidly reach for it while looking around and someone else snatches it out of my hands.TomC

Dimension is a standard size, 1/16 DIN. Fits a 1 7/8" square hole, 3 1/4" deep. Each gauge will read either C or F, single thermocouple. The other number is a programmable set point, we can safely ignore that for our purposes.

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Truck is well on its way too the wood gas chris mobile, glad too see you have another sourse of transit other than petro. I think the energy gone bug is around here in mich, and it slows me down when it arrives. Caint wait too get my first petro gone bug going on my old 85 chevy truck project. Good blessings on getting time energy fixing up your work truck.nice too have around.