Tractor with gas?

The winter afternoon is short, but there are still a few hours to work. I clear and level the rocky terrain, haul away rocks and bring in soil, Fergie runs at low revs, then at full power, an unfavorable situation for a wood gas engine, but it tolerates it quite well.


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Lots of fun there Tone, I enjoy such jobs :smiley:

Just a thought and reflection. From a gasification view an excavator must be a good candidate, steady rev’s most of the time but perhaps requires a fan for the gas cooler.
A good moneysaver for a self employed entrepeneur, downside is the engine conversion or engine replacement but perhaps a good place to start is with pilot diesel dribble.

Probably nothing for a farmer or hobbyist because of the relatively few running hours.
I don’t recall reading about anyone doing anything like that but perhaps my memory lets me down.

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Hello Johan, I have thought about a wood gas excavator many times, well, now that I have gotten used to driving a tractor on 100% wood gas, the excavator should also work on 100% wood gas. These small Japanese excavators are made quite tightly, there is not much space around the engine, it would have to be an older and larger excavator. This would be a very interesting project.
People usually have the idea that a hydraulic drive is simple and does not require much power, but in reality it is quite the opposite, an excavator needs a lot of power to reach high pressures in the hydraulics, the engine power regulation must be very precise and responsive …

I am just philosophizing, oh, if I had more time… :woozy_face::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::grinning:

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Yes, it is pretty constant revs but as you say the pressure is pretty high, and so is the pumps hydraulic flow.
The differences in power is pretty high, perhaps it is undoable with such a big span.
If it was controllable in a simple manner parallel gasifiers would be ideal.
Just thinking out loud.

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I think this will be doable in Tone’s case because I think his gasifier is very good for this kind of situation. I think Tone’s gasifier will have a very good ā€˜turn down ratio’.
LINK
Rindert

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Johan you are thinking correctly and practically, wood gas with diesel fuel works quite well and is a lot of power, but 100% wood gas is real poetry.
If I combined wood gas and diesel fuel again, I would feel like a fraud and would no longer belong to the community Wayne, JO, Goran, Giorgio,… :grinning::grinning:

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But Wayne tells in his book not to be a purist. And he says he always keeps a little gasoline on his farm, for many reasons.
Rindert

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Driving 100% woodgas can be very difficult in our modern society and infrastructure .

Driving 99% woodgas can put a smile on your face and be fairly easy. .

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No worries, Tone. You would definitely still qualify :smile:
But you’re right - there’s a limit in the number of gasifiers a person is able to build, maintain and feed. Best to focus on our hungriest, mostly used equipment.

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I invested 60 Euros in a 12V electric blower to start the gasifier, I will report shortly how it works.


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Tone, a rough calculation tells me the poor Fergie has to do 10 hours of work to pay for its new blower :sweat: :smile:

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I connected the Makita to a ā€œclassicā€ battery, but it didn’t seem to be working, so I removed the load switch with unnecessary electronics, I already have a switch and a cable for a circulating blower at Fergi, well, with the Makita directly connected to 12V it works well, it has good air flow and pressure, but it needs 240W of power.

JO, your math is pretty accurate, but these are the ā€œvictimsā€ of the ā€œgreen transitionā€. If I were to take into account all the other costs incurred in the ā€œgas tractorā€ project and my working hours in this calculation…
He has now completed 420 working hours, which according to your estimate of consumption of 3.7l/hour, which is quite realistic, would amount to 2500 Euros, yes, if I remove my working hours from the calculation, Fergie has paid off his purchase price, the costs of engine renovation, new tires, the costs of the gasifier and other equipment, he deserves a new blower! :grinning::grinning::+1:

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I installed the blower on the tractor and tested it, it really has a lot of power, the gasifier heats up faster, well, I had to add an elbow to the air intake, on which I install the blower,… 2 hours of work,… 20% of the invested cost has already been paid off. :grinning::smiley:


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I talk and write too much here on the forum and I don’t do enough, well, I didn’t go to work today, but I hung out with Fergi, we worked hard the whole time, 100% on wood gas, only the chainsaw used a few dcl of gasoline.

The photos don’t show anything new, nothing that I wouldn’t have already posted here.

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Pretty sure I haven’t seen those logs before Tone. I think they are new. You have certainly done more in the last 30 days than I did all year.

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Tone, believe me when im saying you can’t post enough here, wonderful to see real woodgas working :+1:

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I never get tired of it Tone. Keep it up!

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Thank you for putting up with me, without all of you from this forum I probably would never have driven on wood. :grinning:

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Who could ever get tired of woodgas, wood prep and logging, Tone? I don’t think it’s possible. I’m glad someone is willing to put up with the camera work involved.

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