Hello Sir Wayne. Congrats and thanks for your new site ;~)
Met you in Pitsburg, KS. Having considerable air movement and control experience, I was fascinated by size and simplicity of your blower setup. I was the one who took the video of you running the blower backwards to eject a huge flare out the top of the hopper.
I thought I could figure it out on my own, but am still stumped.
The video is still on youtube if anyone is interested - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=holKFL0lhnE
Hello Doug,
Welcome to the site! That’s a really cool video, I will add that to the video pages. Since the site is so new, please feel free to comment on features broken or missing, and suggest new ones. Bug reports can go in this thread: http://driveonwood.com/forum/34
Wayne is running several bilge blowers in series, which are 12v DC motors. So by reversing the polarity you can run them backwards. I believe on some of his trucks he has dedicated reverse blowers. Either way works fine.
Hello Mr. Doug,
Good to hear from you and it was my pleasure getting to meet you at the Kansas event. Really hope to see you at the Indiana event in May.
I will answer all the questions I can and if they get too complicated I will let Chris handle them.
On the Dakota that I drove to Kansas I have four bilge blowers plumed in series in the wood gas line between the gasifer and filter. As I use the blowers to heat up the gasifer the gas is vented to the atmosphere. Once the gasifer is hot enough I close a valve and the gas is pulled to the motor. These four blowers are wired with reversing switches. I can also have the valve and fuel hopper open and reverse the motors and push air into the system and up through the grate and out the hopper. Also on the fresh air intake going to the nozzles of the gasifer I have two of the same blowers that I can switch on to force air to the nozzles.
What you saw in Kansas was me reversing the air flow of the gasifier, making it an updraft. When it was making gas I turned on the nozzles blowers pushing fresh air to mix with the gas from the updraft.
On the Dakota you saw, I have the four blowers wired so I can reverse all four. On some of the other trucks the v-10 and the one I am building now I have four blowers plumbed in series and a fifth blower that is turned in the opposite direction and has it own switch.
The one blower will force more air in the updraft mode as the four blowers running in reverse.
BBB
Wayne
Hi Wayne,
Do you have a good source for the bilge blowers?
Hello Mr. Dave,
I don’t have the information in front of me but I have about a dozen out in the work shed with the paper work. I can get back with you tomorrow.
Once we get all our ducks in a row I would like to have a section on the site call THE PARTS HOUSE or similar that would have all the links for the parts. Blowers, temperature gauges, vacuum gauges, fuel/air ratio, pull cables, switches ECT.
BBB
Wayne
With you’re oh so ample free time (sarcasm) might I suggest an ebay store or an Amazon referal store. Don’t give it away in links. Be fair but earn a percentage on the past research you’ve done. I’d rather buy 12 items from one dealer even if I’m paying a few percent more then sourcing, setting up accounts and distributing my credit card number to 12 different suppliers… Just a thought.
Hello Mr. Dave,
Hey great idea on the store, we will run it by Chris. (He is smart enough to set all that up)
The last blowers I bought was the Seachoice in-line bilge blower model 41851 4 amp. They are less than twenty bucks.
I couldn’t find the paper work but I think I bought about two dozen.
BBB
Wayne
That is certainly something to think about. We will end up with a list of items that will be needed for a successful conversion. Just about all of it can be found on Amazon or Ebay. A referral type deal would not take too much upkeep and might be profitable. Interesting idea, thanks for suggesting it.
Don’t forget the ball caps for the store and the good kind without that plastic snap thing in the back! 
Wayne, are you using the 3" or 4" blowers?
Good Morning Chris F.,
I use the 3 inch blowers because they are so easy to connect to 2 inch piping (steel or PVC).
The 3 inch and the 4 inch blowers have the same motor.
BBB
Wayne
Wayne,
You say you have four blowers installed in series…are they all installed front to back or spread throughout the system?
Hi John,
The blowers are all at the back. On some of the Dakotas Wayne has an extra blower pushing in the intake to the gasifier.