Morning Jeff,
Have had sawdust in my blood, hair eyes and coffee for more yrs than I want to think about. I married a younger woman when I was 35 as I got into my mid fourties she started hacking on me about fiber in my diet. I was framing houses at the time. 10-16 hrs. a day. I did not want to argue with her I just went out to my truck and reteived that days coffee cup and handed it to her.
I asked her to slowly pour the last little bit of coffee out and look in the cup. we never talked fiber again.
I have probbubly digested enough wood to make at least a few good sized boards ha ha ha! yummm!
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I know what you mean about feeling useful, or productive. at 57 and being diabled ( 4 heart attacks 13 heart surgeries, still have one artey that is about 60% blocked, broken back 5 xs mutiple herniated discs in lower back) the list goes on.
I held 15,000 pounds of hydrolic weight for 5 seconds to save a mans life. it cost me a yr. of work. that mans life was worth the pain that I live with every day.
that was many yrs. ago when I was alot younger and had more piss and vinagir. so yea I know what its like to feel useful Again
Jesse
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I remember sitting in the gas lines in LA in the 70.s when we had the oil embargo, reading Mother Earth— how they ran a Chev 6 on wood. In the year 2000 I got a computer and looked up woodgas. There were two articles on the internet about it. I didn’t like the one from Australia because he has a water scrubber and it seemed complicated. The other was the Fema. So I built a Fema and gummed up several squirrel cage blowers with tar. Some where along there I believe Sperninoff (?) started Yahoo Woodgas Group. Things started taking off from there. Some knowledgeable people who had been working on this chimed in and some Europeans chimed in and deciphered some of the writings that were in languages other than English. All of that really started the ball rolling. Mike La Rossa came up on his way to the first Woodgas Get Together in Calumet, Mi. Then I went to The Second Gas Get Together in Goodyear Michigan and met more interesting people. I hears about Mr. Wayne driving up to Milwaukee on wood and how he squirreled away wood on the way up so he had wood for the trip home. Mike and Mr Wayne came out with a CD of how Mr. W 's gasifier was built. I got a little confused as they talked about woodgas but Mike said Mr. W made the trip on charcoal. Any way all this time I kept working on a gasifier vehicle. Many revisions and two engine tear downs due to tar and broken push rods. By this time From Mr. W’s work it became obvious that a gasifier on the back end of a S10 Blazer wasn’t a good idea. I bought a 1/2 T Chev truck with the same engine ( V6 ) that the blazer had so all my work up to that point was not wasted. I had two gasifiers sitting on the floor-- one was my version of a GEK, the other was my version of a LaRotor. For several days I played with the two and flare them time and again. Finally I decided on the LaRotor. Put that in the truck. I got the gasifier part working but I continued to work with the hopper. Made an attempt at a cyclone which I still use but it sure ain’t pretty. I saw Mr. W cooling rails although he really confused me on the flow he had shown in the video. But in flaring I realized that was a necessary part of a unit. I stole his idea of a hay filter. I Read where the Naked Mechanic in Australia was building a counter flow heat exchanger to cool the gas and heat the air. I have spent many hours trying to make that work. It is a serpentine of 3 inch pipe for hot gas with a 4 inch pipe surrounding the 3 in. carry air for the gasifier.
The utopia moment was when I arrived a Argos, all on wood at 2;00 in the morning. ( I know it was 2;00 because I stopped at the only place that had lights on and it was the bar giving the “last call”. They directed me to the Faiirgrounds.
My Bucket List is complete. I lived in Calif., I was involve in Indy racing, I moved from the city to a farm, and I can drive on wood. Life is good.TomC
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OK, Tom sounds like it time to make a new buchet list us older corkers( me especially need things to keep us going) I grew up with my grandfather, ( dad died in Feb.'70) every year when he came home
he had a new list of things that he would tryto complete by Nov.15… Including a new list for when he went South for the winter. when I asked him why, he told me this:
when a working man retires he has little to do to occupy his time. so he must create things to do and see or get sick and die from lack of activity.
SO,sit down soon and make another list. we want you to be around a lot longer.
I’m 57 have been fighting heart desease for 20+ yrs. multiple back injuries, did everything (almost) that the Drs. told me to. took all there drugs that were prescribed. to make it short I lost my drive because of health reasons. I just existed.
last yr. I threw all the meds away( There has got to be a better wayto fight illness than modern drugs) including the insulin that I was told that I had to take or I would die. well its 16 months later I’m still alive I lost 150+ pounds( modern meds made me morbidly obese)
I’m still over 250 but still shrinking. Now that I can move without gasping for air I am making a daily list, that helps complete my long term list.
I am a pyromaniac!! have been my whole life. I love fire Period!! this woodgas is going to help me complete one item on my list. (going to see my daghter at her house) that’s num. 1 on my list
sorry didn’t mean to rant or preach
Jesse
ps. I’m not saying what I did with the meds is right for everyone but it worked for me.
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Motivation…
I hooked my dad’s car up to an anthracite stove when i was 12 Yrs old… amazed everybody, made my granddad smile from ear to ear… 
The car was an fiat 600d, small engine and i made it run untill the stove collapsed…
Since then i work and study… That was 42 Yrs ago…
Who say’s it can’t be done ???
Once bitten… always hooked
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Correction
I had meant to say that trowing the meds away worked for me. But maybe
Not for every one
Jesse
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I thought I would bump a old topic to the top again. A lot of things have been changing in this world and on DOW. Just read though and noticed some of the members are not active anymore, but most of the regulars are still chiming in.
My reason or motivation for driving on wood is this, I like Being One In A Million. I have always like doing things that are not the norm. I have always known that I was different, than the rest of the normal people around me. There for, Driving On Wood fits into my life just fine and I like it that way. By the way I just consider myself a different kind of normal person. Thanks DOW Members for making it possible for me to do this.
SWEM, November 4, 2016
Bob
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Good morning Mr. Bob and thanks for chiming in .
After awhile DOW just becomes a habit . 
I have come to the point where I don’t like to mention the number of miles I am putting down on a public forum.
I will say I burned 200-250 pounds of wood this week 
SWEM
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I responded earlier with some reasons but will add a few more here
Born in 1947 in Cascadia, Oregon (look that up for a small spot on a map)
Often had power outages including a year with no power when we moved to a nearby place called whiskey butte.
So wood heat and cooking was a way of life and as the oldest son you can guess who had to keep the wood boxes full.
So I became very familiar with fire and somewhat of an arsonest when clearing underbrush.
Worked at logging the old growth timber until through college then retired this spring after 48 years with a large Engineering company.
DOW lets me stay motivated, gives good exercise, saves money??
As a 4000 hour pilot and now a 1 in a million DOW at 69 YO and in good health i am having FUN!
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Hi Bob I like the reasons you gave for driving on wood,as I feel a little like that myself. I am new to the group. I just started my build but will not get much done yet this year, as snow will start to fall any day now. Don’t dare to weld in the garage. I am glad I found the drive on wood site,been reading everything.I think I am going to like all of the members,as there are some really interesting people here. Larry up in West Branch Mi.
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Larry, you couldn’t ask for a better group of people to help you, hundreds of years of experience. People who want you to succeed in your gasifier project you are building. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, there are no questions that are to dumb to ask, on this site. If there is, then I have already ask them, so you are safe. Lol
Looking forward to following your gasifier build.
Bob
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So…
I was totally in after seeing my first Wayne Keith video. I used to own a sawmill myself for many years. It taught my how to fabricate and make do with what I had. I have been working with wood since age 16, cutting firewood was my first money making venture.
To back up a little, I was actively looking for an alternative fuel source. One of my old partners said he had once witnessed a test car for Shell Oil which topped out at over 70 MPG back in the 1970’s.
In 2008-2009 I had been working on HHO with one of my friends, it seemed to maybe be the next big thing. My late father had warned me never to mess with pure Hydrogen as a fuel source because of the possible dangers. After our 3rd generation of HHO producer, we proved to ourselves we were wasting our time after a severe explosive episode, fire and melted HHO generator under the hood (my Dad had been right again).
I decided to look into a gasolive evaporator lIke the car from Shell Oil. I kind of talked myself out of this, thinking it might be even more dangerous than HHO and then discovered the Geet sytem for waste oil. I never started on the Geet because I found a couple of videos on wood gasification by Engineer 775 and Mr. Teslonian which sparked my intersts.
From there I happened on the Wayne Keith U-Tube video titled “Woodgas Part 2: Extras and In-Depth Info”. I knew right then I had found the Holy Grail, and found someone who had proven the concept…easy for me to relate to, it all made sense to me very quickly…
My main motivation is to be able to drive to our farms. I don’t have the finances to just take off on the weekends and pay $100-$200 for gasoline just to drive there and back as many times as I would like. I have one girl in College and one in High School, the family takes most of what I make and I am very thankful to have a good job. Heck, I would just like to fire up the truck and take my wife on a drive in the evenings just for fun like TomC and others do…
We have farms in Southern Illinois and one in Minnesota, an hour or so from Bill Schiller. I live in Northwest Indiana near Chicago. Gas was around 35 cents a gallon when I started driving. I still can’t accept having to pay so much to drive. I want to be free to move about the country again…
I very much enjoy working with wood, my first chosen profession and sawmiller for half of my adult life. I also enjoy making machines and parts from scratch, it was a necessity. …
I am very grateful for this site and all of you. Thanks to Wayne and Chris who have made it all possible. My system will benifit greatly from all the enhancements since the “92 Dakota from the Book” was initially built! I too also enjoy taking the path less traveled. I can’t wait to see all the head scratching and getting to field the numerous questions asked about a truck that runs on wood!
Thanks to all who take the time to freely respond to all the questions, all the builders who have proven the concept over and over again and then coach the other 75%.
Bryan S
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Our motivation is complicated and simple at the same time.
Not really looking to drive but to power an off the grid sustainable situation. I have friends whom are Amish and Mennonite whom run their shops off the grid using generator sets to provide all of the power, electrical compressed air and hydrolics required for their shops. Their systems still require an off the grid input, the fuel. I have often end maintained that as soon as the world you might say got away from a wood and grass based economy it started going backwards.
We are farming and logging with horses so our inputs are self produced and if nothing else producing fertility. Because of this life style our health is good our food is excellent and our minds are clear.
Any other direction than wood gasification just doesn’t seem to fit in.
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Where are you getting the hydraulic power for you gafner on the horse drawn dray? The amish are using combines and bailers that have a gas engine on them and the equipment is pulled by horses. These could all be converted to woodgas and most of those engines are small so the gasifier would not have to be big. TomC
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It’s a Kohler 20 hp power pack. I doubt that would get a gasifier but one never knows. Want to finish the new shop first and get something done before the wife well you know
You are in Crivitz? We are in Hermansville small world ain’t it
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I REALLY don’t suggest converting the horses to woodgas… They don’t run so well on it! ;p
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That small of an engine is a good candidate for a Simply- fire charcoal gasifier. Much less complicated to build than a wood-gasifier.
I have to look up Hermansville. I have heard of a casino in Hammerville. Are they saying the name wrong. TomC
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No, no Brian. Have you ever worked behind a team of horses??? THEY make the gas. TomC
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Let’s see here a horse that farts will not tire and a man that farts is the man to hire
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Hannaville Indian reservation half way between here and Escanaba
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