Wood powered truck performance in the hills

How do the wood powered trucks handle in hilly terrain? The difference in elevation from the freeway to the top of our ranch is about 2000’. Located in Mendocino Co.,Northern California.
Thanks
Keith Rongey

Keith, You will have to design for your terrain. It is hilly here but I’m only climbing 10% grades for maybe a half mile or so. Average elevation is around 1000 feet above sea level. I keep an eye on my vacuum gauge and downshift before the vacuum gets too low to keep the gasifer stoked up. I then roll down the window and slap on the side of the truck and this seems to help :o) … Mike L
Hi O Silver, away …

The first video is climbing 1000 ft.

You will have to design for your terrain
Hi Mike,
How does one design for different terrain ??? I am from Florida not much but flat ground here. There is an overpass once and while. But if there where hills/overpass I sure would like to climb them. Currently building 3 new wood burner trucks. If there are any tricks I could throw into the new builds I wood like to hear them.

“I then roll down the window and slap on the side of the truck and this seems to help”
Also you have a standing invite to teach my woodburners this trick at any time that is convenient for you.
Thanks Sean

Hello Mr. Rongey.

I forgot to mention if the hills get too steep for wood gas you can blend in a some gasoline to help.

Hey Sean,

Do you remember a year ago this week ? Miles , Miles and Miles

Good Evening Wayne,

Yes I do lots of Miles upon Miles
With hills,highways,traffic jams, flying trees, rain and great times.

Hi Sean, Good to hear from you. Good luck on your current builds. Not much that I could help you with. You already have it figured out. My current truck is a 98 S-10 with a 2.2 liter SFI engine. The gasifier on my trailer has a 3.5" restriction and 8, 5/16" nozzles in a 9 inch circle. If I could stay on the flat it would do an easy 70 mph. It tops most of the hills here around 45 or so. I was shocked but after pulling the trailer with the 97 cavalier and having that work so well I wanted to try a 2.2 liter truck. They are tough to find, especially with a 5 speed manual. It does and holds 4000 rpm no problem. It will spin higher but I’m old school where red line is 3000 rpm. It also does around 50 to 60 miles on the small hopper where my black truck would go an even 40 on the same trailer with the 4.3 liter and 6000 pounds of truck. I went for the 5 speed to deal with the hills better. Every once in a while I have to hit the go juice switch but this OBD2 motor doesn’t like to blend. There is a built in delay in the computer so it is slow to make major adjustments so I have stalled in the road on a few hills. It’s all good and beats the heck out of a horse. I don’t have to feed and water it every day. Back to hills, when I was out west and at 4000 / 5000 / 7000 feet, things got real whimpy. I think Wayne found this out too when he was in New Mexico on his way to Berkeley. We talked on the phone then. It was my birthday … Mike