Hello all, Been a while since I had timne to get on here. Just got home yesterday from OH where I bought John Cleveland’s 1980 f150. Had a long trip through TN and IN to get there. Blew a head gasket in the minivan we went in only 10 miles from John’s house. Ended up leaving the van and pulling the trailer we had with us full of bubble wrap with the truck down through the Appalacians. Long trip, good times. We hadn’t slept much to speak of for about 40 hours, but couldn’t resist stopping about 100 miles out and firing up the gasifier. Drove the last 100 miles on wood. Worked real well. Average speed up and own hills here was about 60. Sometimes the long hills drag it down to about 40 and we did get up to 78 once. Slept for a few hours and then the whole community here showed up wanting rides and such. Did great until we got too presumptuous and filled the hopper with what I thought was dry wood chips. Ended up there were about 8 gallons of wet ones in there. Still did well until they dropped into the fire tube and seemed to clog everything up. I took out about a bucket full this morning and poured a good layer of char in and got it going again. It took a while to get it back up and going. I won’t soon try that again. But I do think that when mixed about 50/50 chunks and dry chips i9t ran better than ever and had much more power. Maybe the added surface area? Anyway, have a meeting to get to. Thanks John. After a tuneup it’s running a lot better. I think I will replace the cond tank. And I want to play with the ignition timing a little more, Anyway. I like it. Incidentally, I was up at the shop where our church builds minibarns. Some of the guys were impressed, others not so much. I realized I was low on wood and gathered up the chunks and shavings under the chop saw and poured them in the hopper. Then later that evening we had a “flare off show”. I think they’re all impressed now.
That’s fantastic Billy! Sorry to hear about the head gasket though.
Hey Billy ,
Good to hear you are up and running . 
Congratulations on “off to a great start”. So much to learn, so much to try, so many people to explain it to. I know you’ll do it all well.