The screws will hold for a while but will probably eventually work there way out. I’ve done it before.
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You could always drill a bigger hole in the bed and weld a nut to the bed. I have done that and it holds if the welds are decent.
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IF the top part of the gasifier burn tube housing is bolted too a solid location and he welds the brackets good on the bottom of burn tube housing, it should be good enough too hold, Or i might bolt in on bottom bolts if lag bolts came loose. You could also weld bolt heads too the bed of truck.
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It doesn’t have a burn tube it’s a diagonal crossdraft gasifier. Just a barrel with another barrel welded to get more hopper space. Just a big nozzle and a gas exit 12 inches below the nozzle with a grate in between.
But yeah I have the middle part held down in the back and front, and two feet to help hold it up and for side to side. I wanted the middle mounts because of the wind. I used 1/8" so the mounts flex with the bed, I’m hoping this will keep stress away from the screws until I can plan out a better way to fasten it down. If I can have more free time I’ll get my belly under the truck and see where all the screws are poking at, and see about replacing with bolts. I’m more concerned about having the truck run on charcoal before I tweak anything. Also need to make a backlog of charcoal. I have some plastic drums that I need to cut the lids off to have some stored once it’s crushed and sifted. I can cover the top with a tarp or garbage bag.
If I could get just a week without rain interrupting me that would be great. Can’t wait to get the Mercruiser plenum ordered and focus on a more permanent raw wood gasifier. Price went up on the kit, 700 dollars now.
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If I was going to build another crossdraft I would use a 55 gallon drum instead, have the nozzle maybe 5 inches above the gas exit to get a little charcoal distance. That would give you probably 45 gallons of hopper if you put the gas exit as close to the bottom as possible. So about 54 pounds of charcoal at my mixed stuff. Use a vertical grate so slag just falls off, make it slide in and out with a little slop so it can be removed for repairs and to let it vibrate slag off. Use a simple drop box with no heat exchanger to settle the worst of the soot out and run it to the filter after the coolers.
Depending on the engine size you might not even need to have the nozzle above by that much, the 20 some odd inches you’d have between the grate and the nozzle would be plenty for a smaller engine like my Mazda or Cavalier.
My only concern with a cross draft is I’d be paranoid to mix more than 10% wood into the charcoal.
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Man ya the weather has been too hot for me up here in michigan, The rain has been scarce, just hot and humid since i had time too work on my dakota. Sounds simple makeing a charco burner gasifier setup. I got too go back and see if i can see any pics of you crost draft unit.Thanks for the disription of your cross draft unit.I still would like too build charco burner unit after i finish my wood gasifier unit.
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Here’s some pictures of it. I’ve reinforced the grate with some rebar to tighten it up and make it stiffer since I took these.
In the Pegasus drawings it shows the nozzle point down about 45 degrees. I might buy an elbow to do that.
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I have some space in the hopper so I might top it off with some charcoal I dumped out of the Mazda gasifier and got rained on.
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What size pipe is good for air in gas out plumming for a four cyclinder, and is a 20 pound propane tank thick enough too not melt down in the hot zone around the nozels, and what type of steel holds up ok on the nozel pipes?? THANKS for the charco gasifier onfo. And CHEERS ON YOUR CHARCO TRUCK BUILD.
I’d say 1.5" or 2". I used 2" in the Mazda and it ran fine.
With any thinner metal you have to use long nozzles to keep the heat further away from the steel.
I’ve been using piston wrist pins because I have gobs of them from work, it’s a thick high carbon steel so I think it’ll hold up good. For this charcoal gasifier I have one of those hexoloy/silicon carbide tubes that I pressed into a 1.5" pipe with my shop press and I left it sticking out halfway.
For this Sierra I’m trying just one 2" pipe to go to the engine, Jakob I think has said he could still run his Dakota with just one gas pipe to his V8 so I figure it’ll be fine for this 4.3 V6. Mother Earth News has ran Chevy inline 6 and V8s with 1.5" pipe going to the gas mixer, but I’m sure there’s a lag in power when you restrict the gas pipe too much.
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Are you saying you have 2" ID rispins for the nozels. I meant nozel pipes , in my plumming Questain, Thanks.
No the hexoloy tube is 1" ID.
For nozzle pipes do you mean it delivering air to the nozzle or the nozzle itself?
For a regular gasifier the wrist pins I use are 10mm id.
The 2" I was talking about gas piping to the engine.
Yes i was wanting too know what works for charco nozel itself,size and type steel. on your big truck unit.THANKS.
It depends on the engine size, I used Koens air velocity calculator and some suggestions on air velocity for a charcoal gasifier.
I still think the velocity will be fairly high which is why I made the char bed depth so tall to make sure the gas gets cooled down a little before it leaves the gasifier.
If you use regular steel you should either make a water jacket for the nozzle or use really thick steel that you can remove. Even with water drip a nozzle can get deteriorated in a charcoal gasifier if it’s in the heat like a sideways nozzle in a Simple Fire or like this one.
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Ok thanks cody, good luck with your truck charco unit, Caint beat haveing a full size truck when needed for heavy hauling.Especialy on charco now days , with HIGH JACKED gas prices.
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Yeah once I rearrange the cooling rails it’ll be more convenient. I still have about 6 feet of bed space with the tailgate up, and a narrow spot of 8 feet I can use for whatever.
I’m gonna change up the cooling rail sorta like how Mike LaRosa had it on his Silverado. Comes out the gasifier to a single pipe that Tees off to either side, single pipe each side going back, then U bends 180 degrees back to another length of pipe that meet back in the middle at the head of the bed. That’ll give me over 32 feet of cooling distance, and with the rake angle of my truck any condensate will go down to the cold Tee to a collection tank before the filter.
I’m trying to future proof the cooling rails for when I eventually put a raw wood unit on it. Won’t be as much cooling area as a WK but I think it’ll be sufficient, and with it branching off it won’t matter if one side gets plugged.
I’d like to do the whole cooling rail and condensate collection in Stainless. I’ve got a Half Keg 16 gallons I can use, and some 2" Triclamp style sanitary bungs I can weld to it.
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Uploading some videos of the flare test.
I think I’ll need to get a 45 degree elbow to point the nozzle down.
The only places it got hot were right beside the nozzle. I might see if that’s an air leak at the weld or a matter of the nozzle. Need to soap test it real quick. It made potent gas in under a minute counting lighting the paper.
The spots that got hot were also inside of a minute, which makes me think it could be a leak. Not sure why else. The tip of the nozzle protrudes in about 4 or 5 inches.
One thing that makes me think it isn’t an air leak is the fact that it’s evenly hot on the left or the right of the air intake to the nozzle.
I was expecting the opposite side to the nozzle would be hot but it was ambient.
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Part 1 where I forgot fire burns things including bilge blowers.
And Part 2
Now I see why all the city people during WW2 preferred charcoal. Very fast light up.
I reckon I could start on gasoline to pull a draft, light, get in the truck and it’ll be most of the way ready to run the engine.
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now I’m just waiting to hear that engine light up!
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Thanks for the video Cody .
You better get some lemons or crabapples handy or that big smile might distort your face 
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