Saving fuel monies has helped me massively paying the bills the last 5 months while I drive on wood. Plus a biproduct of gasification is biochar. Super duper helpful in the garden for growing your own, screw the supply chain, and big oil and it’s crisis. They made that bed they can lay in it, we have the freedom fuel and the chosen will to not need them and there crap. Self sufficiency +1
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and Steve asked I’m not sure how many hours it took to build my chunker, but about 2 weeks of tinkering a few hours a day after work, and only part I had to buy was the belt, everything else was scrap or junk I had laying around. Junk generator motor with a bad carb, useless ford van dana 60, scrap metel, scrap big rig brake drum for a flywheel, rusted out old motorcycle trailer, junk chevy dually rims and tires, some scrap pipe from @mggibb a ford alternator pulley. Throw in some welding action and the chunks start flying! I did a full build video series if you want to see how I built it, based somewhere between Wayne’s and Mike chunkers
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You will be alright. The biggest welding problem is not leaving pinprick sized holes in places so air can get in. There was someone that did actually make them, but that was probably 15 years ago, and I haven’t seen them around since. I think they were in kansas or missouri.
You can also adapt the design to stationary power, in which case @Matt
owns https://www.thriveoffgrid.net/ and builds them and ships around the world. In theory, you could charge an electric vehicle with them, but I am guessing you may not like the idea of an electric vehicle though.
He has his own thread on this forum.
At the very least it will give you a different perspective on what is possible.
If you are wanting to drive across the country especially in a SHTF scenario you may want to be familiar with both techs. Most people start with a charcoal gasifier because it is cheap and easy. You can convert a small engine fairly quickly, and charcoal is easy to make. It is also ends up to have a higher fuel density, because the char process removes water, ash and a lot of the tars. it is easy to crush and then screen to size. You can convert a small engine easily in a weekend to get started.
If you are looking for Africa, then you might take a closer look at combining it with solar into a more of a microgrid/offgrid solution. Less work is required, and the cost of solar has plummeted so it can pay back in 7-12 years in most of the US and probably even faster in africa because they use a lot of diesel generation which is more expensive. It doesn’t help for driving unless you have the EV which some parts of africa do have a few and like the Wuling mini-ev is starting to be sold there.
In our state, all building contractors are required to keep refuse like recycleable building materials ie wood out of the dump. So you may find a way to save money.
You can do a WK style, I am not trying to dissuade you. i just want you to be successful. Knowing 50 ways to skin a cat will allow you to adopt various parts that work for you. There is no wrong way. Everyone’s situation is different.
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Time is of the essence Randall. I have been accused if being a doom and gloomer for so long now that I have callouses on my ear drums, but anyone can see now that there is no way out of the corner we are backed into. it’s either fish or cut bait. Because I been so long in the prepper community I have established contacts throughout the country with some who have other contacts among the many ex-military who are spread out through the Ozarks. Because some of them were in military intelligence they were made aware of what is coming and determined that that area was probably the best choice. It is a closed group and wary of outsiders. If you have like minded family or friends then you are stronger than you are on your own and would better off concentrating on areas you are familiar with. The NW is a viable option as long as you are not caught in a pyroclastic flow or beneath a couple tons of volcanic ash.
Being in Utah you are possibly LDS. That is a benefit in itself. However you decide to proceed, be aware of how the prevailing winds are going to carry ash because there will be an abundance. Both Mr Rainier and St Helens are sure to erupt and there are others as well. Soon there will be a major quake from the New Madrid fault that will split the country in two. No reason to debate these things. As they say, hope for the best and prepare for the worst but it is definitely time for action rather than more blah blah blah. I don’t want to poke a stick in a hornet’s nest here but if you are relying solely on PV for emergency power you have problems. Highly recommend that you take the advise given by folks here and gasify a generator. Especially look at MattR’s recent videos on Thrive off Grid. If you have more money than you know what to do with just buy one of his proven units and then start experimenting on your own.
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Not to derail too much further but I know if I had the income I’d buy one or two of Matt’s new gasifiers, run them in parallel so you can keep one running while refueling. Especially now that he’s proven you can hybrid a little bit of wood chips in with the charcoal since his filters are top notch for that application.
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I will actually quote a -different- reason, the Biden just bumped up the allowable limit of NG to be sent to Europe. And 30+% of electric generation in the US is done with NG. Then there is an astronomical amount of electric used by refineries.
At the very least, it makes a great deal of sense to get some solar panels.
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