About 1300 miles so far
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Dump your ash in your gasifer, be careful not to bump the grate when cleaning it out. You have a good charbed going now and you do not want to lose it. Once this area gets full of ash the charcoal will start to migrate down through the gasifer system. The larger area gets fill up with ash so the velocities increase and causes the light charcoal to move on and not to drop into this area. I have made it a habit to clean the ash out more often then recommend but thats just me. I get very little charcoal in my back condensation tank. I just get a lot of wet char fines, black gooey stuff to wash out with the water hose. Flat land DOW is a lot different then what you are doing pulling hills everyday going to work a back.
Bob
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Yup it was over due for a clean out that is for sure.
At the bottom of your drop box weld in a 6" pipe with a flange plate and bolt holes. You could then reach in at the bottom and dig that charcoal out in a couple minutes and seal It RTV silicone on the flange plate and bolt the plate cover back on. The bottom open is great for washing it out with water to get rid of the soot build up on the heat exchanger.
I can open my drop box side hatch clean it out put the vacuum hose in and blast the inside with high pressure air. No water used in the drop box at all.
With the amount of charcoal in the drop box I sure you will find some in your cooling rails too. After a few full clean outs under your belt. You will be able to do it as fast as a oil change on your truck. If you keep the low part of the gasifer cleaned out of ash and charcoal and the drop box you will see less charcoal migration into the cooling rails and back lower condensation tank.
Just a little more of the 75% under your learning belt. Good job, well done Marcus.
Bob
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Good morning Marcus .
If you can dump your ash before it becomes packed you can do it pretty quick .
I like to make sure there is a breeze and stay up wind of the soot .
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Hey Marcus, a new haircut, isnāt it that you got a haircut when it burned you recently? I did a similar thing when we were jumping over the fire as teenagers, ā¦
Mr. Jo has leased such comments, but I understand him at the moment ā¦ but I still miss them
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Yes I got a flash back to the face and got a forced trim because of it 
first time in ten years IV had a beard trim, kinda hurt a little bit. The beard trim not the flashback
I will be doing it more often for sure. Interesting after the clean out my vacuum readings dropped even more, and it seemed like I suddenly got more power. And a noticably more stable idle that I have not had for the last week. It did take a few runs to get it going on wood again after the first light but running sweet! The white flecks in the ash I took a closer look and Iām not sure what it is, usually ash is very soft and fluffy, this white flecks are super hard and shatter into pieces instead of dust. Not sure what it is but all the char is black as can be. It may have been the muskrat carcass I threw in there yesterday???
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Muskrat bones that did not turn to ashes?
That is great that you noticed a big improvements in vaccum, idling and power performance.
When trying to clean all the ash out of the bottom you might have disturbed the charbed.
I do not try to get it all clean out, a little ash in the bottom of the barrel is a good insulation from heat.
So try a quick dump like Wayne did more often between the normal clean out you did.
Bob
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That was my best guess to. I normally toss them in my back yard creek to feed the crawdad and mink, but Wayneās comments about a dead cat just got to me and I had to try it
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Either bones or maybe nail clinkers?
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IV been very diligent in trying to keep nails out, couple five gallon buckets of pulled nails at home I need to haul to scrap
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Well did you prove that Wayne was correct in saying it would get you down the road for a couple of miles? A muskrat SWEM.
Bob
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Nothing left in the hopper so Iām gonna say ya it got me a few miles 
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Been using the Mazda truck around home for the last week. Today was the first longer trip for a while and even if it was only Thursday I voted for the Sunday car.
Just shy of a 100 mile roundtrip for a couple arrends. $35 worth of fuel saved in one blow
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Hey JO , you shouldnāt be driving your Sunday car on a week day 
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Thanks for the rides Wayne and Jo!
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Yes, thanks for the ride, but was so close and did not come and show off the new car?
Wayne, you were talking about 600 degrees, where was it, I did not understand?
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Wayne, with no job at the moment Iām fortunate enough to have Sunday every day 
I calculated if I DOW 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, Iāll save the amount to equal my previous salary. Itās all about finding places to go
Iām sorry about that Jan, but it was late in the afternoon, dark and snowing.
Actually, I havenāt yet seen your truck in real life either. Maybe we could arrange a woodgas micro-meetup some day.
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Good morning Jan.
There is a tube that connects the gasifier to the heatexchanger / drop box . I call this tube the crossover pipe .
Normal operating temp is 600-800 F .
I have an alarm that will sound off if this temp reaches 1000F.
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Thanks Wayne.
Then I have something to compare with, where did you find a thermometer that operate for these temperatures?
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