Howdy,
My name is titus stamper i live in austin indiana.
Ive recently got interested in gasification and wood gas trucks. Ive watched several videos on them and want to learn more and possible one day build my own wood gas truck. I really dont know where to start i really dont have the necessary experience like welding, and mechanic experience. But im eger to learn. Im hoping someone could point me or give some good advice to how to get started.
Welcome to the forum Titus!
What vehicle did you have in mind to add a gasifier onto?
Or were you thinking more along the lines of a generator?
Best bet is a lightweight truck with a V8 from the early to mid 90s, something with a distributor but also has fuel injection. Fuel injection makes it a lot easier to switch between gasoline and woodgas on the fly.
It’s possible to adapt it to just about any car or truck but you want decent horsepower to compensate for the power losses you get with woodgas. We’re just now dipping our toes into 2000s era OBD2 vehicles.
I have a 92 f150 id like to turn to a wood gas truck. Just didnt know where to start. But idk if i should start small like putting a gasifier on a lawn tractor or for a generater to get some knowledge about how it works.
There’s no shame in starting small. What engine is in the F150? Is it a V8 or the Inline 6 cylinder?
Where i ajnt got any mechanic experience. I figure starting small will allow me to get better understanding. But it has a v8 in it.
If you already have a lawn mower you don’t mind experimenting on, I’d say that’s a good way to learn some engine basics.
Single cylinder engines have their own learning curve with woodgas, but not so much that it’s entirely difficult. At least with a small engine if something bad happens you’re not out a car or truck.
For a V8 truck I highly suggest Wayne Keith’s book sold here on the website, Have Wood Will Travel. He uses a Dodge Dakota for his conversion but it works with any make and model of vehicle. If you buy the book you’ll get access to the Premium side where we talk about Wayne’s particular design and lots of members have made in depth posts about their builds.
But there’s just as much if not more to learn on the regular side of the forum. There’s also the free library on the website you can check out.
Do you have a source of wood? Like pallets you can cut down, or a piece of woods where you can harvest trees? A truck will need a steady diet of wood, consider it’ll probably use about a pound of wood for every mile down the road.
Alrighty i appreciate it.
Yeah thats what i was thinking ill start small then try and build one on my truck. Ill look into the book as well ive watched his videos and listen how he explained it. Thats what got me interested. But again i appreciate your time and advice.
If you wanna start really small I’d look into building either a charcoal gasifier or you could build a gasifier that uses raw wood. Stephen Abadessa has made a pretty good form factor for small raw wood systems.
This just shows how the core of his gasifier is made, but it doesn’t go entirely in depth.
I don’t think he sells gasifiers anymore but they always worked well from what I understand.
I appreciate it. I think that would be the best options to start real small and work my way up.
Titus, welcome to the site! I just joined about 6 months ago and the knowledge that people like Cody are willing to share on this site is amazing. You already have a good candidate for gasification in your truck, and starting with a mower is also a good idea. I am just now starting my build as I couldn’t find the right truck until 2 weeks ago. I have been asking questions and reading lots of build threads and now feel confident in getting started. I used to teach welding and auto mechanics, so I am ahead of you there, but don’t let the lack of experience in those areas keep you from building a gasifier. If you know someone who knows how to weld, ask them to teach you, it really isn’t that hard to learn. It just takes practice to make the airtight welds you need in a gasifier. For the mechanical parts, there are youtube videos of just about anything you need to do, and if you can’t find your answers there, just ask on this forum and someone WILL help you.
Garry C
“if you don’t build it, it won’t work”
Welcome to the forum!
You will find everyone here wants to see you succeed, we have several members that pretty well learned how to arc sparks n’ hot snot metal together right here on their first builds. The wealth of knowledge here i dont think you will find anywhere else, daily wood gas drivers and operators of all flavors far and wide across the world we have guys from just about every corner of north and south America, europe Ukraine and thailand all here.
Now i wont try to toot my own horn, but my latest build i did completley on video it is a wayne keith design and i “think” i explained pretty well all the functions of each component decently well in my build thread if video is your thing i think it will end up a good resource for new builders to understand the basics of needed components.
I did deviate from the plans in that i built a custom flatbed design that encompasses the entire gasifier system in one piece, but the functions are all the same and gives a good overview.
You can easily get lost here with the build threads from many users, each showing parts and pieces and completed systems, dont be afraid to ask any questions we are all here to help! There really is no dumb questions when you start learning all this, im 2 years in and still learning. Famous quote of waynes is just when you think you got it figured, it throws you a curveball or something close to that haha
Titus, Welcome to the forum. You can get lots of help here. Nice to see another Indiana guy interested. Woodgas trucks will drive right thru Austin on the way to Argos. You should plan to attend the weekend at Argos. Looks like we will be meeting up there around the first of June. Look for the details on the forum in the near future.