# Motor coal or wood?
**URL:** http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/motor-coal-or-wood/2305
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [February 22, 2016, 3:17am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/motor-coal-or-wood/2305 "2016-02-22T03:17:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@trigaux](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/trigaux)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2016, 3:17am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/motor-coal-or-wood/2305/1 "2016-02-22T03:17:44Z")
I ask myself, why coal gasifiers at its best suited for small motors?
Wood gasifiers are better for larger engines.
This is probably obvious, but I don 't know!
Thierry
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### Author:  [@KristijanL](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/KristijanL)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2016, 9:25am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/motor-coal-or-wood/2305/2 "2016-02-22T09:25:37Z")
It is quite hard to make good clean woodgas with a small wood gasifier becouse it runs cooler so not all the tar gets reduced in the char bed. A wood gasifier alsow tend to bo biger and heavier.
Charcoal is a nother story… i have made char gasifiers out of tin cans and the gas is the same as a full engine size gasifier.
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### Author:  [@tritowns](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/tritowns)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2016, 11:34am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/motor-coal-or-wood/2305/3 "2016-02-22T11:34:27Z")
A properly designed small gasifier works just fine… I’ve pulled loads of 750 watts many times without any problems… and I’ve let genset run without lids on them at all… it’s all how they are built
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### Author:  [@TomC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/TomC)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2016, 4:50pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/motor-coal-or-wood/2305/4 "2016-02-22T16:50:49Z")
Arvid you have found the Mightus touch when it comes to smaller engines. TomC
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### Author:  [@CoryW](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/CoryW)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2016, 5:48pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/motor-coal-or-wood/2305/5 "2016-02-22T17:48:22Z")
I’m pretty new here, so my thoughts don’t hold a lot of weight, but I think in general, charcoal gasifiers can be made smaller and lighter than wood gasifiers. Again, in general, charcoal gas requires less cooling (radiators), and cleaning (filters). The down side of a charcoal gasifier vs. wood gasifier is that you waste a lot of time and heat turning wood into charcoal.
I don’t know if I’d say charcoal gasifiers are better for small engines, but they are probably easier to mount on a vehicle that is powered by a small engine.
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### Author:  [@dbaillie](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/dbaillie)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2016, 6:55pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/motor-coal-or-wood/2305/6 "2016-02-22T18:55:50Z")
Hi Arvid, when generating 750 watts of power what size engine are you using and any idea of consumption at that rate?. I ask because I am contemplating a build of a unit using Stephen’s basic design and am trying to see if it’s worth it. I know your designs are all tricked out so I would take yours as the best I could acheive. I can only ever put in about a kw an hour into the bank and am trying to figure out if the gain in efficiency is worth the extra build for my situation…
Thanks, David
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### Author:  [@tritowns](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/tritowns)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2016, 7:13pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/motor-coal-or-wood/2305/7 "2016-02-22T19:13:57Z")
Hey David, you’ve seen the genset I use… about 8hp… but it’s not pulling that with only 750 watt load… 20lbs of chips will give you about 2 1/2 hours run time. Our systems are built around Stephen’s Victoria. Not hard to add more fuel capacity… just takes some thought.
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### Author:  [@dbaillie](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/dbaillie)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2016, 7:47pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/motor-coal-or-wood/2305/8 "2016-02-22T19:47:22Z")
Hey Arvid thanks the 20 lbs at 750 watts or at a higher load and what load if higher…
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### Author:  [@tritowns](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/tritowns)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2016, 7:48pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/motor-coal-or-wood/2305/9 "2016-02-22T19:48:47Z")
750 t0 1000 watts or so…
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### Author:  [@Wallace](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Wallace)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2016, 11:29pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/motor-coal-or-wood/2305/10 "2016-02-22T23:29:04Z")
Do you h ave a link to that generator Arvid?
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### Author:  [@tritowns](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/tritowns)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2016, 12:00am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/motor-coal-or-wood/2305/11 "2016-02-23T00:00:49Z")
It’s not one I’d recommend for sale, only part on it I like is its briggs engine. It’s the same small genset in all of our videos
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### Author:  [@Wallace](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Wallace)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2016, 12:39am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/motor-coal-or-wood/2305/12 "2016-02-23T00:39:40Z")
I will have to look for it.
I am not interested in Briggs engines.
Too expensive, unless its a Briggs copy of Honda ( they do exist lol )
Looked at the video.
Briggs 305, good engine and there are some speed parts for it too.
Better pistons and heads.
Cost however is high compared to clones.
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### Author:  [@Chris](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Chris)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2016, 2:31am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/motor-coal-or-wood/2305/13 "2016-02-23T02:31:19Z")
Charcoal or wood?
It’s very dependent on your fuel and your needs. For the amount of fuel Wayne needs, charcoal could never do. His heating needs could never consume the waste heat, you’d end up using large traditional kilns and just throwing the heat away.
For a smaller usage, where light weight and simple construction is paramount, charcoal makes much more sense. Especially when you can have a larger wood gasifier or a wood stove creating the charcoal.
This charcoal vs woodgas debate is as old as gasification. Go read the Gengas book, they basically had a 50/50 split of charcoal and woodgas users. The big trucks and long distance drivers used wood, for economy. The in-town short errand drivers and taxis used charcoal, although it was expensive the convenience was worth while. Both fuels were heavily regulated.
I recall that although the miles driven was equally split wood and charcoal, the actual wood used was 2/3 for charcoal… that’s how much was lost in the conversion.
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### Author:  [@dbaillie](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/dbaillie)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2016, 4:08pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/motor-coal-or-wood/2305/14 "2016-02-23T16:08:00Z")
Chris That is probably spot on. My best guess is that charcoal uses twice the wood for the same motor running work. What you do with the heat makes all the difference…