Hi Wesley, welcome aboard! You are now officially addicted for life…
Charcoal is easy to use, and wasteful to make. You throw away around half the energy as waste heat by making charcoal, which you may or may not find another use for. The gasifier can be very simple though, and will not tar a motor. Great for small engines, less great for road vehicles. I can’t imagine how much charcoal that van burned through… Wood gasifiers are slightly more complex as they make their own charcoal, use almost all the energy for fuel, and must process the tars and moisture from the wood. Personally I feel it’s well worth it, and it’s really the best way to go for a large vehicle.
Not too many vans have been done so far, but they mostly share engines with pickups. Plumbing space may be tight on some vans.
In general, we like OBD1 and very early OBD2. Eventually the computerized stuff gets smart enough to complain about woodgas. If you have inspections the check engine light will be a problem.
I’d prefer something with a real distributor, because you have a better shot at advancing the timing. Some folks have converted coil pack vehicles, with varying degrees of success… the computer decides the timing on it’s own, it can’t be adjusted…and you live or die by that decision.
Carb’d engines are usually older and less efficient motors, and we usually prefer multi-port fuel injection for simplicity and ease of use. If you use a carb, you may end up with an extra throttle pedal, or going in through the carb will eventually gum it up. However there are plenty of carbureted woodgas vehicles around, it’s very possible to do.
I’m including my general caution about motorhomes - the bigger they get the more this applies. I tell a lot of folks this who want to roadtrip in their woodgas RV…
Motorhomes are not the best choice for gasification for a few reasons. They are usually underpowered and slow on gasoline - woodgas will be twice as slow, since you’re losing about 30% of the engine power. Expect a top speed of 45-50 MPH. You need a large gasifier to make enough gas for the heavy load, which will itself add weight and length to an already heavy and long vehicle. Plan on burning 16-20 lbs per gallon… if you get 10 MPG now, you’ll need about 2 lbs per mile on wood. A 1,000 mile trip will be a full ton of wood, which you must chop, dry, and bag before the trip.
Then you need fuel storage - this will have to be towed on a trailer, or inside the vehicle. If you aren’t going to stop by home base to refuel, you’ll also need wood processing equipment on board, like a table saw. Any green wood needs to be air-dried for a while, so your travel range will be limited to the amount of dry wood you can procure.