2 days back l did my first cleanup. So far all looks great. I expected a load of ash in the sack filter/cyclone but apart from a few spoons on the bottom and a thin dusting on the sack, all was still good wich tells me the barrel dropbox works good.
There was quite some dust in the firetube, and lm not exactly sure if it acumulated or poured in when l emptyed the hopper. All l know is the gasifier ran good when l parked so l dont worry too much.
Under the grate, there were two bucket fulls of sliped char/ash and only an occasional small bit of slag, wich tells me its sliping just enaugh to keep the charbed clean.
I did however notice the air jets has been plugged with porous slag, so it seems l need to focus more on periodicly checking/clearing those rather thain anything else.
No sign of degradation of the hearth, so it gets my proofmark for even useing pure charcoal.
Allinall l am wery satisfyed.
I have now driven this thing enaugh on moistened charcoal to get the performance consistant. I got my baseline. Now, l move from here!
The optimisation is now slowly under way. Time to throw in variables, one at a time.
Yesterday, l mixed tic-tac box size wood chunks with engine grade char for todays drive. What Bob wuld call “Rocket fuel”. I dont like to jump to conclusions but it seems this is a superb fuel for the sistem, power wise. Had my first “ITFSO” (is the fuel swich on?) moment this morning. Great power, breaths good, hopper gets a tad hotter but still wery litle positive pressure at shutdown, with just barely noticable hasitation after a long red light. Means the massive WK and charcoal mixed in are doing their job.
I will know more after a couple of hoppers, namely if any tar or condensate are created. I must avoid this at all cost as the sistem is not build to cope with any of the two! Having no coolers and condensate tanks…
If l manage to maintain this performance l am more thain pleased. But there is one thing l realy dislike. For some reason its wery picky on air fuel ratio. Wich is strange, l basicly took the mixing part from my Mercedes so l know it works.
All the more reason to get the electronic fuel management sistem project in gear. I strongly belive l will benefit big time from it on this truck.
@Matt, got any breadcrumbs to throw in the pot on the subject?
Here the link to the Tutorial I did the. last code posted I think is still up to date. Its very fast and responsive. I can show you how to tweak it as well.
Yeah that is where Im going with the charcoal units to see if they will process a mixture of wood and charcoal. If they will on this fuel then they would be a Hybrid.
Thanks for the ride Kristijan. I wish I could understand the comments of your camera assistant with her sweet little voice. Did you have wood mixed in with charcoal on this trip?
Thank you, thank you, Kristijan!
That was a relly good video. The young commentator did a good job, even if I wasn’t able to understand a single word Well, I did hear “Americane” or something, but that’s about it
What Don said: What was the fuel-mix at the moment?
The little Skoda seems to run very well. If the majority of your driving is on roads like those, you should be more than satisfied with power as well.
That was fun ride. You apologized for the camera work but I thought she did a very good job of holding the camera steady and on target. Interesting constructions there== quite a few 3 story buildings and the thing I didn’t understand the construction of some. It seemed they were 2 or 3 story where the bottom floor was closed in but the upper stories had just studs going up to hold the roof. TomC
This time l ran only moist charcoal. I had a lot of starts and stops planned and while “rocket fuel” is better for power, moist engine grade charcoal is better for town drives. More constant gas quality and drag on the charbed, less fidling with the air adjustment at red lights.
I lit at 10 in the morning, with a full hopper, came home at 3 in the afternoon. A lot of errands, starts/stops and a couple of hundred pounds of roof tiles on the bed on the way home. When l came home l still had at least 10 miles worth of fuel in left in the hopper. Hope l get a reason for a long drive soon, to test the fuel consumption more realisticly but l like it so far! @Tone, perhaps you wuld like a woodgas ride some day? l need a reason for a longer trip you know
To sum the talk between me and Neža, she was confused why l suddenly started to talk in English. I explained its for my American (and everyone else) friends to understand. At that point she asked me “you have friends?” yeah, even kids notice woodgas people are strange
Tom, lm not exactly sure what you mean but l think what you describe is our traditional barns. Usualy, they are built of brick on the lower part to house livestock, then the upper part is made of wood and left open for keeping hay, with a special porch around where people used to hang hay if it wasnt dry enaugh, or to hang corn cobs, beet leaves for pigs, it was also a threshing floor…
And this is traditional to the region l originate from. The unpredictable Alpine weather makes hay drying hard sometimes so people used to stack moist hay like this to dry.
This was our way. Similar to yours.
As kids we used to make tunnels and take turn crawling 100 yards inside the hay to see who’s the fastest, only to get yelled at if we got caught
Back when I was little and we managed our own hayfield and square baled it, we just stored it in the top floor of our cousin’s barn. We also filled our own barn with hay but it only held so much for the horses. I would like to refurbish the Tackroom.
Maybe even refurbish the entire barn for a garage or better junk storage.
Kristijan, Yes; The buildings you sent were the buildings I was seeing. We sure ddon’t have anything like those In Wisconsin. A few years back, when I was trying to be a farmer, I drove back to California during the summer or better known as haying season. It was amazing to see all the different ways farmers “made” hay. But all those ways that you and JO have shown, are again knew to me. Don’t know how they pack the hay around those posts. I did see a video by Johan (?–He drove the length of Sweden on wood) of how he draped the hay over poles that were set up like a tent. He also showed how he raked the hay----different from any of the methods that I have seen. I can’t believe how the farmer that rents my land “makes” hay. It takes millions of dollars worth of equipment. Un believable how fast they can clean up a field. TomC
Tom, that’s exactly my thinking when I see farmers baling nowdays. At least around here on small lots and knowing a round bale is worth only $60-70. It should take them half a lifetime to brake even only on equipment and fuel.
Thank you for the wonderful winter ride Kristijan. Yes to what everyone else said too. This is great video for everyone and very informative for others with the WK char/wood gasification in mind. The present build i am doing will be lighter like yours and JO’s. My WK Gasifier has both JO and yours ideas with some of my too. It will be awhile now before I can resume my build because of the snow and cold weather we are having.
Bob
Thanks Bob. You stay warm, if l wuldnt be forced to go out these days l surely wuldnt. Winter and l are not friends.
For the meantime, l recomend a cup of mulled wine. Half cup wine, half cup water, sugar, cinamon and cloves. Pull off the heat just before it boils and enjoy. Its what gets me trugh the depresing winter days.
That does sound good, hot drinks in the winter time is a favorite for me. A few years back on Dana’s 36th birthday on the 4th of December we came up with a new drink that can be consumed hot or cold. We called it a D36. One shot of Jagermeister to one shot eggnog. Or extra eggnog added to your liking. Some people say that’s the way to ruin good eggnog and others say that’s the way the ruin a shot of Jager. Lol
Keep up the good work on DOW.
Bob
Well, I did hear “Americane” or something, but that’s about it 
l need a reason for a longer trip you know 
