Glad to hear it’s working for ya Tom
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Just went out and looked into the hopper to see what I could see. I burned up everything in the hopper down to just below the nozzles. Can’t believe I burned everything and can’t believe it got me home.Hmm now do I just dump wood in and fire it up or do I have to put more charcoal in. Errrrr I would rather think of new ideas and build them rather than “learning” this 75% that goes with driving. TomC
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What was the hopper temp on your way home?
If there’s any unchared wood left I would pick those pieses out before I put more charcoal in - or - just dump more wood in and blow back an forth for a while. You know the drill.
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My sick brain rewards me with most “feel good chemicals” when wood prepping. To most the downside to gasification - to me the bright side 
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With heating and driving both on wood, you should be getting lots of “feel good chemicals”. I need to get up to the woods. I think the last trip I saw a couple of downed trees that I can get to. It has just been too hot and muggy. TomC
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PWM CONTROLLED FUEL PUMP---- Ok friends. I knew when I started this little project I would end up here asking for help. I have read the stuff that has been posted and know there are a lot of places we can go wrong with the wrong PWM. I thought it was said that the Reese units were the ones that work. I bought a Reese Towpower Brakeman Timed Compact
I have two slide bar adjustments on the controller. I set the one on the face that determine how much volts goes to the brake to MAX. The one on the side I’m not sure about so I have tried it in both positions. Then I crank it and nothing happens.
OK WAIT!!! I just came back from the truck. There is a THIRD slider switch on the front. It is spring loaded and goes to the “off” position unless you press it down then it goes towards “Max volts” as determined by the other slide switch on the face. So with the slide switch at Max and push the button to Max the truck will start. Now if I let off the Push button switch the engine will slow down until it dies. Or starting again with one in Max and push button at Max, it starts and then with the slide switch I can control the speed until it dies.
So what should I do? Tape the push button switch to max and leave it so I can run off the slide switch. Or put the slide on Max and when I need hybrid, I start pushing the button to add dyno? Don’t know how much you use these things so which would be most practical?
Now that the controller is working got to go back an see how to hook it up to run on straight dyno. TomC
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This is what I did. Works fine.
I get full voltage with mine when turned up all the way. So that’s gasoline mode. For making double sure the gas is OFF… I put a toggle switch inline to the brake controller.
Some folks have a three position switch, one for the brake controller, middle for OFF, other one for bypass (back to factory wiring). Probably the cleanest setup.
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Thanks Chris for the suggestions. Just looked out the window and the rain was coming down and there sat my truck with both doors open and hood up. Wasn’t sure how it was going to work out but I ran out and pushed buttons to start on dyne and drove her into the shop. Thanks again. Tomc
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Oh a beautiful day in Wi. Wife and I went for a drive. The first with my PWM. That added to that 80% figure we all say we have to learn. I have to learn how to use the hybrid mode. First off, my fingers are too fat to get in and adjust that little slide on the brake adjustment. But by the end of the ride, I had the slide at a position that I just turned on the fuel pump and gave the engine a little more air and it worked without me fumbling around with the slide. For some reason my power was way down today. 2000 rpm’s in 1st gear, but then any other gear was 1500, unless I could get a little down hill. Hmmm???
My big plan today, was to get the fire in the gasifier started, and then take off on gasoline and wean over to wood and see how long it would take me. As it is now, I live 6 miles to town and it takes me at least 10 minutes or more to get the gasifier up to temp. So I always conclude it isn’t worth the effort just to drive to town. If I can get out on the road faster it will be worth my time. The test didn’t go so well today. I lit the wood and with the engine running and my Kirby running I could hear that deep grumble in the belly of the beast. By the time I switched valves etc, the gas was rich enough to the engine that it stalled the motor. I couldn’t just drive away, I had to do that little dance between gasoline/air/ wood/ timing etc. Had to wait on the wife, so it all worked out. TomC
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Tom, you are running your wood gas through your TBI, right? How often do you have to clean the throttle plate and intake manifold and how do you do it?
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Yes Don I am running through my TBI. It gets sooty looking around the injectors so I take a small wire brush and clean the visible part when I have an occasion to take the air cleaner off. One time I ran the engine and sprayed carburetor cleaner into the TBI. For some reason, after that the throttle linkage in the TBI kept sticking first thing in the morning. Finally worked my way through that I I have left things alone since then. TomC
PS I get a lot of soot out of my cyclone. I think/ hope it is helping me out in this respect.
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Hello friends. Well I got my PWM working and you would think I would go out and drive it around. But really I stay at the farm most of the time, so I decided to take things apart and go onto another part of this project.
THE VACUUM SYSTEM THAT WILL BLOW AND SUCK OFF ONE SOURCE.
The basis of this system is a " 3 way swimming pool valve". Right now for trial runs it is just laying on the bed of the truck, but my plan is to make a panel on the side of the box and mount the system along the wall. To be continues. But here is what I have so far;
A crude sketch of the system and then two picture of the actually system;
TomC
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That is great Tom, I think I could modify my set up to do the same. It would save me some rewiring that I was planning on doing. Thanks.
Bob
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I think I played around with my new vacuum/blower before I started to drive today. Before I got home it started running bad and would not pull a vacuum. I finally stopped to check it out and I had burned up all the wood in my hopper. Normally it would have run further. I did have a good char bed when I started out though. TomC
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Tom, you did it again!
Mine runs bad too, when out of wood.
You now what? You should get one of those hopper alarms. I use a cheap meat/oven thermometer with an alarm setting. When temp climbs above boiling I know wood level has reached funnel area.
My alarm is set at 150 C (300 F). That’s just inches above the firetube and I know I have to add wood in minutes.
Yesterday the alarm screamed when I was only a mile short to work. I swithed to gasoline for that last mile.
When I fired up to go home the wood had shrunk down to just above nozzle level.
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Tom, l did it too a few days back. Burned the lid seal. Hope this makes you feel better 
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Thanks for the pep talk guys. I have 4 thermocouples in my system 1 for air temp going into the nozzles, 1 for the gas coming out, 1 for the temperature in the hopper about a foot above the nozzles. and 1 for the grate. The only one that reads accurate enough for me to rely on is the grate temp which gets up to 1000 degrees F. I don’t know why I have trouble with TC’s I have changed them out for new ones The ones I use just don’t answer at low temperatures. JO, is there a wire going into the cab to set off an alarm when the temp in the hopper gets up to 300 F ? I have never seen a meat oven TC like you use. TomC
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Yes, there is a 4’ ss flexy wire. Long enough to reach inside my back cab window. The probe has a sharp tip to go into the steak. I use same type for my rails temp. Drilled a small hole and some silicone, thats all.
Any Wahlmart (or what ever your supermarkets are called) have them. Around 10 bucks. Two small AA 1.5V batteries. They are usually good for 300C (572F)
Maybe your wife already has one. I went that route, wich forced me to by her a gift later on 
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Posting Joe Monty’s gasifier.
Note the 2 inch flat washer should sit on the top of the burn tub. ( don’t know how the picture got changed)
TomC
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Thanks for posting this Tom , I am always interested in seeing all types of builds like these .
Dave
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