Make sure -both- side mirrors work, or else you could get pulled over and given a ticket as that is a safety infraction. Then your insurance company might start asking questions.
Quite honestly, I would have tried to hide it. But I was pulled a mile from MSU’s campus, going away from campus, by campus police for not using a turn signal in a left hand turn lane.
Sean, The mirrors are in place and functioning. I’m open for suggestions. Thanks for your input.
I just didn’t want to see you get a ticket. 
Beyond what has been mentioned. If you need like 6-8" more space, it might be easier to fab a raised trunk lid. then you can add louvered vents to it paint it the same colour and just keep your old one. It would look more like it is supposed to be there and just an aftermarket add-on, but that also requires a completely different design thus I am hesistent about saying anything, because I know you put a lot of work into it, and it works.
Sean, yes I’m trying to wrap this project up—perhaps just a few more small refinements.
Steve, you have the gasifier working, and you pulled the trunk lid off, go out and test the car out again. If it works so well that you want to start driving it. I would go driving. I won’t profess knowing much about Canadian laws, but what law are you breaking? How is your insurance going to know anything if you don’t tell them? TomC
Tom,
I live in Oxford, NC and have been driving here on charcoal for a little over a year—usually a short trip every week or two. No one has given me any problems so far. The fellow who does the safety inspection and is sympathetic to the cause, hasn’t had any problem passing it. The car is set up to run on gasoline or an alternative fuel. Of course, it is not insured as such. Someone might find problems with my structural engineering, but so far nothing has fallen off. I’m thinking of adding a supporting cable from the bolt ring on the reactor to some place in the top of the trunk area to provide additional support to compensate for the increased wind exposure. I haven’t run into anyone looking for trouble yet. I’m sure they are out there as Sean has experienced. I just hope none of them live around here.
Thanks for clarifying where you are from. That is one problem I have with this web sight is, it doesn’t tell us where the member is from if we click on their name. Back to you pictures. Did you notice any difference with the trunk lid off? TomC
I cannot help but wonder if the setup could be changed to fit inside the trunk, to be more low-profile. Lots of piping would likely be needed, and maybe even custom-made enclosures for the gasification process parts.
Making it short enough for others to not know it’s a woodgas vehicle unless they open the trunk would be ideal, but even getting closer to that would make vehicle gasifier projects a lot more popular. I mean, the whole thing sticking out of the car is one of the main reasons this is not being used as much as it could.
Also, having traktors working with wood gas might be a good enough startup to make woodgas vehicles a lot more popular.
Tom, I’m planning to take the car out with the new set-up Tuesday, but it will be a short run to McDonalds probably. I’ll have to do a longer run soon until it begins to heat up to tell if there is any marked improvement in the operation.
Sapioit, Way back near the top of this project thread I explain about my limited fabrication skills and equipment. In my case—simple made it possible. Kristijan Lettinger has done some really neat, compact and skillfully executed designs like you describe. Bruce Southerland’s design is a good low-profile version. Most gasifiers are in pickup trucks. It is hard to disguise one sitting in the back of a car, but some have succeeded. I’ll have to leave the more refined designs to others . . . .
I have seen videos of Don Mannes, Gary Gilmore, and Wayne Keith running portable generators from their vehicle gasifiers. I had been wanting to try that, too, and got a chance to do it today. I have a 4000 watt no-frills generator with which I can run the essential devices in my home and/or the water pump. Starting the water pump puts quite a load on the generator when running on gasoline, so you can imagine the struggle when running on charcoal. At first it would not start the pump motor. After a couple of tries, I adjusted the air mixture valve until it pulled the starting load just fine as you can hear in the first video. The engine sounds a bit odd in the recording, but in real life it sounded normal. Here are two brief videos of it.
I think this project is winding down now. I may yet post a portrait shot (suitable for framing) some day and I’ll provide any updates if there is anything notable to report. This project has been a lot of fun and I hope will provide entertainment for my guests and myself for years to come. My thanks go to so many of you, who have provided suggestions, praise, answers to my many questions and dilemmas. I hope all the problems and concerns have been resolved now. Simple can run a vehicle though perhaps with some limitations.
Thanks also for sharing your projects on driveonwood. They have been entertaining, inspirational, and educational. It will not be easy getting past this “addiction,” as many of you have referred to it. If I find I need a support group for recovering wood-gas addicts, I’m certain I’ll have to look elsewhere.
May the peace of the Lord be with you.
Well SteveB, for what you do have now:
The gasifier system;
the Toyota:
before you completely set it all aside and move-on consider this been-done solution:
a hinged rear-bumper, pivoting rear wheel supported system.
You can look up the historic WWII pictures topic and see examples of these.
Some with sheet metal covering fairings.
“Whats That?” Oh . . . my . . . (whatever would get you least further notice and questions).
Pull the two rear-of-vehicle hinge attachment pins. Disconnect your electrical supply and extension rear lights “trailer” plug, Disconnect your gas supply line, and then . . .
Look Ma’, just another plain-Jane Toyota Crayola like hundreds of 'em!
Give you, your trunk back. You need that for bags of staining black-charcoal-fuel and gasifier maintenance tools anyhow. And that will give you back your rear seat for kids, and dogs, and such.
S.U.
Steve U,
This is why I wrote, “I’m certain I’ll have to look elsewhere for a support group for recovering wood-gas addicts” . . . .
Truly, there are endless options for improvements in looks, convenience and long-distance continuous operation capability. I have seen photos of the very practical layout options you mention from the WWI era. Even though I usually prefer to go unnoticed, there is a secret desire there somewhere for attention. A slide in version might not be too difficult. See you got me slipping back again.
For now I’m ready for a break from research and development. Also, I don’t want to wear out my welcome with my machinist friend who has aided me when I needed to go beyond my abilities. By the way, I picked him up this morning at his home for a ride on chargas to McDonalds and a complimentary breakfast as a modest thank you for his contributions. It was a small price to pay for his help, but he enjoyed the experience. Thanks for the ideas and encouragement—perhaps some time in the future I’ll pick this up again and take it to the next level.
I’ve seen these platforms on the backs of vans and SUVs. I imagine that if a gasifier were mounted on something like this it might allow one to disconnect a hose or two and very quickly become just an ordinary vehicle again. Anyone else have thoughts?
Hi Bruce, we have a lot of Electric wheel chairs/ scooters that have racks on the back of Cars, Vans, Trucks, in Washington State. Thats why I went with the back rack mounted look of the charcoalgasifer behind the car. With a insulating cover over the gasifier it would look normal. Also people use these luggage racks for trips carrying extra luggage, cooler, camping gear, ect.
The only thing to remember is that you can not block your the lights on the vehicle or license plate so it can not be viewed. Just move it to the rack on the back and you are set.
In the Tree Hugging State I live in , I do not put any signs on the truck. I wound not want one of those environment all talk Snow Fakes turn me in because I am doing something good for the environment and they get their feelings hurt because they are not doing what I am doing.
Yes those kind of people live in Washington State.
Great job on what you have done. I would say your car is a total success in my books of grading. A+++
Bob
Beware putting that much weight&mass hanging out on the rear of a light sedan. Especially a FWD one.
You WILL speed turning, or accident avoidance, create a bad over-steering vehicle like one of the old swing-axle rear engines Renault’s, early Corvair"s.
The pivot-wheel tag-a-longs share the added-loading weight. And note that the best of them have opposing resistance springs on the wheel pivot. Resisting turning. Self straitening.
S.U.
That is a good point Steve, I will check to see the loading spec. on the Subrau Out Back. If my gasifier is to heavy I will not mount it on the back. This unit can also go into a bed of a truck.
Bob
Hi Bob, Thanks for the good conversation at Argos. I too have enjoyed Steve’s Toyota project since it is similar to my MGB.
I am saddened to hear that Terry had his truck insurance cancelled (post 179 above). This energy path has its up, down and sideways experiences.
Thanks Steve for letting us in on your entertaining and inspiring charcoal project.
Thanks, Bruce, for your comments. I went for a ride today, so here is an update.
For some time I had been envious of Don Mannes’ 3 miles-per-pound results with his Tracker. For a while it seemed that I was getting further away from that “record.” Our engines are the same size, but mine is older and has a carburetor. After replacing my spark plugs recently, I suddenly got a boost from under 2 miles per pound to 2.6 miles per pound for a 27 mile trip which included some “highway” and “city” driving. So, early today, I took off through the country for some genuine “highway” driving at 40-50 mph mostly, and the results are in—8.5 pounds for 26 miles which calculates to barely over 3 miles per pound. I used about 2 drips a second of water and some exhaust gas. The car is rated for 28 miles per gallon for “highway” driving so the gallon to pound calculation comes to 9.15 pounds charcoal to one gallon of gasoline. I’m OK with that.
Tom, I think removing the trunk lid is keeping the gasifier cooler. When I got home, the reactor lid thermometer was showing under 200 degrees F, the gas exiting the filters was about 100 degrees F.
It ran quite well with good power, but sometimes it is a bit weak starting off. If I can keep moving, it seems to run quite well. I’m very pleased with the results.
My children are treating me to dinner at the Cracker Barrel tomorrow. I love their biscuits. Happy Father’s Day to you all.
Thanks Steve for the update and happy father’s day. Way to go on breaking the 3 miles per pound barrier.
Yes, spark plugs can make a big difference on charcoal gas and should be fairly high on the troubleshooting check list. I don’t know about what is best for different modern ignition systems, but older engines running on CO like a narrower plug gap . After spending way too much time considering my options, I decided to keep my points system on the MGB, but invested in iridium plugs.
Enjoy those biscuits!
Bruce, In my update I failed to mention that I decreased the specified spark plug gap in the new plugs by about 20 percent before this last run. I don’t know if there was any improvement due to that change, but it certainly didn’t hurt. Somewhere I saw the 20 percent gap reduction suggested in connection to running propane gas instead of gasoline (or a gas instead of a vaporized liquid.)