Thank you so much Wayne for your input, I seem a little rushed at time, and I realize that I need to take it slow. It is all about the experience and understanding. I will definitely consider building one myself and taking the time I need. I get that you have things to do. Thanks, Tyler.
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Is there any way to extend the trip by lengthening the wood hopper? i live in wisconsin, and a trip to my cabin up north near eagle river is about 200 miles. i was thinking, in a dodge dakota, could i possibly be able to go the whole trip without loading more wood into the hopper? thanks
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Hello Tyler .
Yes you can extend the hopper and also build the hopper so you can put an extension on it to make it taller. With this said I would advise against it. I have had taller hoppers but only to cut them back down. .
The first issue is, sooner or later you will have a burp, belch or fart in the fuel hopper . The smaller the area of the hopper the less the explosion will be and maybe not even noticed . The more area the hopper has the bigger the boom will be.
But the main reason is the dakota has a small profile and will glide through the air using little power . If the hopper protrudes much above the cab more power will be needed.
Out on the open road the dakota should get about 100 miles on a loading of hard wood . The best that I have got is 122 miles pulling a small trailer.
While out on the road traveling I can think of very few times I made an unscheduled stop to refuel. 95% of the time while out travailing a fuel stop will fit in with a break.
The below pictures shows very little of the gasifier protruding above the cab .
Thanks
Wayne
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Tyler, I made a hopper that stood to high above my cab. I ended up, taking it apart and cutting 7 inches off the hopper. Now I am in the process of making a new hopper that will NOT stick above the cab, at all.
I drove my first Hooper from north of Green Bay to Argos. I refilled the hopper every hour on the way down. That was good. On the way home I had to travel east which was against the prevailing wind, and I had to revert to petrol. That wasn’t good. I admit my truck is a full size truck with a V6 engine. TomC
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To Tom Collins and Wayne Keith, thanks for the info on the distances and travel, that helps me a lot with knowing that it was a little unreasonable to go 200 miles and not stop, i wasn’t thinking of that at the time. 100 miles is very good for everyday travel and small work loads, which i don’t plan to really have anything of great load in the bed. the only thing i can think of for a long trip is some luggage and extra wood. nice truck Wayne, i like the low profile gasifier on your dakota. a v8 is ideal it seems, the power and convenience that highway use is possible is nice. with whatever i can fit in the remaining bed of the truck, i probably have a week of daily driving without having to put gas in the truck. a lot of times though, it would be nice to start the truck on gasoline and switch over to wood gas. this is a great community, thanks again for helping me.
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Hello Tyler.
Below is a link with some video showing fueling up while on a trip . I think it was about 1500 miles for me .
Also there are a lot of pictures of our Argos gathering you might like to look at .
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Hello all.
I use several different methods for firing up the gasifier . The below video shows a method I may use if I have plenty of time , or if the wood may be a little on the damp side but most of all if I am out where smoke will bother no one .
I was planning on hauling cattle with the old truck today but so wet around the barn I knew the cows and truck would really mess up the ground .
I did put about 20 miles on it .
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Hi Wayne, that is the way I start up the old 92 Dakota. I also like to let the engine warm up so I have hot air going to the nozzles. It is all up hill out of my place so I let the gasifier grate get to 800 *f or so before taking off. It takes a few minutes longer.
Less then 6 months and counting until Argos 2019.
Thanks for the video.
Bob
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Good evening WK THANKS for all the vidios of wood gas start ups and driveing tips, They really help. i hope your all staying above mud, now i know why you should have mud on them trucks, frames,wheels, tires.
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Not a god day to be out working , cold and wet. My ole truck has a good heater so good day to be running errands .
Have wood will travel !
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Hi Wayne,
I always like “riding” along with you.
Pepe
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Never boring, I enjoy them all!
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Working the old truck 
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hey wayne, i know you have covered this before buried in this thread somewhere, but with the wk gasifier for your ram and dakotas, what kind of collection tank or way do you store the wood gas when you shut the gasifier down? doesn’t the gasifier run even hours after you shut it down? could it possibly build pressure in the system enough to blow up? thanks, tyler.
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Hello Tyler ,
When you shut down a gasifier and close all your valves it is kinda like covering a camp fire . Oxygen can’t get to the fire and it will go out after a while . If needed you can uncover and bring the fire back to life if you don’t wait too long.
I find if I am using dry hard wood I can start the gasifier without relighting up until about 3 hours .
A small amount of gas might linger in the system but not much .
Sometime there might be a burp out of the hopper and seems it may happen more at start up than any other time .
(could it possibly build pressure in the system enough to blow up? thanks, tyler.)
There will be too many places for any pressure to leak out .
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ok, as with other systems i’ve seen, it is a tight sealed unit, i knew you would think of that in the design stages, just making sure. thanks again.
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What are the two gages that you zeroed in on at the end of the first video? TomC
Hello Mr. Tom .
The gauge on the left is the temp in my crossover pipe from gasifier to drop box . It is set to beep and flash on and off at 1000 F.
The gauge on the right is the fuel hopper temp. It is set to flash on and off at 200 F.
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The old truck keeps on putting the miles down (I like it ) Ran several miles in overdrive when not going up hill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky_qgfi6p4Q
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