Bump. If you haven’t responded in this thread, we’d love to hear from you.
I first heard about wood gas about a year ago from a friend. I was experimenting a little with hydrogen to supplement gasoline. Had a friend commuting 50 miles each way to work using hydrogen supplemental gaining about two miles per gallon on a mid sized car. Looking on the internet at hydrogen builders none were able to run a vehicle 100% on hydrogen only supplement gasoline, some with fair results, gaining 20 to 25 %. Claims of better than that seemed from what I read were unreliable, so I started searching out wood gas, I found videos on you tube of Wayne Keith watched many of them and became convinced that it worked and that I could build a gasifier. I have often told friends and others that this should be taught to high school students, and yet I had never heard of it and neither had almost all of them.
Like many others here it is not all about money, I am a tinkerer I love to build things have built several house doing all the work from the ground up, When I was 18 just out of high school I started building my own house I figured a house payment was the biggest cost of living expense in life. I have sense then owned three or four houses with no mortgage.Much has changed in the past few years, I see on the horizon Israel bombing Iran and the middle East in an uproar we may all be needing gasifiers to get down the road in a vehicle soon, anyway The learning experience meeting many fine folks here are great would not trade it. Thank’s Wayne and Chris and all others here sharing there knowledge freeley
The first thing that I thought about when I saw this topic is “FREEDOM.” I don’t like being under somebody else’s thumb any more than I can help it. Anyway, “freedom” goes hand in hand with “independence” and “responsibility.” If you want to be free, then you have to take responsibility for yourself, and learn how to be independent to some practical extent.
Of course, that is just one reason (maybe the main one). By nature, I am a tinkerer, and love stuff like this. I have spent some time casually researching alternative energies, and I have found that the costs and energy yields are usually not very good, or very reliable (wind, solar, etc.). Wood gas, however, is different. It really can produce reliable energy at an reasonable price. I am impressed by this. Of course, cost is never the only factor. Other technologies are still desirable from the standpoint of energy independence. I just like wood gas because it seems to give a lot of bang for the buck, and because it uses readily available fuels.
If I get more philosophical about it, then I think a big problem in society is over-centralization. As any economic student knows, specialization, division of labor, and innovation drive economic progress, and ultimately standard of living. But there is a price to pay for these things. Society becomes more fragile, and more dependent on things that are out of their control. I like the idea of decentralization (both politically and economically). I think that this makes a society more resilient in the face of disruptions. Wood gas is a technology which does not have huge economies of scale. It doesn’t have to be produced in a plant costing billions of dollars. I like that.
On a more personal note, I like this kind of stuff simply because of the people you meet. It gives me faith in humanity to meet other people that have an inquisitive and “can-do” nature, as well as sharing some of my own values and ideas. Maybe that is the best part.
Anyway. I guess that’s about it. Of course, it never hurts to be prepared for the zombie apocalypse either (grin).
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Might just be some of us are pyromaniacs looking for a fix.
My reason? Flat out money savings. I have yet purchased my donor truck, however, I did just purchase 6 1/5 acres of densely wooded land for this very reason. Between the truck for work (average approx 200 miles a day) and electricity (plan on running a woodgas gen set) I figure I will have an break even in less than 7 years. Basically, what I save using wood gas will pay for my land, cabin and vehicle in 7 years. Not a bad way to pay for a house, eh?
Question “What’s your motivation to drive on wood?”
In 1990 I was working as an engineer for the government department of transport. It was a good job with good prospects. Then in 1994 Nelson Mandela was released from prison and we had elections. The government changed . In 1997 my brother was murdered in a farm attack, and my sister was badly shot up, they murders got away with two cell phones and R10.00. The police had no interest in the case.
I was retrenched a month later. I could not find work for 2months, so I decided to have a look in New Zealand if the grass was greener . I lived in NZ for 1year then to Australia for 2 years then South east Asia for a year. Then in to China for 8 months, Russia for 6 months. Then in to Northern Europe, logging and fishing for a few months, then Central Europe for a few months building houses and repairing vehicles. Then to the mother land of Britain. This took me 7 years .
I came back to South Africa to escape the Europe winter only to find the infrastructure crumbling, there was fuel shortages, power outages was a weekly occurrence for hours to days at a time. To say it was going back in to darkest Africa.
I had bought a ticket to the States to have a look there as well. Just before I was to fly my dad had a truck accident and had both his legs crushed. So had to take over his farming operation until he was back on his feet, which unfortunately has taken 10 years. In that time the infrastructure of the country is crumbled further.
The corruption and bureaucracy in SA is just getting worse.
We are at the mercy of a racist, uneducated, with no consequence of action government, that is "trying " to correct the social and economical injustices of the past.
Just about every person / business that can afford it has a stand by, back up generator. So the eventual complete failure of the infrastructure is not out of the realms of possibility.
We already experience fuel shortages and restrictions. So it is idiotic not to look at alternative fuels and modes of transport.
We breed Appaloosa horse on the farm, and we joke that one day there will be hitching rails in front of stores in towns once again.
So when we were in the hight of all the "power saving " power cuts I built my first FEMA gasifier which was a failure, it ran my Chevy for all of 4 minuets. Then I built a charcoal gasifier and that ran a B&S For several hours, but it used up charcoal faster that I could make it.
Then Eureka I saw a Wayne Keith youtube clip on drive on wood and I have a grin from ear to ear every time I fire up my generator .
Thanks to Wayne and Chris and all the fellow wood gassers .
Thanks
Patrick
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I make enough money and even have a gas card from my company. About a year ago it hit me, I am completely dependent on the outside world for my existence. My first step was to try and grow some food. I succeeded to a small level. I’ve raised some vegetables and chickens. I then thought about transportation. I did some research on electric vehicles and was going to build an electric truck. Instead I found out about the OEM Ford Ranger EV. So in June, I drove out to Eugene Oregon and bought one. About two months later someone told me about that a flammable gas can be made from wood. I was amazed and had to make some. After a lot of youtube videos and google searches, I realized I can reduce my dependence on the outside world and maintain some luxuries with wood gas.
For me it’s about independence, freedom, exercising my creativity, and save money.
Bill Schiller
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Hey guys, what I thought was a simple question has many factors. Yes my independence has always been a factor. My curiousity for knowing what I am eating and where it comes from… This property is my life, my retirement plan, and my legacy . I grow what I can and of course have fresh brown eggs from my chickens. Although sometimes the savings are not much or even in the red its the piece of mind that you did something your self. AS for driving on wood, heck yes its about the money. I live in a isolated area out here and the price of local gas is usually about 50 cents a gallon more than in the nearest cities. Making a trip to town isn’t justified because its 90 minute drive, and unless you buy a hundred gallons at a time you have just burnt up any savings driving there. I was dead set on bio diesel and bought a Isuzu pup to convert over. My nephew drives an old fourunner around he has converted by putting a Mercedes diesel in and add a few fuel warmers and filters…It works awesome for him. While looking for some specs on a ram pump that I built for my water system ( another old school Item that works Fantastic) I ran into this gasifer thing. HMMM, I have lots of fire wood and its right here on site, HMMM. After viewing and obsorbing all utube had to offer I stated building one… Although I have been only on it a month, yes I am hooked. What started out as a way to run my generator I am sure will later blossom into a wood powered truck eventually. The real question is why wouldn’t you want to drive on wood gas? I f you believe our government has our best interest at heart when it comes to gas pricing, think again, these guys are all stockholders in the big oil companies. Don’t get me started on that. What steve has shown in his pics of the farm is exactly what I am after. He knows exactly what our reasons are. And besides I have to keep up my reputation of being the local mad scientist lol
When i was a kid my dad told me about people in Europe driving cars powered by some kind of wood burning device,actually he thought they were steam powered. Not alot of info available on it back then, but i did look for books on it when the bookmobile would come around. Remember those? haha I never found any books or anyone that knew of any. Later in boy scouts and in science class we learned that you could put wood chips in a can, seal it up, poke a hole in the top, heat it , and light the gas that came out. Didnt think much more about it till i was grown and saw an add in the back of a magazine that claimed you could burn wood and turn it into gas that you could even run your car on. I got interested again and ordered the plans. They were poorly done and hard to read, but i did manage to get a gasifier built and get it to work sorta. The MEN plans i have now look alot like those did, except the credits to MEN had been removed. Later i ran across some drawings and sketchy plans that looked alot like the FEMA and stratified downdraft plans i have now. Built one of those and it worked a little better than the first one, but i never powered a vehicle with it, just played around with small engines, stoves, torches, and just watching the flare burn for fun. That was 20 years or so ago, there wasnt as much info as readily available as there is now, i lost interest in it again.
I didnt get motivated again till i decided to do some research on these rocket mass heaters i had heard about. I have wood stoves, but my house is small and its hard to regulate the heat even with a small boxwood heater. I wanted to build an efficient heater but an outside unit and use air to air and water heat exchangers so it would be easier to control the heat. While researching this i ran across one of Waynes videos and that lit the fuse again, this is what daddy was talking about.haha Waynes gasifier is so simple compared to other designs i`ve seen, and it obviously works
My motivations are similar to alot of those already mentioned. I dont like making oil companies richer and seeing so much of my money going overseas funding activities i dont like. I like being independent, and even though running a gasifier whether its a stove, stationary unit running generators, or powering your truck/car, theres some work involved. Nothings free even if you already own the wood. But the satisfaction of knowing that when the storms hit and you cant get gas anywhere, and you don`t have to spend all your money driving into the next state to fill your gas cans because you can go to the woodpile to fill up the truck, or the gasifier running the generator, well, thats priceless, and worth all that scrounging scrap iron and welding !
I also like doing things that people say wont work or tell me that i cant do. Not to be a show off but i like a challenge. And i like winning money from people that dont believe something ive told them i can do or have done and they challenge me on it. Kinda makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside after they`ve made fun of you.
The price of fuel is only going to keep going up for the forseeable future. The oil companies here and abroad now know what people here are willing to pay to keep those suvs on the road. The small price fluctuations are just the people that control the markets doing just that, and they play the futures markets and make money every time it fluctuates. Cheap gas is history. Driving on wood will never be adopted by the masses, its not for everybody. But im glad i found this site and it sparked my interest again. Looking forward to getting mine built and burning some smoke. Plus i want to win some money from friends that are already laughing at me about doing it saying it wont work, that i got took and just wasted money on those plans. Just wait till they see it work, i take their money, and they ask me for a copy of those plans. hahahahaha Ain`t happenin
Warren,
Bring those non believers to Argos, and make sure they have some mustard - I hear crow has a bitter taste, best to cover it up…
I keep a jar in the truck at all times!
Hello Henry
Id like to make it to Argos, well just have to see how things go and how the cookie jar money holds out, been a rough winter. If it keeps raining ill never have my gasifier built by then, and thatd probably be $500-600 in gasoline in my truck. It`s raining again today. Got access to plenty of wood, but not much money. haha
I`ve had to eat crow a time or two myself, the mustard would help, but you still have to swallow really hard to get it down. haha
Warren
I held off a while to see what would pop up. My own quest is to diversify my energy sources and re localize my fuel source. I don’t believe that the paved road 70 mile an hour world will make it more then another generation so personally I am playing with the 30 mile an hour dirt road technologies of the past. Older tractors as prime movers and slow heavy transport, atv’s for faster transport generators for battery charging various small engines for the countless tasks made easier by engines. Trucks… Not so much for me most of the ones talked about are ageing out iny part of the world. As Steve said it has to be only one part of the whole… But a fun part.
David Baillie
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I am doing it coz…
I like to be able to defeat the system which is able to deprive me from my energy needed…
( i hate to be their cash cow and i hate dependency )
and i enjoy SWEM
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I know this is a very old threat, but an important one! First I am poor/disabled living on minimum soc security. 2nd I have family living 3000 miles away. I get to see them once every 5-6 years. I want to visit them again(more than once) before they die. I can’t afford to as things are now.
My truck gets about 19 mpg on gas. 3000 mi .divided by 19+ =158 gal of fuel. times 4.00 a gallon = $632 each way So about $1200-1300 round trip. My income is slightly less than 2/3rds that. As things are I CAN’T afford to go.
But I can get tons of scrape wood free around here. SO the trip would only cost me about $20 for coffee and Wendy’s chill i each way!! Visiting my family would possible again.
My other reason is I’m So Tired Of Being Poor!! On the web site U-Ship The going rate for shipping things such as a motor bike is about $600+ cross the country. Most haulers have the same $600+ each way for fuel to overcome to do business They need to haul 2 bikes just to break even.
If I only need $40-$50 to do the same job, I would have apart time business that would give me something to do(that I can do) and would pay fairly well.
Keep in mind Richard these guys use 1- 1 1/2 pounds of wood per mile. You would need about 4000lbs of wood for each way stopping every 60 miles to refuel. Can be done, but one would a heck of a set up.
Dear Bill;
I know I will need a 12-14ft trailer And the pace will be slow. But as I said I am retired/disabled So I can poke along not needing to meet deadlines. as to weight.
12ft open trailer 1500# 1 bike 600# wood 4000/lb that is still under the 7000# of a typical 2 axle 12ft trailer. I might be able to haul 2 smaller bikes at once. as for going to see my family i need even less equipment. It’ll work, especially since my time is my own.
Hi Richard,
Admirable goal, 3000 miles is a long trip though! At that distance me being practical (or lazy?) I’d just look for a $400 plane ticket. Certainly cheaper than driving on gasoline. Wood is cheap to get, but your time is worth something too.
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Don’t forget the increased fuel consumption when hauling that load. You won’t get near 60 miles a hopper working it that hard, but it will improve with every bag you burn!
I HATE flying these days but for that distance Chris has a point. Re-direct the money now going towards gas to a cookie jar for airfair, probably could get a couple visits a year that way?
Shame-less topic bumping.
Wood into Shaft Power??
Late dry, dry summer food growing water irrigating.
Extended seasons greenhouse lighting for Food growing.
Extended “lighting season” for egg-laying and meat growing FOODs.
Power for frozen FOODS storage!
Did I say food, Food, FOODS loudly enough??
Ha! Can’t eat oil, coal or natural gas. Just spend out “food dollars”.
CAN eat-on on your own, owned site grown woods with just a few intermediate steps. “Got Wood?” Willing to sweatwork-it? You ‘can’ eat-well then too.
Steve Unruh
Nice cauliflower Steve.
My plan hopefully by next year is to adapt my gasifier to something like a grill of sorts. I hope to can my veggies using wood gas to a few burners.
My garden variety is limited due to my lack of knowledge and time but I will expand more every year. This is my pick from last night.
