Wow that is a miracle that it held up as long as it did under that kind of heat. The patch with that red high heat silicone can take a lot of heat with the aluminum tape on top.
You should be good to go now. If I see soft ash balls like what we saw at the motel when you did the clean out, I will know now it is being cause by a hot leak in the lower ash/char part of the gasifer area. Thank you for the up date report on this Jakob.
Bob
7 Likes
Glad to hear you made it through the BADLANDS of North Dakota.
Did you record the mileage between clean outs at Bobs and the stop in Montana and then the hot dump in Minnesota?
Those must have been well over 500 miles.
8 Likes
The North children are very impressive which is a direct reflection of their parents. Weâve enjoyed every minute with them. I hope they are able to make it up here in April when we are making syrup. Their work ethic and enthusiasm are unmatched.
I am very honored to be picked as a place to stop on this great journey of theirs. Iâve learned a lot.
15 Likes
Those pictures of your place with no snow are few and far between.
But then there you both were working on a snow blower!
Naomi looked really pleased with the bottles of maple syrup.
Good to see the USA pioneer spirit in action even if his hands are black.
12 Likes
Good JobâŚooorah! âŚway to git er dun Jake.
As Wayne might say,
âEvery day I have more trouble getting my hat on.â
13 Likes
Hey Billy .
I think after this trip Jakob deserves a couple of hat sizes bigger .
15 Likes
He does indeed deserve it Wayne. But heâs too good a man to wear it.
Which is another reason I need one.
I heard from Jakob today. Having significant problems with wet wood they are headed up to Canada today I think they are there already . Canât get them on any of their phones so I imagine they have no service.
They can only travel about 20 mph. Stopping every 5 miles to drop liquid. He said he drained a gallon of condensate after 3 miles.
7 Likes
Jacob. You thought you would be coming here Wednesday. Is that still your expectation? If so Iâll leave my phone on. Normally I only turn it on if I want to make a call which is almost never. My number is 231-620-4911. Donât know what route you are taking. When you get to Traverse City you will take the road next to the bay. I donât remember itâs number. Follow it around to M-72. There will be a shopping center with a Tomâs supermarket. Turn left. I think itâs about 7 miles to the turn off for Cedar. You will pass a Gas Station on the right and then a used equipment place on then left. The turn for Cedar is marked and right after the equipment place. I think you have about 5 miles to go. You will pass a small cemetary and then a curve and a up hill stretch. At the top of that you will shortly see a hops field on the right. A bunch of poles with wires strung across the tops. I live in the woods directly behind that hops field. A very short distance past the poles will be a drive way to the right. Follow that back past the pole barn. My wood is all dry and I can furnish you with plenty of charcoal if you want. See you then.
10 Likes
Tom I hope it wonât inconvenience you too much, but it looks like we will be here Another day. So it will probably be Thursday or friday when I get to your place. Ill call you tomorrow when i get a chance.
5 Likes
We made it to the Canadian border!!! 
And back to Billâs today. It was along slow ride. the wood i have here got rained on so it is very wet. Also when we pulled the gasifier with the skid steer yesterday the ammo can lid ash door got hung on the frame and ripped it off and bent it. I straitened it back out thought it would seal. It didnât so i ran about half the trip with a hot leak again. once i found it i replaced the lid and it sealed up again no problem with it after that. It is still using oil. I put 3 Quarts in today, tomorrow i am going to dig a little deeper and try to diagnose it.
I got as close as a could to the checkpoint and still turn around.
I pulled off on the side of the road to refuel and reverse blow on the gasifier to try to dry it out some and this guy drives by recognizes that the truck is a wood burner. He turns around and comes back and talks for a few minutes then leaves. A few minutes later he shows up again with his son to see it, we talk and they leave again. A few minutes later he comes back with his son and another guy. they thought is was really cool and they had a big laugh when i blew the Dixie horn.
15 Likes
So with the wet wood it was running at about 25-30 mph. With the combined wet wood and hot leak i was only able to get about 15-20 mph on flat or up hill. once i got the leak fixed it went back to running better but still using wet wood. I had 3 bags of maple still on the trailer that came all the way from Alabama they just kept getting burried i poured those i last two fuel ups it was by the end of the first one it was doing 65-75 most of the time when roads would allow.
11 Likes
No problem Jacob. Get here when you can.
8 Likes
Jakob you are truly driving home what others have said that 95% of the DOW issues are air leaks.
I checked out a map and the good news is that it looks like it is all down hill to Alabama.
14 Likes
Yes. Yes.
And you are also realistically Load-Demand using Jakob demonstrating that wood-species really does matter.
The Burn, energy release rate. And the flows clogging mineral ashing.
And that wet humid wood does matter too.
Thermal drag kicks your butt. Coming, and going.
Hey man. All this writing-talking you are doing, and you are getting better.
Wet Fall weather is coming your way now. Pacific wet, wet storms will be going through out here starting Friday. Thank You! Thank You! Life giving Rain after three long months, without! We will re-green some before true winter growth stopping.
These Pacific/Alaska fronts will flow cross over to the Northern tier states.
Best be scooting south by next Monday.
Regards
Steve Unruh
11 Likes
We spent the day working on Billâs charcoal unit and chunking wood. We spit up firewood small and then chunked it. Bill said he would just use the other chunks in the wood stove once they dry out. We chunked 650-700 lbs of dry birch. Hopefully tomorrow we should get the maple from Bruce before heading on down through Michigan. the next day hope to make it to Tomâs before heading down through Holland then to Bourbon. We will see how things go. I have pics but my phone is dead so they will have to wait till tomorrow.
12 Likes
didnât hear much from jakob today. luke and i hauled ice all day and not phone available. i imagine he and bill are having too much fun up in the big woods. glad for it. hopefully they managed to make enough dry chunks for the trip south to the next fuel stop.
thanks bill.
everyone is getting excited around here to see you make it home.
just keep swimming, just keep swimmingâŚgood job jakob.
9 Likes
Yes your son has worked though the different trials and problems of gasification on the long haul road. He is truly âThe Marianâ of gasification in solving all the problems and getting to go home. Watch the movie and you will know what this means.
Bob
8 Likes
Jakob, if you are going from holland to bourbon, youâll be passing pretty close to my place. If iâm not working that day, Iâll buy you lunch.
11 Likes
We just refueled from Bruce in Iron River Michigan. Trying to get just north of the bridge tonight.
13 Likes
We made it to Naubinway mi for the night. Tomorrow we are headed over the bridge then on south. Lord willing.
@Handy_Andy would you be able to meet tomorrow?
@Matt would you be around for me to stop by? If so can you pm me your address?
@tcholton717
We should be there in the morning. Iâll give you a call when we leave here.
7 Likes