IT CONTINUES!
Many things have happened since this trip started back in March of 2020. Life for me has changed in many ways. I have now graduated High school and my time has been reallocated. My grandpa got really sick and we inherited his Ice delivery business. In many ways our country has changed as well. 2020 was a year of change. Normal’s changed some for the better some for worse. Regardless we have been able to complete many projects and accomplish many things. Since the first part of this trip I have rebuilt the gasifier on the truck. I have also made it possible for us to run our entire campus off of wood generated power.
I must admit I am nervous about starting out on this trip. I know it will be a lot of work and a lot of fun. That being said the truck has never run any better than it is now. We have lots of wood loaded and much more waiting for us at our much appreciated fuel stops. I believe I have enough high temp silicone and aluminum tape to make this trip possible. We will do it Mike Larrosa style if we have to. We chose to leave tomorrow because if everything works out we should be in Corvallis OR on the 28th of August for the memorial service of a dear friend and mentor Dr. Larry Winiarski. Dr. Larry is the man who introduced me to woodgas. It only seems fitting that I travel out to lay him to rest traveling on wood. Larry was a good man and I will miss him.
For this leg of the trip, My sister Naomi, and My Grandpa Ken will be driving the support vehicle helping to haul the wood. Without the support it would be a long hard trip this will help to not have to process as much wood on the way. Several people will be hauling wood out to the road or along with me. Others have processed wood for me to come pick up and some have offered their hospitality and offered a place for us to stay. Many thanks to everyone for everything.
Lord Willing we will be headed out tomorrow morning Aug 19th around 3:30 Headed for Haysville Kansas. I Don’t think we will make it the entire 900 miles but we will get as far as we can.
Every please pray that the Lord would keep us awake, away from crazy drivers, and keep the equipment working well.
I am trying to keep this thread for reporting progress. Everyone please post all pics on the trip here. The other thread is for prep for the trip this one to report progress and and pics. I will be sharing the link to this thread with newspapers and other trying to track our progress.
We are on the road it is running really well.
I have been keeping it pretty steady at 65-70 mph. Right now waiting for the support truck to get go go juice in it. I already poured the power for mine in the hopper. We are on I-20 headed west twords Birmingham to get on I-22 for Memphis. There get on I-40 and head through Arkansas. I have a story to tell about this morning but that will have to wait. Back on the road.
SWEM
We hit the rain on l-22.
Right now I am in Memphis. We just finished lunch. It is running pretty well. Averaging about 60 mph. And running about 45 miles in between fuel ups. Back on the road a few hundred more miles to go tonight. I’ll post pics later.
We made it to Fort Smith Arkansas. A total of 627 miles today.
The truck ran wonderfully. I kept pretty steady at 60-65 mph all day.
I snapped this pic in the Ozark mountains. (No the tack doesn’t work) Over 600 mile and the fuel gauge is still sitting in the same place it was when i left home. Lemons Please!
I found out something very interesting. The hopper on the truck has the capacity to hold enough wood to go 50 miles. If I run it the full 50 miles and run it almost out the next ten miles on the next load the truck has a high loss in power. I i refuel every 40 or so miles i never get that lag in power for those miles.
We visited three states today. Our visit to Tennessee was very brief and they had the welcome sign surrounded in construction equipment so I didn’t get a pic with the sign.
The welcome to Arkansas sign in on a bridge Naomi took this pic from the other truck. My truck is the black dot under the sign.
I said I had a story.
I was up a little after 3 am this morning. I went out to light the truck and when I got there i found that it had very little char bed. I went ahead and lit it. I had the reverse blower going and i noticed piles of smoke pouring out from under the truck. I crawled under there and found that the ash cleanout seal was leaking again. I had the same problem when i went to Florida two weeks ago. I had rebuilt the seal and thought i had fixed it but apparently not. My first decision was to silicone the door on like i had done in Florida. I did that and told everyone to go back to bed because we were going to have to wait a few hours for glue to dry. by this time i am getting pretty discouraged with all this. I sit down at the table to post on here what was happening. I start thinking about it and I decide I’m being an idiot My plan at that point was to try to make this trip using a patch of silicone to fix a big leak. Bad Idea. To make a long story shorter i replaced my home made ash cleanout door with the tried and true ammo cans. I picked the truck up on the lift and welded it on. Not a problem since. I truly believe God showed my the problems and gave me a way to fix them while i still had a chance at home.
These are a couple pics I took of the countryside and storms.
I have a few short videos i will upload when i get some good internet.
Yes Jakob this is true on my truck also. The wood in the hopper has to have time to cook the moisture out and become brands and charcoal. I have noticed this every time if I run my hopper down the truck runs great on the last part of the hopper load. But refilling it the new wood has not enough time to go through the pyrolysis cooking down removing moisture, so you have a lost of power. I come to the same conclusion as you have done. Do not over drive the refueling of the hopper and use up the hopper reserve above the nozzles area. It runs great but after refueling it runs poorly. I wish I could go 40 miles. Mine is 35 miles at highway speeds. Great observation on your part, more of the other 75% of gasification that you are learning. After this trip we members of DOW need to certify you as a Master WK Gasifier Operator. There are only a hand full of daily drivers on this site and you are one of them.
Bob
Jacob, you’re having too much fun. Careful with the lemon diet. Too many and the tummy will get upset - I know I sure wish I was back on the road with you.
Seeing your truck shining under the lights in the motel parking lot sure brings back memories of the trips to Argos.
Thank you for the notes and pictures
But anyone can be as cute as a sister.
Ditto on what Bob said about running down the wood too far. Good job Jake. Missing you on the ice route today. Working on 14 tons. Almost finished. Did you make it to uncle Mike s? What time?
I was wondering who would pick up on Jakob ice route, good job Dad you are making it possible for Jakob to do this epic trip. You all are apart of the support team at home. You and mother have raised some wonderful children.
Bob
Sorry to be so late in updating everyone.
We left out of Fort Smith Arkansas this morning headed for Haysville Kansas, which is just south of Wichita, at a little past 8 am central. We arrived a little before 2 pm. Spent most of the afternoon working on small things on the trucks and i did a complete cleanout of the wood truck. In the morning I will load the wood I staged out here and then up to Salina KS to visit some relatives over brunch. After that i should be headed north for York Nebraska where I am supposed to Meet Mr. Tom Wobig and pick up some more wood.
A couple more states down.
It was a little warm in the truck most of the day. I wasn’t running A/C because it costs me 5 mph of speed. I still was able to keep it quite steady at 60-65 most of the day. It was getting hotter faster. I think it had something to do with how plugged the rails and heat ex were.
A few more pics of countryside.
We will do it Mike Larrosa style if we have to. We chose to leave tomorrow because if everything works out we should be in Corvallis OR on the 28th of August for the memorial service of a dear friend and mentor Dr. Larry Winiarski. Dr. Larry is the man who introduced me to woodgas. It only seems fitting that I travel out to lay him to rest traveling on wood. Larry was a good man and I will miss him.
I sure wish I was back on the road with you.
