We are at the top of a mountain in Nevada. altitude 6914ft above sea level.
Oh man does that last picture look like a great spot for a standing mile grudge race from high school!
We finally made it to a place called Burns Oregon. I will post more in the morning.
You will find the highways in the Cascade mountains are a lot steeper and crooked than the Rockies.
If you should stay on hwy 20 you would go through my home town of Cascadia (pop 50?) and high school in Sweet Home OR.
I found that my biggest problem when DOW was keeping upwind when refueling. Sometimes it is like snorkeling, how long can you hold you breath!
Yeah we are getting close to country i recognize I traveled over to sweet home Oregon when i was out here last time. They are steep thanks for the heads up. the problem for me isnât the holding my breath its seeing with my eyes closed. 
Yesterday was a lot of fun. Everything went very well most of the day i had a few really steep 6-7% grades but then there was down and back up the next one. When i got on Hwy 95 In Winnemucca NV I hadnât gone but a few miles on ther when it was time to refuel. When i stopped i heard the engine tapping. I checked toe oil and the timing everything was good I pulled the valve covers off and made sure the rockers were tight. ( I have had them come loose before) I then used a long screw driver as a stethoscope and listened around until i was quite certain it was not a Rod bearing and i pulled stark plug wires one at a time to see if it was a wrist pin. I was talking to dad most of the time he was telling me what stuff should sound like. I decided it wasnât a rod or wrist pin so i decided to drive on and see what happens. Apparently i had gotten a piece of charcoal in the valve because after a backfire pulling a mountain it stopped tapping and started running right.
So letâs see, a minute 30 to drain condensate and refuel, every 40 miles⌠Tank in my yota is 13 gallons avg 16mpg on gas 6-7 minutes at gas station staring at the pump watching my money leave meâŚsame amount of time ish to run on wood and no fuel cost. Yep sounds like a win to me!
Donât kid yourself that fuel cost plenty.
I am just in from cutting a token pile of blocks for him, and this is the culmination of three men working three days to get this operation going. We already have the wood, the saws, the tractors, and we know what we are making. It ainât free and itâs a lot of work.
Then there is the whole college degree Jakub has involved in building the contraption, his skill set did not come free either!
I need to pop that Utopian bubble everyone gets when they start down the alternative fuel route.
Fantasy aside, if you practice running wood gas now, you wonât have such great hardship later when things go bad and you canât buy gasoline. This is why I am on board with what Jakub is doing, and why I am ramping up my wood gas game. I figure the circle is coming around again and the âstimulusâ is over!
Itâs not free, and itâs not easy, but itâs waaay better than the alternative. BBB
Itâs free exercise for me to be out processing wood. Little different from the logging and tree service, little different from framing, but woodworking is very enjoyable to me. The independence gained is like being paid to enjoy the work in happiness
I saw one of my sacks being used but donât know if it was my wood or Reindertâs but doesnât matter it helped you get where youâre at.
Bruce, there is a huge âit dependsâ mark here. Have you seen JOs chunking operation? Or Waynes? To them chunking is nothing but a side job, geting rid of either sawmill cutoffs or young growth cut under electric lines. I too can make about 600miles worth of charcoal in just a few hours with my Kursk kiln. RonL with his pallet operation produces WK size chunks as a side product of his operation. Some even get woodchips delivered free by tree triming guys.
If you concider that, woodgas makes a lot of sence and can preety much be concidered free. Specialy if you enjoy the process and some excersise.
But l agree, in some cases woodgas is a wery expensive thing. Take pellets for instance⌠Last time l checked burning bought pellets or runing on gasoline made litle difference financialy. Probably even worse nowâŚ
A lot has happened today. I made it to Corvallis Oregon. I am at Robert Winiarskiâs home now. I will post more Later today after a few hours of sleep.
Being retired itâs no problem for me to devote a lot of time to wood processing. I guess it would be different when I was working ten-twelve hour days. I think I have spent about four hours cutting up Jacobs wood including going out to find suitable sized, dry branches. No chunker. I have cut up 650 pounds on a chop saw, so 4 hours is not too bad.
Jakob gets the gold medal as the fastest woodgas service stop in the WORLD!
The other surprise was the amount and relatively clear condensate.
Mine is usually black
Nothing is free in this world. WHY They even are charging you for the air you breathe, carbon taxes being started.
Since I started wood gas building and making fuel and all the other related things. I have not needed a gym membership and that will save you a lot of monies in those fees. Lol. My wood chunker was necessary that I built. In minutes I can chunk up many miles of wood to drive on.
The pruned cherry wood has to come out of the orchard anyway. It might as well be pile up and chunked up and burn up for my use and not just go up in smoke.
Hundreds of piles of wood burned up every year in this area alone.
Jakob is helping me burn up some of this cherry wood and put it to good use. Thank You Jakob. BBB all the way around the USA and back home again.
Bob
Hi JacobN,
It is 7:30 Pacific standard time Friday as I write this.
You will be within 25 miles passing by one-or-the-other of our now two places driving up from Oregon up to Michael Gibbâs.
We are in the process of 60 miles, county to county moving now . . . with berries, garden and fruit trees to harvest. Busiest time of the year.
Sorry. No time/energy to make you fuel wood.
I can drive out to I-5 and buy you all Lunch. Woodland Washington. I did this with Dr Larry when he was traveling to Seattle Bio-mass conferences.
If so call me: 1-360-601-6391
Regards
Steve Unruh
Hey! You lucked out with the recent rain here.
First of all i would like to say NOTHING is free! everything cost you something. Wether in time, money, relationships, stress, etc⌠Every decision to do or not do something has a consequence and everyone must deal with the consequences of their actions. Everyone is right. Woodgas is really easy for some and very convenient, others it is a good hobby but not practical for everyday use due to fuel supply or whatever the reason. Bruce you are right it is way better than the alternatives. I have lived with only a bike and a horse and buggy. I will take the woodgas power work any day.
Last night we go into Corvallis at about 10:30 pm. It was so late because we didnât get out of Burns until almost two in the afternoon. I went out in the morning and lit and fueled up the truck went to start it to leave and i noticed the gauge said no oil pressure. eventually I figured out the oil had turned to jelly. I believe I blew a head gasket unless someone can tell me something else that would cause it. If i blew a head gasket the leak was vey small because there was only about a pint of coolant missing from the system. So we were parked across the street from a napa. I went and bought the stuff i needed and sent grandpa to get a gallon of diesel fuel. I spent the next 5 hours trying to drain jelly out of an engine. I flushed the system with atf and diesel fuel a couple times and then used one bottle of sludge flush at the end. I got most of it out. I changed the oil and filter on the last round and it was sitting at 50 psi of oil pressure I topped of the cooling system and we drove here.
I had another repair stop along the way. We were just west of bend OR. It was crawling hills, running very weak i was closing off the air valve as much as possible but still running lean. I get out and turn on the pusher blower to find the leak and nothing comes out anywhere even when i open up the hay filter no smoke. I pull the hay out of the filter and find about 5 gallons of soot and fine char in the bottom of the hay filter basically completely clogging the pipe. I get that cleaned out and my average speed went from 40 mph down hill to 55mph up hill.
We came down a mountain in the Cascades It was a 6 percent down grade for over 11 miles and very curvy road. I waited at the bottom for them for about 7 minutes. It was the longest i have ever driven down. Not to mention it was dark so it was a lot of fun.
I am 70 miles from the coast but Larryâs memorial is tomorrow and i have stuff to do today so it will have to wait till sunday.