Hi Max, great to hear from you. What Max said, and what Wayne has done. Short trips on woodgas, just put enough in to get there.
I have tried this and it works.
Michael G. Mixes charcoal into his wood for quicker start ups.
You already have a gasifier truck.
Bob
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Hi Max,
Nice to see your smiling face back on the pages.
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I -personally- would opt in for the electrified vehicle, but I have -always- swung in that direction. The biggest problem is the time constraints on building one and fuel prep. If you run out of time, you can plug it into the wall. 4miles per kw, and 12c electric, you would need a vehicle that gets 86mpg with 2.60 gas.
Ford and GM said they were going to have electrified trucks in the near future. I would just save up. I have also seen first gen Volts in the 5k price range.
You can get 4-5miles per KW of electric. Which is like an hour or two running say Matt’s pellet pellet kit. Which gives you a long enough run time to justify starting it… It gives you backup power, which is nice in the country, and you can always do charcoal or a smaller wood gasifier and work on it as time permits. It also doesn’t affect the resale of the vehicle or take up cargo space.
It is inevitable, you will end up with a brush pile, and go crap i did all the work, how can I use it and get rid of it. So you will probably end up making charcoal. Then, you will replace the pellet version with the char version. Or maybe you just start making pellets, or just make biochar.
As Wayne said it is dependent upon your wood supply, He is also correct your higher fuel cost is running the tractor. maybe you can figure out how to essentially hyper-mile it with the smaller gasifier or build a larger wk-size one.
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Or you could buy a chipper and pellet mill and make your own fuel pellets and not buy them, that would pay for it self. A win win.
Yes, @Matt I can see his new design working to run a genset for a electric car for extended continuous long mileage when driving. And your refueling stops are everywhere. The 110 volt plug in, and any store that sales pellets if you run out of pellets on your long trip.
Bob
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I thought they were more ground like into sawdust before pelleting, but either way, if you can hypermile the tractor and run pellets for home heating, it probably has a payback period.
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Chris, Thanks for this topic. It has stimulated a lot of interesting responses.
Wood chips have many uses around the farm. If chips become a part of your farm economy, they need to be classified for engine fuel that can breathe. Classifying (screening out the big stuff and little stuff) also aids drying and carbonizing.
I’m prejudiced toward charcoal which also has many household uses. Classified chips can be quickly turned into charcoal in a TLUD kiln. Wood chip charcoal is the right size for engine fuel with no grinding needed. You still need to screen out the dust created by handling the fragile chip charcoal.
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Hi Max, My wood is all kiln dry and I only put in enough to get me one way there.
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Agreed BruceS,
It is Chris and family having the farm-place now that makes systems integration the actual must-do.
Not at all about a did-it; one-system accomplishment, shout-out.
Make each and every by-product a part of the whole working system.
Why I’ve learned well to hide any hard to make out of DF wood charcoal from my BBQing wife.
She will seduce me with wood charcoal bbq’ed marinated asparagus spears.
S.U.
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I had my wife read this one, Steve 
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Hi, Chris!
21.5.2019
How about a small pickup + the almost ready plank? If it is not scrapped?
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Yes what Max said. Hi Max, it great to hear from you again.
Bob
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I love that idea, charging the leaf with a gasifier generator set, using the battery for backup at night home or whenever needed…
Short distance is almost impossible to do otherwise ( efficient way i mean ), or, you build a 10 miles charcoal cartridge gasifier, switch the cartridge on your way home again…
Inventing same time as typing… why not make 2 small barrels, 25 gallon type, gilmore styled gasifiers, but only one driving set filters… just switch the barrels…
quality Charcoal does not need a long startup… the old leftover charcoal can be reused next day…
We started using this principle in school now, for the farmers and for shows… we just switch the entire gasifier pipe from the frame…
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I like that idea Koen of two separate gasifiers! My commute is a bit longer, but i need to stay clean. So, preload the night before, and just light and away!
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Koen I have given a lot of thought to the short trip problem since moving back to the farm and electic with a wood powered generator is the best solution I have come up with. The biggest issue here for me is a lot of my driving is less then 1 mile and then the truck sits in the field while I load or unload at the barn with my tractor. Or all winter I move hay from one barn to another to feed my cows. So for me a short range system on electric makes since. I have even though about a small generator with charcoal in the bed so I could make longer trips if needed.
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Hi, Carl!
24.5.2019
If your silo never gets dry on those short worktrips, and continue rusting the lid and frame,
there is only one radical solution:
Make the lid and its frame, or whole the silo from Marine quality or accid proof
stainless steel.
After paying that, the accid problem is solved…
In the meantime, avoid oak and other “sour” accid-containing woods.
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Another trick is to try to burn the hopper down to less than 6” above the nozzles. Then there is not a lot of wood for the cool down heat to send out steam
I know it is hard to predict how much wood to load but I have found that the lower wood is always “torrified “
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Small vehicle donors of that era are near impossible to get here. Personally if I’m working I’m driving the work truck money is coming in so I burn the expensive dino juice. I think the underloaded wood gasifier or the charcoal cartridge gasifier is the way I would roll if I wanted to drive on wood. What is your gasifier status Chris? What do you have that could be put in service? I do not know anymore. How much wood do you have available in a year? Do you have other uses for it like heating? What is you wood heating requirements? You know where I’m going here; charcoal byproduct. I can make a gallon equivalent a day during heating season. …
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What I have done is just keep driving. If you get close to home, and you now have let say 10 more miles left in the hopper, it’s time for a SWEM Joy Ride. I call it a SWEMJR
( pronounce, SWEM Junior). When I see the temp start to climb in the hopper, I will switch it to dino fuel, and head home to dump the hopper juice. This seems to work good for me. The next time I use the gasifier and pock with the rod in the char bed, it is a lot easier and lighting it up. If you burn it down to close to the nozzles, I top it off with some courses charcoal and with some brands mixed in from making charcoal. This is a good way to use up your charcoal brands. I have bag in the back of the truck ready to use if needed.
@mggibb, @KristijanL, others , and myself have been doing this for Quick start ups and short diving trips. Pay close attention to the videos of @Wayne putting wood into his gasifier. At times he mentioned he is making a short trip and he will only put a bag or small amount of just wood into his hopper. This is more of the “Other 75 percent” of knowledge on running your gasifier system. With practice you will know how much wood added vs. Distance for traveling.
Bob
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SssWhEM-JeR-r-r-r on man.
Pure gold in this advice BobMac.
S.U.
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