Wood gas?

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Instead of cutting down the engine, do a Dunn-Right air compressor conversion. Add a 60 gallon compressed air tank, twinned alternators and a battery bank.

Wherever you go, you are the local utility company.

If it could still develop a performance suitable to the road traffic I would be tempted to do that in a Kombi, since most of the tools used in aircraft maintenance are pneumatic. Eventually a turbo or a supercharger could be used in order to address the performance issue.

[freebeard]

With a stock engine it would probably top out at 40mph and have no payload. But of you start with a 200hp version...?

And since it's a wood gas thread, add a chipper/shredder belted or clutched to the crankshaft.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

With a stock engine it would probably top out at 40mph and have no payload. But of you start with a 200hp version...?

I was thinking about the 1.6L engine, and eventually enlarge its displacement to compensate a little of the displacement loss after that Dunn-Right conversion.

And since it's a wood gas thread, add a chipper/shredder belted or clutched to the crankshaft.

Making it run on wood gas wouldn't be so easy because I wouldn't be able to register it. But nothing would prevent me from building a wood gas-powered towable genset that could be eventually fitted with its own hub-motors.

[freebeard]

I'm back to the tricycle. Put a carrier for the front wheel on the back bumper of your Kombi and have it controlled from a RC handset.

The other thing you could do is maximize the size of the air tanks and use the compressed air to locomotion, in shops and warehouses.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I'm back to the tricycle. Put a carrier for the front wheel on the back bumper of your Kombi and have it controlled from a RC handset.

I would actually like to have a Kombi and eventually resto-mod it, but I still didn't get one.

The other thing you could do is maximize the size of the air tanks and use the compressed air to locomotion, in shops and warehouses.

Using compressed air for locomotion could actually be quite interesting, but I'm not so sure if that would be worth the effort to compress the air for that. I'd rather just use it to power tools.

But anyway, an electric-driven pusher trailer with a built-in wood gas-powered genset seems to be the easiest way to circumvent regulations against the fitment of a wood gas generator into newer vehicles in countries like Finland and Brazil.

[Fingie]

Here at least it can't be circumvented with a trailer. It's the '87 year limit. But finland is full of old cars, we have the average car age of 11, one of the oldest in Europe

[ThermionicScott]

11 years, wow. Only once have I owned a car younger than that, and after 5 years, it wasn't.

P.S. That made me curious. My current fleet averages 38 years old. Just a little older than me!

[Fingie]

mine is 20 years, Wagon, All-trac, and my Suzuki moped

[freebeard]

cRiPpLe_rOoStEr — I was thinking of for indoor use. Also because I like the Scuderi Split-cycle engine.

Here are discussions of compressed air for power.

My first car was eleven years old, a 1950 Studebaker. I paid $100.

Currently the 1958 and 1971 Beetles average to 52 years.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Fingie

Here at least it can't be circumvented with a trailer. It's the '87 year limit. But finland is full of old cars, we have the average car age of 11, one of the oldest in Europe

When I considered an electric-driven pusher trailer as a way to circumvent restrictions on wood gas, it was about building a wood gas-powered towable genset and fitting it with hub-motors. Then, it would be registered as a trailer, and probably the hub-motors eventually integrated to drum brakes wouldn't caught some unwanted attention from the department in charge of vehicles registry there.