Last fall I began converting a 1978 International 574 a utility size tractor, to woodgas and finally finished!! It has really good power (201 cid engine) I ran a 4ft tiller and didnt have any problem and runs down the road at a pretty good clip. I have a 40kw pto generator ill hook up and see what kind of power output I has.I used my version of the 1981 MEN gfasifier which I have have good success on the truck conversion I did 2 years ago. This was a lot easier than the truck i brought the wg in on top of the carb and it is easy to control.
This web sit is very nice to post into and add pictures good work!!
Great job RonL
You are an inspiration!
Regards
Steve Unruh
Nice job Ron! I have a 550 tiller just like that. You got quite an angle on that pto shaft!
Did you run a "tank full" thru it yet? How long will it go on a fill up?
Don
Hello Mr. Ron,
Great looking job on the tractor!! Thanks for posting the photos.
Thanks for the compliments; you are right there is quite an angle on the pto, the tiller came with the tractor and is only 48" wide and I have to push it over to cover one set of tracks to keep the soil from being too compacted by the tires. The tires are fluid filled so it is pretty heavy but has excellant traction.
The fuel hopper holds about 80 lbs, and I have run two tanks of wood so far. I would like to hook up to a pto generator put a load on it and see how long and what kind of load it will pull over time.
Thanks Ron L
Looks great Ron, whatcha got in your filter?
Have you played with ignition advance? What rpms are you running?
Thank you,
Terry
Hi Terry; For the filter I am using fiberglass batting, I have used this for about 10,000 miles on my truck and have had good success cleaning the gas.When it starts to get full it will burn in the stove, also it is a hot filter that way you doesnt get the moisture for the soot to stick to plug it up. I put 3 layers of fine expanded metal on the bottom to work as a spark arrerster and havnt seen any burn spots in the fiberglass and one piece on top to keep the vacuum from sucking the fiberglass into the intake.
I havnt touched the timing yet and it still has fairly good power. I am thinking about putting a lever near the column to adjust the timing back and forth gas- woodgas. I set the throttle at 1800 rpms and the governor holds it well even when shifting it wont let it overrev.
Thanks, Ron L.
Hi Ron,
I have been thinking about your comment above about the filter batt - "When it starts to get full it will burn in the stove," My question is full of what? I can envision both tiny char pieces and or tar burning. I hope not tar! You said that the hot filter won't plug with soot because it is dry, and soot doesn't burn anyway. Where does your moisture go? What size fuel chunks do you use? Do you start and stop with gasoline? You did a nice job of running lines and tucking everything in close.
Don M
Ron, I just took a closer look and saw the condensate tank under the radiator. Thats where the moisture goes.
Don M
Hi Don, the filter fills with soot and there is probably some tars from start ups, the flairing smoke comes in and out the bottom of the filter , but the fiberglass does burn.Yes the condensate goes in under the cooler but it sofar doesnt get much in it.
Here are a few more pics this is going to be a really handy machine.
Ron, you just got featured on the front page for the month of May. How about an update on the tractor?
hey ron, great job. i like your front bumper cooling tubes ,i have been communicating with dutch john, and he says that the best place for the cooling pipes is on the front bumper, and since my truck is a flat bed, i think i will try building a bumper that cools the gas, instead of pipes around the bed,
That gasifier looks pretty massive!!!
I have a Farm All M coming here for a conversion. I was planning on trying the E-1 on it. This is an imbert desing with a 10" hearth. But now after seeing your set up Im intimidated to even try this one. I have a new one that I wasnt planning on developing untill things slowed down. But now I think I might have to start working on it for a back up plan.
Nice work btw!!
Hi; Thanks for the honor of being featured this month. I have been really busy with work. I am posting a few pictures out of my tractor album. When I get time I will post some new ones. I had a pair of forks made for the front of the bucket. It will be interesting to see what I can pick up with them.
I have made some changes to the unit. When I built the unit the filter was to be a dry hot filter but, the gas was too cool. I found the gas was too slow and the cyclone was not working so I took out the cyclone and several feet of piping. It seems to have solved the moisture problem. I was concerned when I put the filter in front of the radiator that it would cause the tractor to run bot. It is working really well like it is.
If any one has questions I will be glad to answer them as best as I can.
Thanks, Ron L.
Hi Matt. the nozzle ring is 9" and it make good gas for the motor, but overall it is a bit large I could cut the fuel hopper in half and it would still be plenty large. I have been having a problem with the fuel bridging above the nozzles.
The M would make a nice woodgas conversion they have a lot of power for a small tractor but I never cared for the narrow front end. In a muddy field the get packed with mud then you have to use the brakes to steer it, they just slide in the mud.;(
We have the truck loaded , hauled the tractor to the fairgroundsand ready for the meeting tomorrow.
Towed the tractor about 20mi on wood it pulled pretty easy only went 35mph but we made it.
Put some forks on the tractor and used it to load the woodgas fuel they worked good but couldnt see the end of the forks not east to pick up Tomorrow is the big day looking forward to it
Ron,
Great job on the tractor! I have an old Ford 8n I'd like to convert as a first project. In your earlier post you mentioned a "1981 MEN gfasifier". Can you point me to more info on that gasifier?
Thanks... and again... great job!
Hi Ron
I'm new to the site and saw your tractor
WOW what a cool job you did on it
Did you use the fins like wayne did or is it another design?
I have a one ton home made Kenworth with a diesel in it did you ever see anyone run a diesel on pilot injection and wood gas?
I ran one in a lab on nat gas and i helped a little on a saw mill for woodgas but they never finished it.
I would love to have any input anyone might have
Thanks
Tom
Hi Thomas:my gasifier is quite a bit different than Waynes but I think his will produce a higher gas volume and richer gas, i havnt built one of his yet but it is on my plate.
I had a detroit 6-71 hooked to a 44" scragg mill and it did ok i only sawed a dozen logs but the gasifier was way undersized and I knew it.
It did work though I just started it on diesel set it to idle and added woodgas through a dust collection gate before the oil bath filter this is a 2-cycle motor also.. here are a couple of pick on the first you can see the dust gate this set the pto speed.. on the one you can see the tar i was suprised it didnt hurt the engine these ar very resilient diesels. My main concern is soot building up on the turbo and making it out of balance thie old diesel has a roots type blower and didnt seem affected by it but I only ran it for 4 hours
Hey Ron, If ya get a chance could ya post or email me a few pics of your fork hookup to your bucket....I am looking to do that on my JD. Thanks
John
Hi Ron
I was reading your post on your tractor again and i noticed you said you had a hot filter.
So does your gas go thru the filter before the cooler?
While i'm waiting to build my truck i have a small tractor i think i will build a small one for it
thanks
tom
Hi Thomas,My tractor and truck have the filter before the cooler just after the cyclone that way the filter medium stayes dry if it is wet the soot sticks to the medium and plugs and it stays soggy,Waynes hay filter works well but it is cool and wet also coarser I think he just rinses it out with a hose and keeps using it.Also I use fiberglass batting and just throw ot away after 700 - 1000 miles.
Ron L
We tilled the garden and graded the yard at the shop today, the tractor ran really good.Today the heat from off the fuel hopper felt good and a good way to warm the hands. I made a couple of changes recently that was an improvement.
The grate was continually plugging so I took out some of the bars in the grate( it is a stationary grate), and the hopper was bridging a lot so I started cutting the blocks smaller.
Hi Ron
It is hard to tell from the picture but it looks like your grate spacing is about 3/8 in. Was the above picture taken before the change? What did you remove, every other one? Does your grate sit tight up so everything passes through it or does hang below and allow the gas to move horizontally out above the grate? Someone once said to only change one thing at a time then try it out before changing the next thing. Did you try the smaller blocks before changing the grate spacing? Were you getting just fine ash or some slipped char through the grate before changing? Enough questions for a while : )
Don M
Hi Don,
The picture of the grate was before I took two rods out and pushed the others over to even them up, I didnt want to change it too much at a time, but it seems to have solved the problem. The grate just drops into the bottom of the hearth and hangs down into the gas cowling and the ash fills in around the restriction and forms a cone up to the nozzles, that way it is easy to take out to change or repair. The restriction is about 4 3/4" under the nozzles and the grate is about 6" under that, the nozzle ring is 9" diameter. The tractor was running but really weak and I was going to take the gasifier off and recycle some of the parts into a WK gasifier but when I got it opened up the grate and all of the reduction area had ash packed tight into it I dont know how it ran at all but still didnt see any signs of tars.Here is a pic of the grate from my truck it is close to the same as the tractors, but the tractor doesnt have the frying pan only a wide restriction with centering blocks on the underside to hold it in place.
The tractor is really heavy with the tires fluid filled and it ran stronger today than it ever has on wood it has four lower gears and the tires dug in and would spin in the first three
Sweet tractor. It should not take too long to work out the bugs.
We got about 4" of snow last night so I fired up the tractor and plowed today it ran good even with the temps in the low 20s. I had the bucket made wider for more capacity and to keep from compacting the snow to plow better.
Once it cools down I will put it in the shop and drain the condensate.
Hey Ron, why is there snow on that filter? I would think that the heat would melt it right away unless you just started out with it. You still use a hot filter with fiberglass in it right?
Don M
Don M: I think that is light colored/dried mud.
Ronald L: That looks like a LOT of fun.
Hi Don; Brian was right last week everything turned to mud here in Northern IN, I used the bucket to scrape the bumpy pallet yard before it froze again,then took it out on the dirt road and opened up the throttle to clear the grate before I shut it down.