Velocars and other interesting vehicles.

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silverbear

silverbear

The Boy Who Never Grew Up
Jul 9, 2009
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Somehow it would need to enter the carburetor along with the unburned wood gasses, else how would it get distributed inside the engine? I wonder if it would need to be preheated into something like a vapor. I don't know enough to even guess, but it is intriguing. Where I live you could just stop by the side of the road for more fuel... you could go for a long time that way. True for a steam bike, too.
SB
 
silverbear

silverbear

The Boy Who Never Grew Up
Jul 9, 2009
8,325
670
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northeastern Minnesota
Actually the oil would just need to be in the cylinder when the gas explodes and it would burn, too. Is that right? So just a steady drip somehow regulated by each revolution of the engine so that with increased RPMs there would be a corresponding increase in oil coming to the cylinder, but the same amount with each rotation. It is fascinating what clever people come up with, isn't it? Wow.
SB
 
Semaj

Semaj

Electric Enthusiast
Dec 11, 2014
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Austin Tx
My favorite motorcycle! Very Cool! I always presumed stuff burning wood was just steam powered, I wasint aware you could turn Wood into gas!
 
Ludwig II

Ludwig II

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Jul 17, 2012
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There is a wood gas Swedish 2 stroke in the Lightweight European thread. I think it just used an occasional squirt with a hand pump into the cases to operate. Pump until lots of smoke, ride until smoke almost gone, pump again.
 
Allen_Wrench

Allen_Wrench

Resident Mad Scientist
Feb 6, 2010
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"Back in my day, Sonny, we couldn't burn gasoline in our bikes, 'cause o' the rationing. We had wood-burning motorsicles! Yesseree! And ye got strong arms from choppin' the wood. And ye learnt how ta start a fire in the rain, ifn ye always wanted ta git someplace. Yep, we loved our wood-burnin' motorsicles."
 
Allen_Wrench

Allen_Wrench

Resident Mad Scientist
Feb 6, 2010
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Seriously though, I think I WOULD love one. You could putter about, knowing that the odds of seeing another one in your travels would be slim to nil.

Now, the wood burning truck - I think it was a custom job. Its generator looked like it may have been fashioned from an old water heater, but I couldn't be sure. I knew something unusual was going on when I noticed there seemed to be a pipe running from the bed into the cab, and from there I couldn't tell. Had a few wires or some such going in there too. It was a confusing rat's nest back in the bed. It sounded strange and smelled like a camp fire. The whole truck looked like something out of Mad Max.
 
Ludwig II

Ludwig II

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Jul 17, 2012
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Other methods of gasification work well on 4 strokes. There are lpg engines and conversions available; one only needs a low pressure gas supply and a compressor and a container to be in business.

It would be amusing to have a slowly falling fake gasometer on the back of a trike or quad, hiding the simple gas bottle.
 
silverbear

silverbear

The Boy Who Never Grew Up
Jul 9, 2009
8,325
670
113
northeastern Minnesota
If it weren't a technological nightmare I'd be interested, too. Might be that a small gasifier could be mounted on a follow behind trailer. Wouldn't that be fun! And with all the wood I have available it would be super cheap to run. You need to build one Anne, so that I can follow and do what you did. I need a smart person to lead the way as too much technology makes me head ache.
SB
 
moto-klasika

moto-klasika

Member
Jan 12, 2013
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Bern (more) and Belgrade (less)
Originally Posted by Ludwig II
Alternative to steel
https://picturesdotnews.wordpress.co...car-farinetti/
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silverbear said:
I love it. An electric version would be perfect. The batteries could go into that wooden body section very nicely.
SB
Click to expand...
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[FONT=Arial Unicode MS, sans-serif]Hello, [/FONT]
​
[FONT=Arial Unicode MS, sans-serif]Excellent example of alternative constructional approach to light motorised HPV!
For me, too stylish including rider (front mudguard is useless and so on...), but this statement is a little strange: "... recently reversed an established principle: 'today, we must act global and think local'. "

I was thinking that it should be opposite? Written approach is dead-end and could be dangerous if we had some power...
--- ---
Idea for trailer for heavy power-complete is good and attract my attention for long time. For hybrid-power it is practical and for wood-gas generator almost necessary if we had small and light vehicle... [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Unicode MS, sans-serif]Somewhere I saw realisation: big back-yard wood-gas generator + compressor + bottle for propane-butane gas... Then, light engine on light vehicle that would use such bottles full of of home-produced wood-gas! Quite long range possible in spite of lower energy density of wood-gas, compared to propane-butane gas, known as LPG too.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Unicode MS, sans-serif]--- ---[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Unicode MS, sans-serif]In a case of two-stroke engines, oiling could be obtained by use of something as “dozator” that DKW and SAAB used for their two-stroke three-cylinder engines! (copy of article attached) ... I forgot how they worked, but my friend John from USA had one SAAB engine and studied that, could ask him if it is useful... I am not sure if it work with help of small pump, or using vacuum between carburetor and cylinders... Maybe to simplified and use small hand-operated pump, from time to time, as was said? Veteran cars used such system – quantity of blue smoke was their control of good oiling...[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Unicode MS, sans-serif]Zoran[/FONT]
​
[FONT=Arial Unicode MS, sans-serif]P.S.: Just found that some motrocycles had such "injectors" of oil, but Italian company for LPG equipment have them too, for two-stroke engines when adapted to use LPG...
[/FONT]
 

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Intrepid Wheelwoman

Intrepid Wheelwoman

New Member
Oct 29, 2011
2,830
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0
Hauraki District, New Zealand
silverbear said:
If it weren't a technological nightmare I'd be interested, too. Might be that a small gasifier could be mounted on a follow behind trailer. Wouldn't that be fun! And with all the wood I have available it would be super cheap to run. You need to build one Anne, so that I can follow and do what you did. I need a smart person to lead the way as too much technology makes me head ache.
SB
Click to expand...
Country boys having fun with wood gas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4meGeSgEc0

Yes I really do want to do this Silverbear :) If nothing else it will be a good way for me to get my hand in again with welding and metal fabrication.
First though I'm going to have to have an explore around the local council tip and perhaps the scrap dealer here in town in order to find some useable steel sections at a price I can afford.

This design for a small no-weld gasifier caught my eye and I'd like to check out just how practical it might be.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4meGeSgEc0

...... Being intended to run a small engine of limited horsepower it might just be ok for use on a motorised bicycle.

Ironically our local petrol prices have fallen a lot just lately due to the scrap between OPEC and the shale oil producers. However it's easy to predict that this situation won't last and we'll be back to soaring prices again.

Zoran, that article about the DKW oiling system was interesting. The oiling system on my old Suzuki GT380 worked in much the same way. More than likely as I'll be using a Villiers two stroke engine as a test subject an old fashioned hand pump will be doing the honors.
 
silverbear

silverbear

The Boy Who Never Grew Up
Jul 9, 2009
8,325
670
113
northeastern Minnesota
Anne,
Now you've done it. What I don't need is another project. I've spent half the day thinking about a small gassifier on a bicycle trailer towed behind the 1934 Elgin Velocipede. How cool would that be with the flexing
small sidecar for the dog and the wood burner in back, which would have to be made with some sense of vintage style It would have to have a bit of brass and copper in other words. The engine is the Villiars midget, so wouldn't be a powerhouse, especially burning wood gas, but the 3 speed transmission would help to make up for the loss in power and would be enough. How to keep the weight down with a bike sized gassifier?
SB
 
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Intrepid Wheelwoman

Intrepid Wheelwoman

New Member
Oct 29, 2011
2,830
62
0
Hauraki District, New Zealand
silverbear said:
Anne,
Now you've done it. What I don't need is another project. I've spent half the day thinking about a small gassifier on a bicycle trailer towed behind the 1934 Elgin Velocipede. How cool would that be with the flexing
small sidecar for the dog and the wood burner in back, which would have to be made with some sense of vintage style It would have to have a bit of brass and copper in other words. The engine is the Villiars midget, so wouldn't be a powerhouse, especially burning wood gas, but the 3 speed transmission would help to make up for the loss in power and would be enough. How to keep the weight down with a bike sized gassifier?
SB
Click to expand...
Oh I agree brass and copper would be essential :)
With the fact of having what can be a very hot item of of equipment attached to a bike I was considering having an outer shield with stained hardwood lagging with brass strap binding on the gasifier.

Your vision of your 1934 Elgin with flexing sidecar and wood burner is delightful Silverbear :D
 
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