Anyone have any experience with woodgas powered vehicles? (village, converting, good)

[Think4Yourself]

I've been looking at some youtube videos of some home built woodgas powered trucks which some people have posted on that website. It looks like most of them did a home built conversion to old (1950's to 1980's pick up trucks) and I was wondering if anyone here has any personal experience doing this? They look like an interesting bit of engineering and a fine project though I'm wondering how much such a toy would cost and how much time/labor someone puts into such a project in order to get it up and running. I figure it's a long shot but someone here just might have some first hand knowledge they'd like to share. Thanks.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

No personal experience with converting a vehicle to woodgas, but I did build a gassifier as a class project. It's not difficult or expensive if you have a bit of metal fabrication experience and can source the appropriate salvage. Even with brand new materials, the unit shouldn't run you much more than a few hundred dollars to put together. But I have no clue what modifications would be needed for a vehicle engine, or how much that would cost.

Here's a good article from Mother Earth News about wood-fired vehicles, that also contains links to detailed DIY plans.

[Think4Yourself]

Thank you, I'm reading through that site and it's a treasure trove of information. Honestly, it sounds like it would be more useful to people living in parts of the country which are densely forested but it still sounds like an interesting project to me just from an engineering standpoint. But since it seems to be taking ~1.6lbs to 2lbs of wood to go one mile I'm not sure this is an ideal power source in my neck of the woods since we just don't have the vast forests other places have.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

We're certainly densely forested, but our main travel is over 150 miles one-way and we need the truck bed for supplies on that trip not firewood for fuel LOL (although towing a trailer for the supplies it might be worth it if the mileage didn't suffer too badly )

I don't know if it would be effective for us just puttering around the homestead on the ATV or going into the village once a week to check mail. Also not sure how woodgas performs in the extreme cold. Our -40 (and lower) winter temps have kept us from considering LP/biogas conversion for our main vehicle, so woodgas may have similar problems. It would suck to make a conversion only to find that the vapor won't flow, or freezes up in the lines, or won't combust 2 months of the year!