Hooniverse Truck Thursday – For Sale: 1977 Woodgas Range Rover Vogue
A green choice, obviously.
As I sat down to write this post, our apartment as well as the entire block as far as I can see lost power. So, as I type this in candlelight, this Range Rover converted to woodgas seems somehow suitable. In a world where there would be no available electricity or oil, a Range that could run on firewood would make a great deal of sense. You see, one does have to maintain dignity in the face of challenging circumstances, and a 3.5-litre V8 definitely helps there.
It’s also for sale right now, so click for more photos.
The quality of the construction seems to be top-notch and well-welded. The piping hs been fitted respecting the square edges and surfaces of the original Spen King design, with the front.. radiator? echoing the shape of the grille behind it and the woodgas pipe running along the roof and A-pillar before diving under the hood. All in all, the stove reminds me of the acid-proof steel barrel we have at the summer cottage, for woodsmoking fish.
The pea soup green paint is now dull and has a couple of blotches, but has held on well otherwise. Most of the panels are aluminium, but it doesn’t look like the hood is. And since the frame is non-galvanized, I’d take a peek under there before making any hasty decisions.
According to the seller, the Range’s range is reasonable; it does 100km with 150-200 litres of fine-chopped wood. Top speed is 80-90 km/h, and that’s likely the top speed I’d attempt, however well the stove is attached.
The Range has been on the road last in 2009, and did 6000 km then, so it should be running fairly well without any major issues. Of course, it’s since been a while, so I’d ask the seller to perform some preventative maintenance to the system before washing his hands of it.
Included in the 4500 euro asking price is a parts car, a fairly mossy Range that’s been formerly hearing aid beige with a black stripe. It looks well-used, but there has to be something useable out of it if the seller’s held onto it this long – or then he just wants to get rid of it before it sinks into his field. At least you can combine a complete badge out of the _ANGE ROVER and RA__E ROVER lettering on the cars.
As my phone’s battery is running dry and I’m about to lose my Wifi hotspot, it’s time to finish the post. How do you find this woodgas Range Rover? Just follow the cloud of smoke, of course.
[Source: Nettiauto.com (partially in English)]
Related posts:
- V.I.S.I.T. Truck Thursday Edition: Convertible Range Rover
- Hooniverse Weekend Edition – Like, I’m Selling this Range Rover, like for-sure, totally!
- Hooniverse Truck Thursday – A 1973 Land Rover Series III 109 Wagon
- Truck Thursday: Land Rover Defender 130 Double Cab
- Hooniverse Truck Thursday – A Spare Parts Special Pickup Truck, now for sale on eBay
Why does Hooniverse dislike Top Gear UK? Not, defending or agitating, just curious?
Where in the world did you get that idea?
Jim complained about the useless supercar reviews in the first episode. Kamil called it stupid in the Mercedes 600 article, but he seems to like it anyway (I share this point of view).
Can't see anything in this article that relates to it.
I love the show and I know that most of us watch it religiously… we had a number of posts about TopGear, I have no idea where that's coming from.
Is it the way they dress?
<img src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/12/30/article-2080152-0F4CA94100000578-205_634x360.jpg" width=600 />
Eh? Where'd you get that idea?
I'd think that given a random sample of any size among this community of writers and commenters, every danged one would say it's far and away the best car on the planet. Nothing else comes close. If TGUK is a ten, the next best show on earth is a six, maybe six-point-five. If it has one fault, it's that the episodes should be twice as long.
We generally accept that it's awesome.
So we feel free to randomly mock it all the time.
In seriousness, it's very good most of the time, but has a hard time maintaining that "OMFG THIS IS AWESOME" impression in one's mind after ~3 seasons of watching.
I once called the second closest NPR station and asked why everyone that worked there was from Norway. Once a classmate of mine asked Lech Walesa if the debate was about NATO, why he had not talked at all about free trade. Both those instances made more sense than you just did, congratulations!
<img src="http://krisdedecker.typepad.com/.a/6a00e0099229e88833012876d4ad33970c-500wi" width="500"> In all seriousness, I stumbled on this neat article a few days back. There are a lot of neat wood gas cars there.
Also I have been drinking wine just now after leading a den meeting of cub scouts which was all about music. To say it was loud would be an understatement. I was just being silly with my first paragraph, I made worse mistakes daily myself
Like planning a den meeting where ten kids make percussion instruments from blocks of wood.
That's actually peat powered car, the text on the tank or oven or whatever this shiny thing is, says so.
Ha! Thanks, also along the lines of me being stupid daily, forgot the link before: http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/01/wood-gas-c…
He may use peat as the fuel source but I bet the car still runs on wood gas. I.e. the peat is gassified and that gas is what's put into the engine of the Lincoln.
"…it does 100km with 150-200 litres of fine-chopped wood."
Or, if you prefer, about 1100-1500 miles per cord.
Much better, numbers I can understand.
A cord is a non-trivial amount of stabilized cellulose: 4'x4'x8' = 128 cubic feet. So at 12,000 miles per year, that's about 10 cords. Which is also around a thousand bucks, dropped in large chunks in a heap on your driveway. While a very cool demonstration of how a car can be powered with renewable fuels, at minimum wage it's not an especially convincing value proposition.
Yeah, that's not a trivial amount of wood at all. Also, think about how much work it is to actually go out into the woods and chop down that much wood. OK, hippies would like you to chop those trees down manually (Oh no, chopping down trees, even though that's what it means when you say sustainable resources), but that doesn't cut it. Excuse the pun. It takes a lot of work, chainsaw two stroke fuel, log skidders, redneck labor costs, and trucks to haul all that wood away. It's probably much cheaper and easier on the environment to just fill a Range Rover with plain old gasoline and donate the savings to NPR.
You know, that's actually a little better than gas. If you figure $1,000 for 12,000 miles, you're looking at $1 for 12 miles. With gas at $3 per gallon, you would have to get 36 mpg to be down to $1 for 12 miles. If you're at 24 mpg (more likely with a Range Rover than 36, and probably even lower), then you're paying $1.50 for 12 miles. Obviously all of that is rough math, and doesn't take into account cost of building it, but it's not quite as bad as it sounds at first.
Well, maybe. Truth be told, I cheated, er… used a simplifying assumption in the conversion, in that it doesn't account for the packing efficiency of "fine-chopped wood" vis-à-vis ordinary firewood.
True, I'm assuming all the numbers are pretty rough. I was just saying that if they're close at all, it isn't all that bad. If you double the assumed cost, you're still doing alright (especially against European gas prices).
My Range Rover got closer to 12mpg on gasoline, not 24mpg!
Google units calculator is truly amazing. My favorite is converting from EUR/L to USD/gal and wondering how Yurrpeans can afford to drive.
Socks and underwear need to be hung on that radiator.
ANGER OVER is my favourite Rangie emblem reformatting. Would be especially at home on a woodgas fuelled one, especially if it had large daisies painted along the sides.
The chipped paint on the green one nearly reads MANGE ROVER.
It takes a large dose of British ingenuity and technical acumen, in order to get aluminum to rust. But if they could manage that, why isn't the roof leaking any oil?
Adroit photography.
This is the perfect way to relive the era of WWII rationing in the Home Counties. But in a poshly modern style. Frankly, I was trying to calculate the scrap value of all that stainless steel, and wondering just how much well used TVR or Morgan that might convert into.
You should also be recalculating your cruising speed to consider how much time it's going to take to chop the wood and load up your cooker. I'm all for uniqueness, experimentation, alternative energies, and goofy flights of fancy. But this beast is pushing ever so slightly over into preposterousness. Could we perhaps balance this out with a glance towards Neil Young's LincVolt project, perhaps?
THIS is what I need for the Zombiepocaylpse! It would probably even run off pureed zombie parts. Of course I would prefer the woodgas system be hooked up to a Chevy K-20 powered by a 350, but I'll take what I can get.
I've actually thought about pulling a 4.3L intake, carb, and distributor the next time I'm at the junkyard, just in case. I figure it would be easier to convert a carb intake on the Silverado than the FI one.
So how do you get 150-200 litres of fine-chopped wood? Process it in this?
Blendtec http://www.willitblend.com/
/heh
As a kid, I remember reading Popular Science articles about how modern steam engines would work just fine in the huge cars that we had back then. Burning the same wood that this thing would waste, in a modern boiler, then sending the steam through the same engine (steam power is just pressure, which any piston engine likes just fine) would most likely give you more PAH. You could probably condense the exhaust steam, and reuse it, too. This is an inefficient system, from everything that I've read, and steam would work much better. Feeding the wood to a team of beavers, and having them pull the Range Rover would work better, too, and would be way more awesome.
Leave Beaver Cleaver Aloooone!
This is one of those technologies that I have always wanted to try implementing but was afraid to screw it up. While it may not be the most efficient use of natural resources, it nonetheless is an important technology to know about in certain types of emergency situations.
There is an interesting history behind wood gas (also called producer gas, holtzgas and pyrolization) dating back to the early part of the 20th century. The Finns have a thing for wood gas because of their history. In the 1930's and 40's they, along with many others in Europe, Japan and the US, had a difficult time getting petroleum based fuels. As such, many auto makers (Ford, Opel, KDF-wagen, Toyota, Volvo and Citroen immediately come to mind) offered wood gas conversion kits and factory wood gas vehicles so that the cars and trucks could be run on wood during a fuel shortage. This became important during WWII, especially in countries allied with Germany (like Finland was due to Soviet aggression in the Winter War and the Continuation War) as fuel was scarce and needed by the military. (It was popular in the US during the war due to strict fuel rationing that rendered many people with few other options to get around.) Thus, even today there is a small community of people who run cars on wood and keep the knowledge alive.
One of the other technologies used was what were called gas bag vehicles. People would put large, non-pressurized bags on the roofs of their cars, buses, etc. and fill them with gas from the city's gas lines. It wasn't very efficient but it was a way to get by in hard times when few other options existed. Needless to say, an open flame could end up causing a disaster!
I was really surprised the other day when Click and Clack were not aware of this system when they got a caller asking about it. Apparently he was in 'yurup in as a boy in WWII and described the setup. They were both flabbergasted and said they had no idea what it could have been.
Click and Clack were also the people that suggested that a guy over power his brakes when they were seized on! It didn't matter that he lived on a very busy road and his driveway was at a 45 degree incline! Sounds great to me! Now how do I get this laptop to run on steam? WOW I know I will invent a steam engine! Wait a minute are we progressing with technology or digressing? Steam powered cars a thing of the future? Or a thing of the past!!!