We have seen quite a few Dodge Dakotas on Barn Finds, some of them were regular rear-wheel-drive pickups, some 4x4s, and some Dakotas that may have hauled wood. We’ve even seen a few Shelby Dakotas that can burn the rear tires. This 1995 Dodge Dakota 4×4 can haul wood but it also burns wood. This unusual and very nice looking Dakota can be found here on craigslist in Karns City, Pennsylvania. The seller is asking $4,500 for this wood hauler. Thanks to angliagt for sending in this tip!
There are only three photos in the listing (here we go again, complaining about the photos), but this truck looks fantastic in the three photos that they have provided, with or without the unusual wood gasification system. Just as a nice 4×4 Dakota alone it seems like a good price. There is another photo but it’s a photo of a book showing how to build a wood gasifier as seen in the back of this Dakota.
Wood gasification systems have been around for well over a hundred years but they fell out of favor due to the weight of carrying around all of the wood required to create the gas needed to power a vehicle, and also, the availability of inexpensive gas. In 1944, 12% of the cars registered in France used this system and an incredible 58% of trucks used this alternative system. In the late-1930s, a handbook suggested that 220 pounds of wood was needed to power a truck for 62 miles. You can imagine the incredible volume and weight of having enough wood – cut into 2″ x 3″ pieces in order to fit into the boiler – on board to make any sort of long-distance travel. But, during times of gas rationing and gas shortages, it was a somewhat viable alternative.
I would have liked to have seen every single photo allowed in a craigslist ad for this truck, but only three?! For such an unusual, complicated, and detailed system, that’s really unfortunate. Just the vehicle alone deserves a solid dozen photos, it really looks like a nice 4×4 Dakota. The seller says that it’s an 8-cylinder so it must be Dodge’s 318 cubic-inch V8 which should have had around 225 hp. The wood gasification system can be removed and you’d have a nice 4×4 Dakota, or fill the back with wood and give your neighbors something to talk about. Have any of you seen a vehicle with a wood gasification system?
Rolling……er coal . This truck is truly a woody .
Wasn’t there a racer in the Wacky Races cartoon show that ran on wood or coal?
Mother Earth News had plans in their magazine to do this years ago. If I remember correctly, it said you would only achieve about 50% of the horsepower.
This looks to be a very nice portable gasifier unit, I’m surprised he doesn’t have it for sale separately since people do look for these. There was a very large one on an off grid property I bought, it was HEAVY with all the fire brick inside it. I never tried to run it. This looks like it is made from 55 gallon barrels. Cool
Great creative find! I’ve only seen ONE vehicle with a functional wood generator at a single occation; a 30s something Chevrolet truck at a Chevy show in ’96.
During WW2 wood burning generators were the only way to power privately owned vehicles in many Nazi-occupied territories – regular petroleum-based fuel was limited to the war machine, and the Germans also developed methods to manufacture ‘synthetic’ fuel based on coal to feed their vehicles.
Due to the lower energy mass in wood the output was adversely reduced; I’ve read stories of passengers that had to unmount from buses to push them up steep hills. Understandingly most of these generators were scrapped once the war was over. However if I understand the system correctly, it’d be climate-neutral!
Anyone interested in more ( both new and vintage) pics google ‘knottgenerator’ (Norwegian) or ‘gengas generator’ (Swedish). Suggested sites: gengas.se , gasforeningen.se
What an oddball! I had a 94 dakota 2wd slt v6 and it ate gas so i wonder how the mpgs would be with wood? But i dont know what is in the bed of this truck but it takes up bed space so how practical is it?
I had a 93 4×4 with the 3.9 that I couldn’t coax 20 mpg out of. Considering that my mother’s 2001 1500 4×4 got 18 mpg there was no advantage in giving up two cylinders. Still, it survived use in field service and I sold it with over 175k miles on it. Sometimes I wish I still had it.
Wouldn’t it be measured in miles per cord?
Dan, wouldn’t that be MPC ? Miles per cord ?
On the reality tv series “Mountain Men”, Eustice, who runs a reserve in the mountains of North Carolina, had an old truck he converted to wood burning. Apparently the resulting gasses burn quite cleanly.
With all that weight in the rear you can see the tires bulging, and since the system will only give you 50 % of the engine power, it seems like an exercise in futility. That said, its a cool twist for someone looking for an alternate energy source. Good luck to the new owner!
Cheers
GPC
There was a TV Movie, made in 1967 called the Longest Hundred Miles, about a group of People trying to get to safety from Japanese Soldiers on the Philippines using a old truck that burned green coconut husk for fuel, they said that for many years the Islands in the South Pacific, did this to be able to have trucks to move stuff around after WW II they had a lot that was just left to have.
The movie started Doug McClure.
Wasn’t there a TV movie in the early 70s called “Planet Earth”. Didn’t the post apocalyptic mutants convert old cars to run like this? I think this is pretty clever, good for the guy who took the time to make this work.
There’s a Cord joke in there, somewhere.
Nice find, Scotty. You didn’t want this one? It’s perfect for all your post-apocalyptic adventures (Wolverines!)
I think I have posted this link in the past. Here it is again for any new folks to the site. Back in 2005ish they had a 73 Chevy C20 that was driving around San Francisco running on old coffee grounds. They called it a “Cafe racer”. http://www.allpowerlabs.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Power_Labs