Critique of LifeTrac

This from Mutualist:

The Life Trac is trying to do too much in one machine, and should have been split among different devices. Also, they should not have gone for hydraulics, as it is too high technology for convenient construction and maintenance under field conditions. They should have taken interwar tractors like Ford's as their guide. There is no mention of the power unit or how biomass would be used as fuel. The only rational fuel approach in those circumstances is gasifying with a simple device like Georges Imbert's or the FEMA gasifier (see Gengas), so I hope they weren't thinking of fermenting and distilling liquids or making biodiesel. The only rational approach to power units is to use scavenged engines that can be adapted to the fuel and can be maintained (which means older style petrol engines, not diesel), or two stroke split piston engines which can be made and maintained at that scale.