Need Coal? Post it here! Archive 1

A mag stoker will burn buckwheat, but I don't think pea would feed through the mechanism.

Greg L

BurninCoalInRI Pea is way to big for a Mag it is one size down from ChestNut
Now Buckwheat you might be ok with that is one size up from Rice

PEA size would Probably Ruin you feeding mechanism I would

not use it Try to find Rice or Buckwheat Good luck

LSFarm / Greg You are to Fast for me you should be Flying

ok thank you! btw cranson coal is 210 picked up and 252 delivered. i had another dealer last time, my bin is 4x8 and 4 tons came to 4' 3" high in it which seemed short (by a lot). so i will try cranston next.

Hey BurninCoalInRI:

Is that $210/ton for bulk or bagged coal?

Thanks!!

watkinsdr wrote:Hey BurninCoalInRI:

Is that $210/ton for bulk or bagged coal?

Thanks!!

That has to be bulk, not a bad price for the distance from NEPA either.

LsFarm wrote:A mag stoker will burn buckwheat, but I don't think pea would feed through the mechanism.Greg L

Just a slight update to what Greg said.

Harman recommends rice coal in their manual. It says buckwheat is OK in a pinch but recommends that the draft be raised from .04 to .06 inches WC. I have burned Buckwheat in mine, but Rice does burn better. The manual also states "larger coal will not burn or feed properly".

Hope this helps.

I'm in Southern Maine (Portland). Looking for soft coal for my fireplace grate. Any help is a appreciated. beltrack3@aol.com

Thanks, John

New burner of coal here,I live in NW NJ, about 12 miles from the Delaware water gap.I am looking for a supplier of rice coal.Zip code is 07823...thanks Adam

I'm looking for 3 tons of loose pea coal. In MA it's going for about $245/ton.

gotta keep the price down looking for a supplier in se mass bulk or bag 2.5 tons, looks like mrk is 250/ton nut + del charge. poss next yr or this yr to coop with area people to get bagged trk del to our houses.

thnks

On the recommendation of a fellow poster, I ordered 3 pallets of coal from baggedcoal.com before the end of August (when the summer prices expired). I wheedled him down to $200/ton bagged even though they normally don't go below $220/ton for less than a full truckload (18 pallets). But since I was arranging for the trucking, he lowered the price a bit for me. It turns out this guy from baggedcoal.com is actually a mining company out of Maryland (Gauley Mining) but sells the coal as Penn Keystone Coal which distributes through Kimmel's Coal & Packaging in Wiconisco, PA. Confused? I sure was when I went there to pick it up.

Originally, I had planned to have a trucker friend of mine pick the load up at Kimmel's yard in Wiconisco, PA but at the last minute he couldn't do it. So as a favor, my friend Jason offered to help me out and we drove down in his Ford F-350 diesel duallie and a heavy duty trailer. Kimmel's loaded one pallet into the bed of the truck and slid two onto the trailer with no problem. That 3 3/4 tons was about as much as I'd ever want to pull with the F-350 turbo-diesel over the highways. It was tough keeping up with traffic on the hills and we really should have had trailer brakes It ended up costing me about $150 for fuel, tolls, meals etc. to make this trip. This brought my final cost to about $240/ton or $6.00/bag which is still cheaper than Klem's in Spencer sells it for.

OK, so if we want to get together for a group-buy and delivery, here's the breakdown:

In the summer of '07 I was quoted $176/ton bagged for whole-load pickup at Kimmel's through baggedcoal.com so it's possible 3 or 4 of us Massachusetts coal burners could pay to have a truckload delivered and save a bundle next year. The issues are the following:

1. The price of diesel fuel affects the delivery cost (which would be split among the purchasers)
2. You need a heavy duty forklift and level dock to unload the coal
3. You need space for 18 pallets of coal to sit while the individual purchasers arrange for pickup
4. Individuals still need to come to a central location to pick up their allotment of coal
5. You need to pay for the total up-front so the coal and trucking will be paid for.

Working with last-year's summer pricing of $176/ton bagged, a full truckload of 18 pallets (22.5 tons) comes to $3960.00 plus the trucker's charge (probably around $500 or so) which works out to $198.23/ton or $4.96 per 50 lb. bag.

So to do this, you need to have access to a centrally located yard with a forklift capable of unloading 2500 lb. pallets from the interior of a tractor trailer and staging them at ground level in a yard till the individuals can pick up their coal. For individual house delivery, you'd need an open bed truck with a piggy-back forklift. I imagine this would be considerably more expensive but should still keep the cost down to about $220/ton delivered right to your door.

We need to get enough people on-board to take all 18 pallets. I use about 3 tons in a year and I'd imagine the average is about 4-5 tons apiece with some more and some less. So we'd need at least 4 and probably 5 bagged-coal burners within 50 miles of each other to get together on this. I'm in Worcester but certainly don't have a paved, level yard nor access to a forklift. I suggest that we'd really want to go with the piggy-back forklift method. Unfortunately, this may mean the trucker can't take the full load all at once. You may be pushing the legal limits with just the tractor, trailer, and load - nevermind an additional 10,000 pounds of forklift hanging off the back. I'll have to check. It could mean trans-shipping the load to an intermediate yard where a smaller truck with piggyback forklift or forklift crane would take the individual loads to the customers.

Anyone want to spearhead this effort? If not, I'll probably just go with the higher price and unload/stack by hand again next year.

It seems like it would come together better, if you were to hook up with someone on your end, who has a fork lift, dock and some storage room.

I went through the same thought process a while back, in the end it was cheaper to buy from my local dealer. Most local dealers will give a volume discount as well as a summer discount. Bulk is a different story, you could save a bundle buying a truckload at a time, my biggest problem is my driveway/road can't handle a 40 ton truck driving on it.

i live just south of you and 233 is the best price i found from Staelens coal

Philippe23 wrote:I just called around, anybody know anyplace cheaper than $233/ton bagged rice in the Central NY area? (I'm a little north of Rome, NY).