how long is the chute from the coal delivery truck

I and trying to select a convenient place to build a coal bin and I need to know how long the coal chute will be when I get 4 or 5 tons of rice coal delivered.
Is there a standard lenght that the delivery truck will have ?
Will the truck be able to elevate the body to get more height for dumping?

Thanks for your input

It's not the length of the chute, any coalman that is a real coalman is going to have plenty of chute to go well beyond where they can reach and for all different types of situations. I have chutes for everything from terra cotta pipes to very long stainless one for long shots under a wide porch. It's the height of the truck that is the really limiting factor. The higher you can go the higher the window or wall can be, this also means the better pitch you'll have which increases the speed of the coal for long shots under porches for example.

A typical coal truck should be able to put a load over a 6 to 7 foot wall if they can back right up up to it. 5 to 6 foot from a right angle. The other factor is the size of coal, nut requires very little pitch while rice requires a lot of pitch, cleanliness of the coal is important too. Is it winter time delivery? Forget it you can't do same pitch in winter you can do in above freezing temps. On the other hand with a good sized ground level wind I can fill a basement up to the rafters 8 feet into the house if I can back right up to the window without touching a shovel.

The best thing to do is provide a spot that the truck can back directly up to that isn't really high. If it's wall provide a window that is about 5 feet off the ground. If you have two foot window the coalman can always block the chute up to get more height at the window.

You may want to call around and find out who is a dealer in your area and what they have, the high lifts are rare. Most are old in use, mine were built in '52 and '68 by Marion Metal in Ohio. They don't make them anymore in quantiyty and those that are built are custom jobs and cost $$$. I've seen some that are not really high-lifts but use a scissor jack like the ones they have at the airport, they don't look to go quite as high.

Holy Moly! If he could get another 6" height he wouldn't have to leave to coal yard to deliver across town!

Very cool picture, thanks for sharing.

Just be aware Freddy once you start getting out of the NEPA area trucks like that are going to become rare,

I really kinda was looking for a number.
a 10ft chute would do the job
a 16ft chute would be better.

Is this a normal to be expect a coal truck with those lenghts of chutes?

My deliver guy has a 14 foot auger and it shoots it right into the basement bin....

Wow, that truck would make a heck of a mobile deer stand as well!!!! Dual purpose.

syncmaster wrote:I really kinda was looking for a number.
a 10ft chute would do the job
a 16ft chute would be better.

Is this a normal to be expect a coal truck with those lenghts of chutes?

Yes, if its regular coalman it would be normal to expect them to be able to do most anything. The chutes telescope so length is adjustable, Basic chute is 8 foot that telescopes to about 12. But you could have addtional chutes for extending that also work on a telescoping basis. Shortest one on my trucks was 3 feet and if i put them all together you're looking at better than 25 foot at least. For special cases I could always take an extra or two with me if it for example it had to go down a long slope... I've chuted coal more than 50 feet but the window was below the ground level where the truck was.

If you provide a spot that is easily accessible that the truck can get anywhere near its going to be easy for anyone with one of these trucks but again check with your local dealer. If they only have dump or one of those trucks where they shovel it off they can't do high windows and can't make long shots under porches where the bottom chute will be laying flat.

coal-cooker wrote:Wow, that truck would make a heck of a mobile deer stand as well!!!! Dual purpose.

Make a good vehicle for going to the infield at the track if you had a platform built.

True, I think that trucks like Richard's are few and far between outside of NEPA. The two times I had coal delivered was from a local dealer (the one with the really bad coal-the locals know who I'm talking about) who had a truck with a dump body on it that had dividers in it that hinged at the top. It held 3 ton total. I could see how that could be difficult to chute in many situations.

The thing to understand is a coal truck not only gives you height but it gives you speed on the coal. It's a tool... With a dump you can back up to the window and dump it in but once it starts backing up to the chute you need to shovel. With the lift you can just lift it up higher and put a flat chute in the window on top of the pile you already created. Once that backs up push the chute in a little farther. You can't do that without a lot of velocity on the coal.

I used to work by myself all the time, two people is nice to have but 75% of them can easily be done with 1 person.

A knew a gentleman from Springville, PA (RIP) who delivered coal until about 1980 with a Ford F-750 truck. His truck body didn't even dump; let alone, the hydraulic articulated lift systems on these trucks. He had chutes; but, his primary coal handling system was a shovel...

There's a lot of guys that do that, some of them do it for the weight if they are making long hauls. My big lift probably weighs 3 or 4 tons, that's coal you can't put on the truck.