5 Gallon Buckets

Freddy wrote:"Normal" trucking is one or two hours to unload.... About $65 an hour after that. I'd guess a coal trucker is like any other. If he's going to spend time with you, he or she will want to be paid.

Bulk coal by tri-axle or trailer is a couple minute deal and they are going to expect that. Having said that even bulk coal from a delivery truck shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes if the homeowner has it set up right whether its one ton or 10 ton. When I was running I was usually on a tight schedule, if you tell someone you're going to be there between 10-11 you should be there between 10-11. It's gets tougher as the day goes on, a guy driving a trailer or tri-axle is going to be a on schedule too.

I took the good with the bad but when I got a new customer I'd tell them what I would and wouldn't do it, basically if the chute didn't reach the bin at a reasonable height (e.g. it had to be few feet off the ground) it wasn't going in the bin and since most of deliveries were pretty far it was going on the ground if I couldn't do that. Didn't happen often because I always liked a challenge but I wasn't going to kill myself either. I'd always suggest how they could make it easier, simple changes can make a world of difference. If it was really hard I'd tell them to change it or call someone else. If you're spending more than an hour at house its too long.

Again if you're going to expect them to sit there and wait while you offload the coal into bags or anything else other than dumping it on the ground let them know what you want to do. They'll be able to adjust their schedule for it, tell you the additional costs or decide if they want to do it. If someone gets stuck somewhere for two unexpected hours the rest of the day may be shot.

Sting wrote:Tell me it isn't so!

You don't really want to load up - move - then store 15 ton in 5 gallon pails??????

Well I'll have 5 tons in my bin and I've got room for 5 tons in 5 gallon buckets (about 250)in my basement. The question is what am I going to do with the other 10 tons. My wife isn't keen on a 10 ton pile of coal where she can see it. Ive got room to put it on the property where she won't see it but then it's a hike to the coal bin when it's time to use it. I guess that's what's going to happen. I do like the poly bag idea. I could stack it on pallets and cover with a tarp. I'm concerned if mice will chew the poly though and put holes in the bags. That would be bad.

If you have room for 250 buckets why not just build another bin?

I could do that but this is in an enclosed end of the room with no window or easy way to get coal in other than to carry it by hand. Might as well use buckets. They are free or cheap. It's a reasonable amount of coal to lift at one time. The buckets are indestrustable.

I tried the buckets,,, the poly bags work much easier. It's like having bagged blashack. The mice don't usually chew to get into a bag of coal because they can smell it. They don't take up so much space either. I stacked a ton and a half against a wall and it took up about the same space as half a cord of wood. Scott

coalkirk wrote:I could do that but this is in an enclosed end of the room with no window or easy way to get coal in other than to carry it by hand. Might as well use buckets. They are free or cheap. It's a reasonable amount of coal to lift at one time. The buckets are indestrustable.

Can't you make your current bin bigger then what it is now say 4x12x16=19.2 tons Could you cut a window in and use a chute from the outside to fill it How Much room do you have outside to store coal
you can use 55 gal Drums with lids to store coal in cover with tarps so wife don't see them you could use a handtruck to move them Is there any window that you could use in another part of the basement you could use a chute Put a few
drums down inside then from the outside chute it in to the drums handtruck it over to the bin 10 drums will fill your 4x8x6 4.8 ton bin 60 drums will hold 15 tons a window would make your life so much easier

stokerscot wrote:I tried the buckets,,, the poly bags work much easier.

The bags we're talking about hold 1 ton.

They make 1-ton buckets?? Scott

coal berner wrote:

coalkirk wrote:I could do that but this is in an enclosed end of the room with no window or easy way to get coal in other than to carry it by hand. Might as well use buckets. They are free or cheap. It's a reasonable amount of coal to lift at one time. The buckets are indestrustable.

Can't you make your current bin bigger then what it is now say 4x12x16=19.2 tons Could you cut a window in and use a chute from the outside to fill it How Much room do you have outside to store coal
you can use 55 gal Drums with lids to store coal in cover with tarps so wife don't see them you could use a handtruck to move them Is there any window that you could use in another part of the basement you could use a chute Put a few
drums down inside then from the outside chute it in to the drums handtruck it over to the bin 10 drums will fill your 4x8x6 4.8 ton bin 60 drums will hold 15 tons a window would make your life so much easier

I can't make my coal bin any larger or I would have to move my boiler. Not gonna do that. No way to get a window or chute in the area of the basement where I have room to store coal besides my bin. I'm probably going to build some kind of out door bin. I've got room to put it out of sight but then I've got to haul it. I probably should just do what Yanche did and buy a nice trailer and haul it myself. Then I wouldn't have to buy 20 tons at a time to save $$.

Getting it while the gettin's good isn't a bad idea here. The way fuel prices are rising and everything else is going wacko it would be a safe bet to stock up now. I'm thinking a truckload or two would be a wise investment. Scott

stokerscot wrote:Getting it while the gettin's good isn't a bad idea here. The way fuel prices are rising and everything else is going wacko it would be a safe bet to stock up now. I'm thinking a truckload or two would be a wise investment. Scott

I just got a truckload today (23 tons) For now it's on a tarp 20 x40 and just barely fit. I was lucky because my buddy owns a Tri-Axle and hauled it for free . He has 3 chutes in back for dumping asphalt so it was a little easier to control where the load was going instead of just dumping it everywhere and it was nice not having to be rushed as this was all he had to do today. My local dealer is only 5 miles from me and we made it in 2 loads, he charged me $180/ton and said it will be going up by Aug.. I figure I'll burn 4 ton a year so I should be good for about 6 years @ about $700.00 yr for heat, it will be nice to be off oil and warm this winter. I was going to build a bin in the basement but after looking at the bulk bags I may order them and store 1/2 in the basement and the rest on the tarp outside. Has anyone used the bulk bags, they seem really durrable and convenient and would be a lot cheaper than having to buy all the wood for a good size bin.

I've used the large bulk bags that hold 1-ton and the small bags that hold 50-80 lbs. both work good for storing coal. If stored outside they need to be covered to prevent UV damage.My thought is that if you have to shovel to fill the big bags, the same shoveling fills the little bags. the little ones are easy to move, the big ones not so easy.If you have to fill a bucket to feed the stove then the bag is allready filled. Small ones save steps. Scott

coalkirk wrote: I can't make my coal bin any larger or I would have to move my boiler. Not gonna do that. .

An adjacent bin could be filled from the current bin with an auger - around here you can buy new 4 in augers (11 foot extension kits) manufacture you own top bearing and drive on it from scrap or buy a complete new auger for 200 bucks. (just add motor)

now rig the auger to fill the new bin from material of the original bin - heck you could daisy chain this into several bins - then pull the augers and with "chutes and ladders" reverse the process back to the close bin so you don't have to carry so far!!!!

There's some problems with moving it to another bin you have to consider, firstly you'll be making dust unless you bury the auger in the coal. Not only is the dust itself a problem but you're actually creating more of it by the moving it through such a system and dropping out of the end of the auger. Every time you move coal fines are created especially with the dropping action. The issue with burying it is when it gets jammed, this will happen at some time undoubtedly.

Lastly you will still have to shovel most of it onto the auger... might as well shovel it right into a bucket to fill the furnace hopper with.

These ideas area all great but unless you are consuming a very large amount of coal I really don't see the point from either a expense or practicality point of view.

My thought was to stock up now before coal or diesel got any higher. It's a 220 mile round trip from my house to Superior. I can easily haul 2 tons in my pickup but to make it worthwhile and beat the price increase in coal and fuel, I was planning to get a tandem axle dump load of 20 tons. The 20 tons would be (20x140) 2,800.00 and the trucker wants 600.00 for a total of 3,400.00. That's 170.00 a ton, which is 25.00 a ton cheaper than I'm buying it now. So I'm saving 500.00 at current coal price which will inevitably go up every year like it has since I've been using it. Plus I'm covered at that price for at least 4 heating seasons. Storing it becomes the challange. I like the buckets for several reasons. First, they are free. Yea, I'm cheap. A bucket of rice coal is easy to store, easy to handle (not getting any younger) and the buckets stack inside each other when empty. So I'm going to put 5 ton in my bin, fit as many buckets of coal in the other available basement space that's adjacent to my boiler (hopefully another 3-4 tons) and the rest I'll find a way to store outside. Hindsight is always 20/20. If I had set my boiler up with the hopper on the right instead of the left, I could have moved it several feet further over and made my bin twice the size it is. On the other hand, it's good to empty it every year to clear out the fines. Ok, I'm rambling now so I guess I'm through.