Does Anyone Know What a 55 Gal Drum Full to Top Weighs

jimbo970 wrote: different mines ways different? Like reading rice may weigh more or less than blaschak?? Does this sound right?

That's entirely true but I don't know if there would be that much difference, if the coal has a hard glass like appearance then you might be onto something. There's a real low ash variety that comes out of somewhere down near Hazelton that weighs a lot for the volume. There can be a significant difference in the volume of sizes however but in your case the rice takes more room than larger sizes.

All I can tell you is whenever I made a delivery where it went into drums it always took about 5 per ton. Usually they would be filled to within a couple inches of the top.

I am out of the Lancaster area. I used Mellinger this year and called him. Anyone else in the Lancaster area using him for coal in a similar situation.

There is no way I got 4 ton into 17 barrels filled to tippy top. These are the white\clear 55 gal barrels that were one piece. I had to use a saws all and cut the tops off

I think you are really close to 4 ton. The guys are saying around 420 but if your barrels are a few inches taller then the others you could get 50 more pounds in each. 4 tons= 8000 pounds / 17 barrels = 470 pounds a barrel . I use the plastic kitty litter buckets that are 40 pounds of kitty litter and they hold about 31 pounds of rice filled to the top so I am guesing you are just getting 1 1/2 more of these buckets in you barrels. Hope this helps and hope you are not short on coal
Chris H

1 cu ft = 7.48 gal

55 gal / 7.48 = 7.3529411 etc.

7.3529411 cu ft in a 55 gal drum

~ 50 lbs of coal per cubic foot (based upon 1 short ton = 40 cubic feet)

So, 7.3529411 x 50 = 367.97055 lbs per 55 gallon container

tvb wrote: ~ 50 lbs of coal per cubic foot (based upon 1 short ton = 40 cubic feet)

Keep in mind this a variable and when it comes down to it can be drastically different:

Volume of Anthracite by Weight

The size of the coal is probably the biggest factor, I always use theis picture of my truck to show how different it can be, the following picture was taken with 5 ton of buck, if it were rice it would be mounded up a little more. If it was nut coal you'd barely see it. If it was stove coal you wouldn't see it and it would actually be a few inches lower than the sides, the volume difference between sizes can be that much. If you throw into the mix the different densities of the coal you really have a mess trying to figure out exactly what it should be.