Would anyone have any idea where I could buy a load of coal is western Montana? I have tried searching the web, but everything leads to nowhere. I have over the last two years remodeled a few houses that had coal shoots and found notes on how long the coal supply lasted compared to doug fir. I'm so busy that I'd like to try it.
I dunno about out west, but Ohio, PA, and WV are/were coal central, and it's not nearly as easy to come up with coal as it used to be...many local mines have closed. There's always the bagged stuff from TSC/Lowe's or local farm supply places, but that certainly isn't cheap. Not sure what you are burning in, but most modern wood burners won't burn coal well at all...coal needs air from under the fire, instead of air over, like wood.
Wolf mountain coal mine has a yard in decker which isn't exactly western but its an option... wilcoxon coal in roundup city which is central and not as close to wyoming as wolf mountain. I just did a google map search for coal suppliers.. definitely don't look like many options.
Thanks. About a ten hour drive to the eastern part of Montana. I call Roundup on Monday to see how much it would be for delivery. With Diesel so high I imagine it would be a few grand just for delivery.
I would certainly try a small batch, even if expensive, to see if it worked OK in my stove setup. Be tough to purchase a large load and find it didn't work out!
TSC has Coal. Not gonna be priced like a dump load. Proximity has always been a driver for coal. Now that it's literally The Devil, not near as many places taking it from the ground.
Might want to post on coalpail.com there may be some info there. I have never had much luck with the TSC bagged coal. Always seemed to have too must dust maybe from all the handling but once lit it burns long and hot but then I might be a bit spoiled as I would sometimes go to the breaker and have it loaded right into my truck. Usually it is washed too when buying from the breaker. Only trouble with that is buying it when the temps are below freezing. End up with a big frozen block in the truck by the time I would get home.
Ok. I got a quote back from Wolf Mountain. 70.10 a ton of oiled nugget coal. Native Montana lady told me it is equivalent to 1.8 tons of our doug fir in BTU's. The seamless gutter contractor I use told me yesterday that burned it for several years in roundup. He noticed that a ton of coal was equivalent in his experience to two cords of doug fir. I can get some coal that has been in the old switch board building that has been sitting since the end of ww2. I'm going to go get 4 5 gallon buckets of it this weekend and give it a whirl.
Used to be you couldn't hike in a straight line for more than 5 miles without running into a coal mine here. I think there's maybe one place local to me now that I can buy a dumptruck load from. So sad.
I searched thoroughly in WY and surrounding. Only available in Denver, would have had to bought many pallets worth to get it trucked to SE WY.
I haven't been on the web much for a couple of years. I didn't know you move to SC. When I lived in Dalzell SC while in the service, everyone would steal my firewood. Then when I moved to Cross, nobody touched my firewood. Just a memory I guess. That would be some heavy surcharge alone just to get a truck to you. During Katrina we charged 6 bucks a mile, plus a fuel surcharge for awhile. They let us run red-dye for a few weeks too.
