I like driving around campsites where guys have left all their cut and split wood after they left for the season.
Easy pickings
I use professional grade 75-95 cc chainsaws. All ported, polished, and squished. It cut my wood processing time by 75%.
I can and do cut and split a long bed, grace yard humped when stacked in 2 hours or so. I use a 6 lb splitting mail versus an ax. FWIW, I’m amazed at the number of people who split wood with an ax. It’s so stupid versus a splitting maul.
Anyways, this is oak, hickory, or ash. No room for pine or the like unless I’m burning coal. Which is something you should do if it’s available. I bring a five gallon bucket full of lump coal/day. The heat out put and longevity is probably ten times hardwoods. And 20 times aspen or pine.
Try coal if you got it. And, buy a stove that drafts up through the fire. Versus a door draft. It just compliments how well coal does. Without drafting up through the fire the coal won’t burn completely. Nor, nearly as hot.
I understand. Use what you got. Just know that if your stove has fire brick in it, and drafts up through the fire, this is where coal shines.I've definitely got access to coal being in Wyoming, even have a coal grate, just never tried it before, but I'll need to give it a go!
I'm not familiar with coal-specific stoves used in camping. Do you have any resources, pictures, or specific stoves you can point to? I'd like to learn more about them. Any downsides?When it’s time to replace it, which you will if you burn coal in a camping type stove, find you a 30-40 pound coal stove.
I understand. Use what you got. Just know that if your stove has fire brick in it, and drafts up through the fire, this is where coal shines.
Be aware that if you are going to burn coal, that it takes a decent stove thickness or the coal will burn a hole in the stove if it’s drafting up through it.
A coal grate in a stove designed for wood will certainly improve its heating performance versus a bed of wood coals. But, it won’t produce heat and longevity of burn nearly as well as a coal stove.
Burn what you’ve got to burn in. When it’s time to replace it, which you will if you burn coal in a camping type stove, find you a 30-40 pound coal stove. The difference is literally night and day.
Coal needs heat and air to burn efficiently. And, even though it’s not proper, it will get hot enough to warp a thinner walled stove even if it drafts through the door.
When you get into camp for the night, get a hot fire going, dump a 5 gallon bucket of coal in the stove and forget about it till morning. It’s a therapeutic heat that I Enjoy more and More the older I get. Plus, wood processing just become a 15 minute job for the week.
Nope. No downsides at all except a properly sized stove for all night heating is going to weigh about a 100 pounds.I'm not familiar with coal-specific stoves used in camping. Do you have any resources, pictures, or specific stoves you can point to? I'd like to learn more about them. Any downsides?
Yes. Temperature control is easy. Just remember, if you want a lot of heat fast, feed it air and open the pipe damper once you dump the coal in. You’ll know when it’s time to choke it off. And, in a proper stove, 40 pounds of lump coal will produce good heat for 10 hours or so. As far as setting around in your undies kind of heat, about 5 hours.Great info, thank you. Are they pretty easy to control the temps once they get going? And once dampened down, sounds like they can keep a tent warm all night without adding to it?