Lump Coal for Camp Stove

[338winmag]

Last year, 3rd season in Colorado, we had our nice big Davis Wall Tent and the largest stove they sell fr our hunting camp. We had a slight problem. No matter how we set the damper and other adjustments, our Hardwood never lasted more than an hour to an hour and a half. This meant somebody had to wakeup at those intervals to stoke the fire.

Lump coal was mentioned as the fuel to burn. Has anyone ever used this for thier hunting camp fuel instead of hardwood?

Thanks
Steve

 

[Antelope_Sniper]

Try some green aspen. It holds a fire much better at night. Many of the tent stoves are not made for burning coal. Coal burns hotter then wood, so if you don't have a thick bottomed (read heavy) stove, a grate, or good bed of ash in the bottom of you stove, coal could burn right through it.

Also, you may have too much draft. See what you can do to shut down some of the air flow. Does your stove pipe have a dampener?

 

[338winmag]

Thanks for the feedback.
Yeah I think we have an "adjustment issue". I posted on another forum and their answers are in line with your answer as well. We have the large one of these stoves so we are just going to have to learn better at the adjustment part.

http://davistent.com/html/woodstoves.html

Thanks Antelope_sniper
Steve

 

[Richracer1]

I have 2 Davis Tents, a 12x14 & 16x20, along with a stove, large & medium, for each tent. I have burned lump coal in both stoves, just make sure the grate is in place on the bottom. At night I stuff some coal in there along with as much wood as I can and I basically close the fresh air vent (it'll still get air to keep burning, trust me) and close the damper to about half way. This will slow down the burn rate but still provide enough heat for the tent. Oh, if you find really pitchy wood, be prepared to get nice and toasty. That large stove in the 16x20 with some coal and some pitchy good pine (we have bad pine as well - balsa pine sucks) with the vent/damper positioned as mentioned before had me sleeping outside of my bag for a while till it burned down a bit, about 3 hours.

I also picked up the largest Olympian catalytic heater from Camping World to run during the night so my lazy butt doesn't have to keep the fire completely stoked up all night - of course my bladder overrides my lazy butt all the time.

 

[Guest]

Oh what memories this thread brings back for me. Just remembering stoking the stove so much we were all on top of the sleeping bags till the fire died down, woke with my teeth chattering couldn't get in the bag fast enough, Ha! We burned a mix of green and dry Aspen with a little pine from time to time. On occasion the vent pipe top would get clogged with pitch and could not get enough heat till we cleaned it due to wood being wet or green. Having an in-line damper in the smoke pipe really helps control the burn as well as an adjustable front door fresh air vent.

Don

 

[338winmag]

"Just remembering stoking the stove so much we were all on top of the sleeping bags till the fire died down, woke with my teeth chattering couldn't get in the bag fast enough"

Now that is just too funny.. Our first night last season was ditto. We all woke up to sound of teeth chattering realizing the fire had probably burned out an hour ago. 3rd season can get mighty cold at 8000+. We then decided to take shifts. (it was almost like work)

..and here we thought we were the only ones that experienced that.

enjoyed your thought....

 

[Guest]

I know, I was there in Colorado third season last year but wasn't tenting it, was in a cabin. But it was very cold, snow etc. Hunted between 8500-10,000 ft. Was glad to in a cabin at night.

Some of the previous years we camped & hunted at 10,000 ft with 2ft. of snow, it was miserable, but the hunting was just excellent. Killed a 30" Muley then in third season. Great memories.

Don