Best Fuel For Extended Trip

[Centurion]

New to steamboating. Just purchased a 17 year old boat: Elliott Bay Hull, Strath Engine, Benson Mtn Boiler. All works well.

Goal is to sometime transit the entire length of the Erie Canal, 340 miles. Will probably do it in stages; 3 - 4 days at a time and will need to carry that much fuel on board.. Now testing various fuels. Have tried Pocahontas bituminous coal but that seems to require frequent small coal feeds, grate scraping to keep the clinkers from blocking the grate and frequent ash emptying for extended cruises.. Have tried hardwood. That seems to be less tedious in feeding the boiler and in ash buildup but seems to require more wood on board than coal for the same distance. Have not tried Anthracite yet but hope to this weekend. I understand lighting it is more difficult and fire tending is more tricky. Needs forced draft (steam) ot get started and to light newly added coal.

Any advice for those of you who have taken extended cruises?

[johngriffiths]

Anthracite is ok, short flame, little smoke, tubes soot up very slowly. Have you thought of putting a centrifugal fan blowing into the ash pan, the fan driven by a pulley on the prop shaft. My boat uses this arrangement and another I know of uses an axial fan to pressurise the ash pan. No problem lighting anthracite if you get a good strong wood or charcoal fire going first.

[barts]

Seems like some trial runs in different weather conditions would help you be able to make an accurate estimate of daily fuel consumption; Otter certainly burns more fuel (diesel) fighting headwinds, for example.

Best advice for extended cruises is comfortable seating.

BTW, enclosed boats should use induced rather than forced draft, since a pressurized combustion chamber will find every possible place for combustion products to escape - not really an issue on an open boat, but dangerous if the boiler is below desks. Full size practice was of course to pressurized the boiler room completely.

- Bart

[johngriffiths]

Coal is easy to store in bunkers and sacks which can be stored wherever there is room, even on deck, but not too much.
If the ash pan of a VFT is force drafted then with normal good quality construction, the only place fumes may escape from is the fire door when opened.

Leakage from around a fire door has not happened with both the ash pan force drafted boats I have fired and helmed, nor have flames escaped when the fire box doors were opened. The funnel draft has still been there. I am aware that when fans have failed on oil fired boilers there have been nasty consequences but with our small stuff it is not a problem.

If you work in a boiler room which does not have a good air supply you will bake as well as possibly asphyxiate.

[Kelly Anderson]

Use Mike Condax's system. Take a 12" bar chain saw along, and cut dead wood as you find it. As he says, "I can go 200 miles on 1 quart of gasoline. "

[Lopez Mike]

As a happy owner of a wood burning boat, I feel funny about such a recommendation but I would put together an oil burner for any sort of extended trip.

I don't take extended trips so I can get by with solid fuels but the idea of the mess of coal and the volume of wood is discouraging.

I'll go put on my hard hat now before the bricks start flying.

[barts]

As a happy owner of a wood burning boat, I feel funny about such a recommendation but I would put together an oil burner for any sort of extended trip.

I don't take extended trips so I can get by with solid fuels but the idea of the mess of coal and the volume of wood is discouraging.

I'll go put on my hard hat now before the bricks start flying.

A cord of fir firewood takes up 8' x 4' x 4'; this is about 85 cubic feet of solid wood, so a packing factor of
about 2/3. This yields about 17.4 million BTU, and weighs 2800 lbs. This is about the same as 136 gallons of dissel, which would weigh 951 lbs and take up 18 cubic feet.

So... fir takes 3x the weight and 7x the volume for the same BTU; as boats get larger the difference is a little less punishing. Here in Washington State, home heating fuel is prob. $2.25/gallon; a cord of dry firewood is about $300, so in terms of cost they're a wash. Of course, a few years ago oil was 2x that price.

A wood fire is nicer to be around than an oil fire, and you're not contributing to climate change. Wood is a lot more work, and harder to come by at a fuel dock.

A clever person might well design their boiler to use either one.

Firing with oil either takes 10amps or so at 12V (electric burner - noisy), or fresh water approximately at the same volume as the fuel burned.

- Bart

[Lopez Mike]

Well, Bart, as you pointed out to me only a few day ago, one could run a small air pump off of the engine for use with an atomizing burner. That way the water consumption for atomizing could be eliminated.

A small propane can to run the burner at startup or a wood fire to get up steam? Perhaps an air reservoir for times when the engine is not running?

In my steaming areas there is lots of wood to be had both at home and on the beaches plus I seldom venture more than ten miles from home thus I have little incentive to change over but if I was planning an adventure like his canal trip I would be looking carefully at liquid fuel.

[DetroiTug]

I second the chain saw suggestion, I carry a 24" bucksaw or pruning saw. It cuts pretty fast, and it requires no fuel and takes up very little space. Lots of dead wood along the edge and even a short walk in to any wooded area will result in a supply. We just need wrist sized stuff, no large diameter logs.

When I made the New York Champlain canal trip last year, Dave Conroy showed me a wagon they use and it works great for transporting a good bit of wood over a long distance. I have a folding handtruck that is better than packing it, but the wagon which I borrowed once was much better.

The one in the Pic is sold by Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Mac-Sports-Colla ... fold+wagon

There are many other alternatives as mentioned, switching out for an oil burner etc. Deezel is available along well-traveled rivers. A convertible setup could be a lot of bother when wood is not that hard to find and pretty easy to get. Another thing to keep in mind, Landscapers usually sell firewood too or at least know where you can get it. Use a cellphone and call ahead to the area you're going, for a price, they'll have it waiting on the dock. Another thing, in remote areas where there are campers, most gas stations sell firewood. I had to do that in Wissconsin - walk to a service station, buy some wood and then the guy was even nice enough to drive me back to the dock with the wood. Folks in remote areas are usually very accommodating.

Tried Coal on the tug one time, it took a week to get all the soot off everything. Coal is very hard to find.

If one is intent on taking enough fuel for days, build a pram and tow it behind with wood supply.

-Ron

[Centurion]

I just completed my first fuel economy test. It was only 5.2 miles in length due to strong thunderstorms in the area. I started with a cold boiler, used softwood kindling to start the fire and then approximately 7 lbs of hardwood to get to 50 lbs of steam. I then traveled approx 5,2 miles at 60 to 80 psi using hardwood to maintain pressure. I did not feed the fire prior to docking so it was about spent with approx 40 psi pressure. I used the steam injector to top off the boiler prior to loading my boat on my trailer. I got the following data:

Total Lbs Used *** 38
Fireup Lbs *** 7
Trip Miles *** 5.2
Cruise #/M *** 6
Total #/M *** 7.3

This means if I want to do the Erie Canal in 3 day bites cruising 6 hrs a day at an efficient 5 MPH, I would cover 30 miles a day. With fireup and cruise, my total fuel per day would be approximately 180 lbs plus 7 for fireup. If I round it to 200 lbs per day, that means a 3 day trip would need at least 600 lbs of firewood with no real reserve. That maybe doable I think with my 23' Elliott Bay hull.

Next test will be Anthracite Coal.

After that, if I can find some, I'll use Pocahontas #3 bituminous.

How does my fuel usage per mile sound compared to others on this site with a similar hull?