Colorado cable reels: Front Range and beyond
We buy empty wooden cable reels from Colorado yards and sell reel lots to Colorado crews, with pickup and delivery arranged by the trailer along the Front Range and out to the Western Slope. Send the flange, traverse and drum of each size with a count, and we quote a price per reel that already accounts for the road it travels.
- Largest utility, 2024 sales
- Public Service Co of Colorado
- BEAD allocation
- $826,522,650.41
- Front Range spine
- I-25, Fort Collins to Pueblo
- Mountain crossing
- I-70 over the Continental Divide
Most reels sit within sight of I-25
Colorado's people, building and cable work are packed along the Front Range, the strip of cities on I-25 from Fort Collins and Greeley through Denver and Colorado Springs to Pueblo. That is where the contractor yards are, where the distributors keep stock and where most empties pile up. East of it, the plains run flat to Kansas and Nebraska. West of it, the mountains make every mile cost more.
No wire or cable plant turned up in our research for Colorado, so empties here come from use, not manufacture: utility distribution work, new subdivisions, commercial building, transmission and substations, and fiber. That is plenty. A growing metro of several million people leaves a lot of reels behind.
Utilities and co-ops behind the reel piles
Public Service Co of Colorado, the Xcel Energy company, sold 28,406,644 MWh in 2024, by far the most in the state. Colorado Springs Utilities, a city-owned system, is second. Then come two cooperatives on the edges of the Denver metro: United Power, north and east of Denver, and CORE Electric Cooperative, to the south. Both cover fast-growing suburbs on the fringe of the metro, and growth there means new underground distribution on every new street.
That URD work is the steadiest source of empties on the Front Range. The reels are mostly nailed wood, 48 to 72 inch flanges, from primary and secondary cable. They resell well to other distribution crews, so a pile from a co-op contractor is usually a sound lot to write up.
| Rank | Retailer | Type | Sales, MWh |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Public Service Co of Colorado | Investor-owned | 28,406,644 |
| 2 | City of Colorado Springs - (CO) | Public | 4,647,455 |
| 3 | United Power, Inc | Cooperative | 3,454,494 |
| 4 | CORE Electric Cooperative | Cooperative | 2,631,678 |
| 5 | Black Hills Colorado Electric, LLC | Investor-owned | 1,820,801 |
Over the passes: I-70 in winter
I-70 climbs west from Denver through the Eisenhower Tunnel and over Vail Pass toward Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction. In winter, Colorado's chain law applies to commercial trucks on that stretch when conditions call for it, and closures for snow or crashes are common. A load from the Western Slope to Denver can lose a day to weather.
That is one reason Western Slope lots often look west instead of east. Grand Junction is closer by road to buyers in Utah than a mountain crossing to Denver is in bad weather. We look at both directions when we price a lot from Mesa, Garfield or Montrose County.
Altitude, dry air and how reels hold up
Colorado's dry climate is kind to wood. Reels stored a few years in a Denver yard rarely show the rot at the drum you see in humid states. Strong sun at altitude does crack flange plies, and freeze and thaw opens up any split that lets water in. On the plains, wind is the other risk: a stack of light empties on their sides can shift in a strong gust.
Stand empties on their flanges, block them so they cannot roll, and keep the stencil side readable. The desk can price from a stencil photo and a count; it cannot price a pile it can't see.
BEAD in Colorado
Colorado's BEAD allocation in NTIA's June 2023 table is $826,522,650.41, twenty-second among the states. Unserved places are mostly in the mountains, the San Luis Valley and the eastern plains, where fiber runs long distances between small towns, sometimes over very rough ground.
Fiber work in mountain terrain uses many short runs, because pulls are limited by grade and access. That means more cut lengths, more re-spooling and more demand for small and mid empties with drums sized for fiber. A 30 or 36 inch reel with a 12 to 17 inch drum covers a lot of that work.
Reel sizes that move well from Denver
The table below pairs common nailed reels with the number Sonoco says fit in a 53-foot van. Freight is paid by the trailer, so the reel that fits 200 to a van costs a fraction as much per reel to move as one that fits 22.
| Flange (in.) | Max reels per 53-ft van | Where Colorado demand comes from |
|---|---|---|
| 36 | 200 | Building wire, small fiber |
| 42 | 120 | Building wire, control cable |
| 48 | 100 | URD secondary, fiber |
| 54 | 60 | URD primary |
| 60 | 39 | Feeder, larger fiber |
| 66 | 24 | Feeder, substation |
| 72 | 22 | Substation, transmission |
What to send, and what happens next
- 01
Read the stencils
Write each size as flange x traverse x drum, and count each size.
- 02
Show the pile
Send a wide photo, a stencil photo per size and close-ups of damage.
- 03
Give the address area
City or ZIP, whether a 53-foot trailer can turn in the yard, and what loads it.
- 04
Agree the offer
We quote each size group and the freight. Once agreed, we arrange the truck.
- 05
Count together
The count at loading is the count that is paid or invoiced.
Questions people ask
Do you pick up reels in mountain towns?
Yes, where a truck can reach and load. Winter weather and long grades raise freight per reel, so larger lots and dry-season pickups price better.
Are Western Slope reels sold to Denver or to Utah?
Whichever is closer to a buyer for that size. Grand Junction lots often go west on I-70 into Utah rather than over the passes.
Do Xcel Energy contractors' reels qualify for a maker's return program?
Only if they meet that maker's own rules, which usually means its labeled reels in a full truckload. Mixed and off-brand reels generally don't qualify, and those are the reels we buy.
What do Colorado fiber crews need?
Small and mid reels with drums that meet the fiber bend rule, at least 20 times the cable diameter and never under 12 inches. Tell us the cable diameter and we will check.