Bought any camping gear today?

[Viking]

A Trangia gas burner from Black in Keswick.  Cost £30 reduced from £45 in their apparently perpetual sale.  Also had them in Cotswold Outdoor for £53 so I rekon I got a good buy.

[clarion]

We got TGL an Octane 1 tent.  Brand new, but Butterfly got a bargain price.

We pitched and struck in about five minutes.  A lovely little solo tent, and a lot less faff than my Aztec.  He'll be bringing it to Mildenhall.

[Charlotte]

Crikey.  That's tempting...

http://www.blacks.co.uk/product/095733.html

[Wowbagger]

That Trangia burner seems to send the gas pipe through the flame for pre-heating. Is that normal for gas?

[clarion]

It's normal to route it under the burner, but that seems to go quite high.

[MercuryKev]

That Trangia burner seems to send the gas pipe through the flame for pre-heating. Is that normal for gas?

It means that you can invert the cannister and feed liquid gas to the burner.  Very useful for colder weather when low gas pressure in cannisers impacts on perfromance.  It works in the same way as your MSR liquid feed stove.

[Kim]

How heavily discounted gas burner and from whence?

http://www.trekitt.co.uk/gosystem-adapt-gas-conversion.ir


AIUI the main difference between that and the Trangia branded one is the size of the knob and whether it's got 'Trangia' written on the box.

[Kim]

That Trangia burner seems to send the gas pipe through the flame for pre-heating. Is that normal for gas?

It means that you can invert the cannister and feed liquid gas to the burner.  Very useful for colder weather when low gas pressure in cannisers impacts on perfromance.  It works in the same way as your MSR liquid feed stove.

It also means that (as long as the temperature's reasonably above zero) you can use pure butane - which is generally problematic with vapour-feed stoves, but incredibly cheap.  When feeding the liquid gas to the stove it only needs to boil off sufficient vapour to keep the cannister pressurised (as you would with your multifuel pump), rather than provide a continuous supply of vapour for the burner (the pre-heat loop takes care of that).  Consequently the temperature of the cannister doesn't drop substantially and it keeps working.

If you're using a butane/propane mix cartridge, feeding liquid to the burner has the additional advantage that you don't fractionally distil the mixture as the cartridge is used.  With a vapour-fed stove, the propane tends to get used up preferentially, leading to poor low-temperature performance with not-empty-yet cartridges.

[Polar Bear]

How heavily discounted gas burner and from whence?

http://www.trekitt.co.uk/gosystem-adapt-gas-conversion.ir


AIUI the main difference between that and the Trangia branded one is the size of the knob and whether it's got 'Trangia' written on the box.

I've tried to buy one but their antequated system manages to reject my valid mastercard credit card.   Ho hum...   

[Polar Bear]

Visa is the way to go 

Now, do I dare buy one of these whilst I still have an itcy trigger finger...   

[rogerzilla]

Apparently the British Army use alcohol hand gel for pre-heating.

Yes, but only in the arctic and running naptha in the stove IME.

Hand gel doesn't work that well I don't think - you need a proper fuel gel like this:

clicky

I have now had the opportunity to try my army surplus Coleman 550B with paraffin and Carex hand gel, which was the most alcoholic-smelling I could find.  The hand gel works as well as Fire Star gel, igniting with a spark and pre-heating perfectly, except that it's a little bit runnier so the stove needs to be tilted slightly towards the generator tube while preheating.  Hand gel comes in a more convenient-sized bottle and the built-in dispensing pump is very good for getting it where it's needed.

I therefore declare the British Army method to be valid.

I imagine hand gel would be brilliant for preheating a SVEA 123, since that has a little cup for the preheating liquid.  Not that I have a SVEA 123, but one day I'll find a cheap one.

[clarion]

I discovered that our posh stove - a Primus Multifuel EX - whichhas been suffering from the loss of a flame spreader, is actually for all practical purposes an Omnifuel, and so I've bought a spreader from Needlesport, who are a lot cheaper than other suppliers, but seem to be pretty sound.

[andrewc]

A friend of mine has a story about a Svea 123 (aka The Swedish Hand Grenade).   It involves a bone dry hillside in Cyprus, a flare up and a pair of very brown trousers......

I've got an Optimus 96 on a shelf in the bedroom.  Full working order but I've not used it since I set my sleeve on fire priming it!

http://www.spiritburner.com/fusion/index.php is your place for all things stove related, as I'm sure you've found.

[L CC]

Visa is the way to go 

Now, do I dare buy one of these whilst I still have an itcy trigger finger...   

Flames! Yay!

I think I love it. We didn't get a chance to do a cook-off vs Chris's MRS gas thingy, but I think it might well have won. It gets very hot very fast. Simmering aint ever gonna happen, though.

[Chris S]

Chris's MRS MSR Gas Thingy would have wupped the ass off the wood burner on Sunday evening (after 8 hours of heavy rain).

[Polar Bear]

Mebbe so but I often camp where there is an almost limitless supply of dry twigs and lumps of flammable vegetation.   I already have a Kelly Kettle (courtesy of Jane) which is marvellous for brews and hot water in general.   A lovely compact portable wood burner to cook on is almost irresistible.

Great pic boab.   
   

[Wowbagger]

One of these.

http://www.terra-nova.co.uk/Brand/Wild_Country/Backpacking_Tents/Zephyros_1_Tent.html

I was very impressed with Andrij's Terra Nova Laser Competition tent that I thought I'd buy the budget version. It weighs less than half the Nallo 3GT, which I have been using when solo camping, and I thought I'd be rather less precious with the cheaper version than the real thing. I paid less than £100 for it from Field & Trek.

Now - I must find somewhere to christen it whilst camping is still not totally stupid.

[andrewc]

One of these.

http://www.terra-nova.co.uk/Brand/Wild_Country/Backpacking_Tents/Zephyros_1_Tent.html

I was very impressed with Andrij's Terra Nova Laser Competition tent that I thought I'd buy the budget version. It weighs less than half the Nallo 3GT, which I have been using when solo camping, and I thought I'd be rather less precious with the cheaper version than the real thing. I paid less than £100 for it from Field & Trek.

Now - I must find somewhere to christen it whilst camping is still not totally stupid.

Well, Christening usually involves a good dousing with water..... please tell me when you are planning this so I can avoid camping 

[clarion]

I discovered that our posh stove - a Primus Multifuel EX - whichhas been suffering from the loss of a flame spreader, is actually for all practical purposes an Omnifuel, and so I've bought a spreader from Needlesport, who are a lot cheaper than other suppliers, but seem to be pretty sound.

Flame spreader arrived promptly.  I fitted and tested it last night on the kitchen table.  Excellent!  I'm looking forward to the next camping trip to cook on it.

On the subject of stoves, here's a new idea of how to communicate on a campsite: the base of a pan left to dry:

[Wowbagger]

One of these.

http://www.terra-nova.co.uk/Brand/Wild_Country/Backpacking_Tents/Zephyros_1_Tent.html

I was very impressed with Andrij's Terra Nova Laser Competition tent that I thought I'd buy the budget version. It weighs less than half the Nallo 3GT, which I have been using when solo camping, and I thought I'd be rather less precious with the cheaper version than the real thing. I paid less than £100 for it from Field & Trek.

Now - I must find somewhere to christen it whilst camping is still not totally stupid.

Annoyingly, although the parcel progress report told me that it had left the Chelmsford depot at 10.25 this morning, it failed to make it to Southend. It is still described as being "out for delivery".

[Canardly]

I want to see how t'Bagger gets on with this before I commit. If anything it is the two man for me.

[Wowbagger]

One of these.

http://www.terra-nova.co.uk/Brand/Wild_Country/Backpacking_Tents/Zephyros_1_Tent.html

I was very impressed with Andrij's Terra Nova Laser Competition tent that I thought I'd buy the budget version. It weighs less than half the Nallo 3GT, which I have been using when solo camping, and I thought I'd be rather less precious with the cheaper version than the real thing. I paid less than £100 for it from Field & Trek.

Now - I must find somewhere to christen it whilst camping is still not totally stupid.

I'm getting pretty pissed off with the courier. The tent left the Chelmsford depot at 10.25 yesterday morning but was returned at 9.46 last night with the message "Unable to gain timely access". It's left the depot again today at 10.09 but still hasn't arrived. I want to use it tomorrow.

[Notsototalnewbie]

I know that feeling, Wow. I do hope for your sake the courier isn’t bloody Yodel. Good luck.

I have bought:

A couple of foam sitmats (I did have one before but I think it blew away when we were camped at the foot of Snowdon as it did not come back with us).

Some Actual Jetboil fuel (I’ve always just used the Coleman canisters because they were easier to find). Will be interesting to see if it makes any difference.

A Victorinox ‘Camper’ tool. On our last camping trip our wine/beer was limited to that which had a screw cap/pull tab which won’t do. I’m sure I will find all sorts of uses for the other bits on it.

Some windproof matches, to avoid the frustrating time we had trying to make FIRE on a breezy evening in Wales (we did eventually manage, on the penultimate match from our box of normal cheap matches, but there were a tense few moments beforehand).

Some lightweight guylines because I’ve lost one of the tent’s originals. Flouro because having a fluffy dog tethered outside the tent sometimes attracts small children and they tend to trip over the guylines in their haste to come and make a fuss of her.

[Wowbagger]

It is Bloody Yodel. I've just sent them a message asking why it's taking them so long.

[Notsototalnewbie]

As you’ve realised, they are notoriously crap; lots of retailers have stopped using them because they received so many complaints. I’ve had stuff apparently go on a tour of the country before now. I’d chase the hell out of them if I were you.