You can get these blue campinggaz gas bottles near anywhere.. You can see these blue bottles on hiking hats in Island till remote villages in africa or asia.

With unleaded fuel for the coleman cooker, you can too restock near anywhere too. So the restocking issue dont count really, I think.

But I guess the trangia hasnt a problem with soot....

Surfy

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About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

This weekend I was going though a few old boxes of childhood possessions that had been stored at my late grandmothers home.

In one box. I found my old Coleman 502.. from 1978... Complete with half a tank of what was gasoline in 1978..

I dumped out the viscous yellow liquid, added about 3 tablespoons of fresh unleaded from my tank.. swished it around & dumped that out as well...

Filled it with fresh unleaded.. pumped it up.. and it lit and runs like a champ..

I think I'm taking this one to Yosemite with me.. Since the last time I lit it up was about the last time I was at Yosemite..

The definition of "near everywhere" depends on what's "near". I.e. how many miles and how many meals does each cannister cover?

If you have a truckload of space, carrying 3 or 4 cannisters through remote villiages might be easy. With 60 or 70 litres of luggage space on a motorcycle taking an extra cannister or two is a more difficult choice.

It also depends on what's cooking. For heating water for coffee, instant meals, a gas cannister may last a while. If you start with a browned onion or cook whatever you found at farms or markets then a cannister doesn't go as far.

Everyone has a different definition of "cooking" and makes different trade-offs if they have limited luggage space. I don't want to spend time every 3 or 4 days looking for a cannister. I DO spend time looking for gas anyway. Even on a single trip, some days or areas are great for buying prepared food and in other areas setting up camp and cooking a good meal is a great end to a riding day.

I just haven't seen those cannisters being as easily avaliable as pump gas.

A good thread.....have to comment on the coffee though. I agree with the morning coffee fix as well - if I could walk around with a permanent drip of coffee infusing into my veins I'd be happy.

I use a Coleman twin burner and use the Coleman fuel or Shellite fuel. Never tried the Unleaded though. Here in Oz I spoke to Coleman who suggested that if you start using one type of fuel it's best for the stove to continue using it..(but they may not be aware of the nifty tip of injector cleaner for the carb).

I get good economy out of the Shellite - I have used a twin burner for a week on a tank of it and a Coleman duel fuel single burner lantern for about the same time. I also have a single burner Coleman that has about a 3 hour cooking time per tank but it works like a blow torch - a bit hard to control the flame.
I do like my Gasmate butane cartride single burner, but bulky for the bike - usually sits in a day box in the back of the forby. The little single burner butane (Gaz size canister) burner I use has small canisters; I can cook 8 meals plus 1 cup of hot water per meal (supposedly one hour burn time per can). Not bad. Off course the meals are heated cans of stew or some such concoction takes about 6 minutes to boil and heat both water and can food. I use can foodstuff where I possible because I don't want to use dehydrated food types that require water to be added, as there is absorbable liquid in the cans and other food types (eg:can fruits) - not a problem if water isn't an issue though.

So I find the ColemanFuel or the Shellite the most economical, AND I agree on the gas cartridge problem developing around the countryside here in Oz. Some people have a nasty habit of dumping them in the scrub and its not unusual to see, in some places, a swollen can from heat lying around like a small bomb ready to go off - always a worry what we throw in the garbage and into the ground.

Cheers

To make your coleman run like new, just replace the generator.

I now carry one as a spare. Even though my last one lasted 8 years...


I had the facilities to clean my generator and it's like a brand new stove. It now ROARS again with a nice blue flame (running unleaded).


Coleman replacement generator for Coleman 442 533 sportster stove - 533-5891 | eBay

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Thanks TT....not sure why the coleman goes like a blow torch.....its not that old......it has done since leaving the box and the 1st burn......its not a problemto live with just annoying at times when not in a mood to put up with its shennigans

Soon I start the next trip.

As a so called "burned child" - who the Coleman died after 3 Weeks - I start prepared this time:

I carry an extra generator AND and an complete extra Pump/Tank/Generator Unit.

I still dont find an alternative in kind of capability and weight - who can replace the coleman dual flame.

Surfy

__________________
About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

When you get home you can fix the old one.

I used a hot blow torch. Propane/Acetylene mix. £10 in Toolstation etc.

First soak the generator in petrol overnight.

Get the generator glowing red for a good ten minutes. Move the torch slowly up the generator pipe. The extreme heat vaporises the carbon deposits. I then used a very thin steel guitar string (8 gauge) to pull anything else through.

It's like new now.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

I'm certainly no expert, but here's my experience from this past August:
I use a MSR Whisperlite stove on unleaded petrol. Never had a problem with it. I bought it years ago at REI, and they sold me a Primus fuel bottle to go with it. One night in August I cooked dinner on it, same as always. The next morning, I fired it up to make coffee, and about 3 drops of fuel dripped out of the neck onto the concrete picnic table, and ignited. Before I could really react (other than blowing on it like an idiot), the neck of the bottle/pump caught fire. As I backed away, the pump "vented" and a large pressurized flame shot out about ten feet. My thought at that point (besides I'm gonna burn the whole damn forest and campground down) was "well, it will just burn itself out now". About 5 seconds later, the bottle exploded like a bomb. Literally sounded like a Howitzer. The good news is that the bottle flew about 8 feet and landed in the gravel, and was out.
About an hour later, a fellow camper stopped by and asked to look at my stove and fuel bottle. He said he was a sales engineer for MSR, and told me that the Primus bottle and the MSR pump were not compatible. All I know is they were sold to me as a pair, worked fine for quite a while, until they didn't. So, just a heads up:
1. Use an MSR bottle with your MSR stove (note that the inside of my Primus bottle is basically just a water bottle).
2. Always check for any slight leakage before you light the stove, and if you pump it once it's lit, use caution.
3. Have a plan for how you're going to extinguish a gasoline fire (water? I don't think so...just spreads the gasoline around).

Thank goodness I wasn't doing something really dumb like cooking in my tent....

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