Gas canisters or not?
 

Hi guys,

I'm about to head off on my motorbike journey, but run into some questions, regarding camping.

My route: Nepal, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey -> Europe.

I have a liitle stove, that I can screw unto the gas canisters (see picture below). They work sublime. In the west that is, where you can buy them at almost any camping store.

But now for this trip, I'm not quite sure if it'll work so great, because when I run out of the first canister that I brought with me (on no I forgot you can't fly with them either!). Am I going to be able to buy these things anywhere in the places I'm going?

Any views on this, by personal experience would be very welcome!

Thanks,
Tim


http://www.expeditionexchange.com/ko...s002%20007.JPG

I have a stove which uses this type of canister but I don't think you'll find them in Asia. But I think you'll find the price of food and drink in Asia is likely to be less than a single gas can ;)

If you find you really want a stove .. buy one there.. that way what ever the stove uses should be available. Nepal may not be cheap .. lots of 'expeditions' so lots of demand for things like stoves? Personal I go with a fuel stove .. you have fuel for the bike - thus fuel for the stove.

I think you want to decide what the stove will be used for. I used petrol stoves for years as the fuel no problem and you can cook a full meal.


I've now switched to a pocket stove that packs down in a tobacco sized tin and slips into a metal cup. It can burn hexamine tablets, sticks or you pop a spirit burner on the shelf inside. As I mostly just have the odd hot drink and buy the rest this is a far better use of space. I guess if I got marooned and had to eat an Argentine Rugby team or something it would take a while, but the space saving now is more use.


Andy

thanks for your replies guys.

I understand that food is usually cheaper on the road, and I'll be very happy to eat on the road, because that's one of the intentions of the trip as well. But from experience it's never wise to go without a stove. You might get stranded and if it becomes very cold, you want to be able to make something. Also stressing situations can only be solved by drinking some tea :)

I've got a primus fuel stove, but the thing alltogether is quite bulky and even preheating the thing is not something I like to do in some dry dessert :)

The Hexamin stove sounds really good. Im going to have a read into that! Thanks
Tim

Hi

I saw these canisters for sale in Istanbul, Mashad (Iran) and Kathmandu, but not in Central Asia.

Why not consider a petrol stove.. then you will always have fuel..

The MSR Whisperlite is fab, although very difficult to simmer, just more for boiling. The dragonfly has more adjustability on the flame.

Once you get into India and Nepal, eating and cooking and camping in public is a chore, you get a crowd of 30 odd staring at your every move, which is novel and quaint to start with but a pain in the arse after a while, and tea at the roadside is 10 rupees... cheaper than getting the stove out.

It sure is worth taking a stove, water and food though as you never know where you might end up...

In India heap good food is available almost ever where. Petrol stove is the best to carry any where in the world as fuel is in your tank. And u cannot fly with Power gas.

And biker please make a note when in India my place is open for you. I love having bikers over.

Be my guest when in India

Thank you for your invitation!

And thanks for the replies. I'm in the process of buying a Coleman 533 stove. I have read good things about it, I think it's a bit heavy and would prefer the 442 featherlight but that's not sold here.

I have a Primus Gravity as well, but the thing leaks and getting a service kit is hard here in New Zealand. So the Coleman will most probably be it.

Now we talked about Fuel, can we talk about Cash? This is also something I found hard to find. I'm thinking about taking 500US$ with me and hid it somewhere in the bike. Although I now most places have ATM's, Iran lacks them for foreigners. And Plastic money: I have a Mastercard, but no Visa? Will this be a problem?

Timpel there is a good thread out there on hubb about hiding money...

Hi Fern, thanks, can you show me in the right direction? I've searched for it, but nothing really came up. Maybe I use the wrong search terms?

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...eep-your-63755

I am in Auckland... I lived in Nepal for 8 months and rode from UK to Nepal in 2012, if you are in N Island and want to catch up and check over my maps before you go then send me a pm or txt me on 021 083 78995 :-)

I have the Trangia stove which burns gas, petrol and kerosine. When taking a gas burner, take along an adaptor piece which allows you to buy non-resealable gas containers as well, otherwise you cannot detach the container from the stove until it is empty. In my experience it´s somewhat more difficult to get the self-resealing containers than the old-fashioned containers in which you have to poke a hole.

Not sure whether to post here about cash or card issues or on the end of the link Fern gave but this thread is current so here goes:

Why take and hide cash rather than depend on card machines as you go? As was said on the link there are places where machines are thin on the ground but even where they are plentiful you are dependant on the whole technology chain working.

My daughter went to Canada recently with a small amount of cash just to get her going and two cards. The first time she used one of the cards (in Vancouver) the machine refused her request and kept the card. The UK bank had been told where she was going and assured her the card would work. When she emailed them she was told nothing could be done remotely and she'd have to come back to the UK to get the card replaced. This despite her account having quite a few thousand pounds in it. Whether this was normal bank practice or not (and I suspect they would say it was a glitch) it was was what happened. She had no access to her account for the three months she was there. Fortunately the other card - a prepay one - worked ok and we kept topping it up from this end.

I've always been a believer in keeping enough cash about my person to get round issues like that but if it's going to be emergency cash it must be hard for me to get at as well as for thieves. Stuff that is hidden but easy to get if you know where to look doesn't work; if it's going to be for emergency use it has to be somewhere I won't be tempted to plunder when I need money for even more Beer. In the past I've folded up a large denomination note into small tubular dog tag (cat one are smaller) - the kind of thing that hangs on their collar, and then set that into a block of resin. The whole thing then went on my key ring as a kind of "lucky charm". It's hiding in plain sight but needs a hammer to break open.

An alternative which "worked" for us in Dublin a few weeks ago came about by accident but you never know, might work in some other circumstances. We dropped a 20 Euro note and it fell into a pool of dog piss. :eek3: Two shops refused it until I washed it (and me) in a cafe toilet.

On the stove front, I've had a Whisperlite for about 15yrs and run it on tank petrol for a lot of that time. I've only had to unclog it once in that time + replace a couple of sets of pump seals. It's a good stove that packs down very small but trying to start it in an early morning daze can be a little trying if you are the sort of person whose hand-eye co-ordination needs some time to wake up. On the up side the contents of the fuel bottle can be poured back into the tank if times get hard.

Tim,

I have Primus Omnifuel and personally I hate burning gasoline. It is filthy and the smell of the stuff is very pervasive. It leaves a nasty soot when burnt and personally I suspect it must be pretty bad to be burning gasoline plus all the nasty chemical additives they use (especially in poor countries).

With my Omnifuel it also takes a while to preheat the stove and I find sometimes it just doenst work at all! Luckily here in south America, gas is easily found in malls, but not so sure in countries that you mentioned. That said, I like the fact I have the option to burn gasoline should I run out of camping gaz. Just connect it up and your away, no hassle or fuss and less pollution. Downside is leaving behind those cannisters...

But Elaine has the way of it for India, Nepal and Pakistan are simply so fantastically cheap for good food that I really wouldnt bother trying to cook. In India and Nepal at least, you can easily find a great all-you-can-eat "Thali" for around 1 or 2 USD. For hot drinks, you can find Chai and Coffee for around 10c USD practically anywhere there are people.

Thanks for your reply.
I have however just bought a Coleman 533. They supposed to be pretty indestructible. It might be useless with all the nice road stalls for chai and food, but you never know :)

I used to have the same canisters with my brunton cub stove..wide burner, holds up a heavy pot if needed, fires like a blow torch...but could only judge how much is left in the cylinder by shaking it before putting the stove on to judge liquid gas level.

Since then I got the nesbit trekker cook set (tablet/alcohol) that I'm going to try out...figured I could get alcohol dang near any where and carry some fuel tabs just in case.

I know it's not as fast as the gas, but I'm in no hurry.

If it doesn't work, I can still go back to 'ol reliable.

I've heard good things about the 533 from people that have used them for ages.
white gas and nonlead gas, kerosene too if I remember right.:thumbup1:

Top Tip! :clap:

Tested on unleaded fuel, goes very well so far...

I used the smaller version (Peak 1?) for many years, bullet proof. I now use a MSR Simmerlite. It only makes sense to use the same fuel in your motorcycle and stove.

Ditto on the MSR Whisperlite and petrol. Used it for several months through Africa and even got some decent meals out of it. I can't imagine not having had it -- would have had some meal-less evenings in the bush, and worse yet, coffee less mornings. Ridetheworld's comment is spot on though. The fumes can be pervasive. You'll have to segregate the stove and has canister from the rest of your gear, and have a cheap rag handy to deal with the soot. Bon ap!

you might want to check out the other thread...multi-fuel stoves like yours:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ers-what-58134

These are awesome - I have the smaller one with the folding legs, 442 I think. Make sure you get a spare "generator" and it will never let you down.

I have virtually abandoned all other stoves for my £10 tiny gas burner. clean, ready to go instantly and will simmer. so the twin burner and omnifuel are retired. Even when I take the car. so it is not a factor of size or weight but of quick deployment and usability.

I'm in Pakistan right now and I have used none of my camping gear. :) might leave it behind on my next trip, depending on where I go.


Nepal to Holland 2014

Re fumes smell from petrol, you should not be cooking indoors anyway as you have that ole CO risk. Petrol stove outdoors/well ventilated all the times is the way to go. Sure food on roadside is cheap, but if travelling in mountains etc there might not be that many stops and its great to be able to just pull up at some view you've spotted and brew up your favourite and soak up the combi of view and taste.

I use a Sigg Firejet multi fuel stove that I've had since 1993, I use petrol and it gives out great heat but as is common with a lot of these multi fuel stoves the simmer is tricky to get right. Msr do the dragonfly which is very adjustable but apparently sounds like a jet engine it is so loud.

Are they (msr primus cans) readily available in South America?

While no expert and having not used the stove yet: I've bought the MSR Dragonfly the other day. Seems like a nice piece of kit.

Will try it out this weekend at home.

I bought a dragonfly as well. Runs on regular fuel.

I have been in South America for 8 weeks now and have not seen these canister sold anywhere yet.

I follow the ride report for the NMBDR on ADVRider. One of the riders this summer had a canister blow up. It was in his Wolfman bag and blew the bottom out of it. We've had a hot summer this year in New Mexico. I don't have that type of stove. I have a very old 533 Coleman that I like to use because it's so simple and easy to use but it is heavier than the canister type.