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Has anyone tried this:
http://www.trailstove.com/details.html#E
I have a home-made twig and alcohol stove but I'm intrigued by this stainless steel beauty. I just wonder if it's effective?
Freighttrain
10-23-2005, 16:12
for being almost a pound, i'd rather use my zip stove w fan drive
Has anyone tried this:
http://www.trailstove.com/details.html
I have a home-made twig and alcohol stove but I'm intrigued by this stainless steel beauty. I just wonder if it's effective?
Yea, it's effective... It's just a carefully redesigned hobo stove. You could make yourself a Garlington WoodGasStove or one of Risk/flyfisher's stoves and get about the same performance at less weight. The problem with woodstoves is the lack of control. They're great for boiling lots of water though--no fuel to carry.
http://www.garlington.biz/Ray/WoodGasStove
www.imrisk.com
Doug Frost
Just when I patch up my relationship after Alcohol Stove Obsession, you guys hit me with this.
I love this idea. Obviously the Trail Stove is too heavy, but I'm intrigued by the Garlington-type designs. My only problem is with needing fuel to start them.
The Trail Stove says you just build the fire in the bottom with tinder then blow on it to get the bigger pieces cooking. Garlington says build the fire on top with the liquid fuel which lets it burn down through the sticks, doing a good job of cosuming it all and not needing aditional airflow.
My question is, can I build a Garlington and just have a tinder fire that I start on top? Would that effectively eliminate the need to carry separate liquid fuel and also give me the benefits of the top-to-bottom burning design? If conditions were such that I couldn't start it that way, I could leave it open at the bottom to start it the Trail Stove way.
What do you think?
Man I love the idea of a wood burning stove, but they always seem like they would be difficult to pack.
I'm going to order one this weekend anyway :)
justusryans
11-09-2005, 22:48
I use one and love it. It is a little tricky to pack though.
alalskaman
11-10-2005, 02:40
The Garlington stove really rocks...in my part of the country it is always easy to gather up a handful of twigs during the day..no matter what the weather there's always dry stuff under the trees, etc. It does seem to need the liquid fuel to start properly...some people are working on little wax-impregnated paper sheets to lay on top of the wood..I can't speak to that. But for a long trip, using "natch'l" fuel certainly is an advantage. AND, the garlington type seems less affected by wind than alcohol stove, of which I am not a fan. But many heads wiser than mine love 'em. Bill
Lanthar Mandragoran
11-10-2005, 10:24
My question is, can I build a Garlington and just have a tinder fire that I start on top? Would that effectively eliminate the need to carry separate liquid fuel and also give me the benefits of the top-to-bottom burning design? If conditions were such that I couldn't start it that way, I could leave it open at the bottom to start it the Trail Stove way.
[/URL]What do you think?
If you navigate over to [URL="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BackpackingStoves/"]Yahoo - Groups - Backpacking Stoves (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BackpackingStoves/),
You'll find the following message from Sept 11, 2005 regarding starting it without fuel (for top down burning)
Also, yes, the 'soup can downdraft' stoves I"ve made CAN me used as more of a 'normal' woodburning stove with standard 'start the fire at the bottom' method. It just soots a little more than the 'top-down' mode does.
Hello,
First of all thanks to Ray Garlington and Mark Jurey for their stove
ideas.
While being camping with my campingaz stove last year I decided to get
another stove, because I didn't like the empty cartriges and the idea
of having some explosive pressureized gas in my backpack was not
apealing to me. Also I did not like petroleum stoves, because
everybody I konw who has such a thing spends more time cleaning and
repairing than cooking with these things (although they all enjoy it -
I guess there is a pyromaniac in everyone of us...). So I was thinking
of gettting a trangia and while surfing the net I stumbled on the page
of Mark. I build the Penny Alcohol Stove and the Penny Woodgas Stove.
I build the alcostove out of a popcan, because here in Germany I could
not find any Heineken in cans. Some tip: to get the top of the can off
for the simmerring, a manual can opener is very helpful.
For the Woodgasstove I followed Marks design but added another row of
secondary airholes at the top (one row half an inch below the rim, the
other spaced between the first row but 1 1/4" below the rim). This
seemed to help for a cleaner burn.
Now getting to the main topic. While playing around with the
woodgasstove I tried different stuff to get it lit with things from
mother nature.
The combination that gave me the best results was pine and birch peel.
Fine dry pine twigs balled to some birdnestlike thight structure (they
are very flexible even when dry - maybe due to sap/resin content,
which might be the reason it starts the fire so well and gave me
stickly hands...) where put on top of fresh birch bark / peel.
Peeling off the white bark of the birch requires a knife. One should
not cut too deep. If you see green, it is too deep and you might
damage the tree. Especially if you peel all the way around, the tree
could die! The peel should be of some thickness though (maybe as thick
as 5 pages of paper).
To light the woodgasstove get enough birchpeel pieces to cover the
ready (full of wood) stove. Light the peel at two places. It should
start burning nicely. Drop the 'pine twig ball' on top (it should have
about the same size as the stove) immediatly. Careful! the ball tends
to expand as it is lit, so it is best not to have the stove on an
inflammable surface.
Of this combination I think birch was most indispensable. I could only
imagine to replace it by pure sap/resin which can be found on conifer
tree wounds. Things I tried but would not work are: pineneedles and
pine without the birchpeel. Maybe it would be usefull to get a
reservoir of birchpeel while hiking a birchrich region or off a dead
birch.
Stefan
send mail to:
colden at web . de
some people are working on little wax-impregnated paper sheets to lay on top of the wood..I can't speak to that.
would that be like common old 'wax paper' you get from the store to wrap sandwiches in?
Just a thought but the stove you are looking at looks like it would be easy to crush and hard to pack and store. I built a nomad wood stove from Zen Stoves (www.zenstoves.com (http://www.zenstoves.com)) and It worked like charm, stores flat, and you can pack it anywhere. I made some design changes to make it also work as a potstand/windscreen for an alcohol stove. I'm thinkin about building more so let me know if you want more info or a stove.
Enjoy,
Chris (
[email protected])
My question is, can I build a Garlington and just have a tinder fire that I start on top? Would that effectively eliminate the need to carry separate liquid fuel and also give me the benefits of the top-to-bottom burning design?
Garlington carries liquid starter so he can get a quick, easy start with whatever fuel is on hand. If you use a layer of small, loose tinder on top you don't need it. But you'll spend more time fiddling with the fuel gathering part, and you'll have problems in damp weather. So do both: Carry a small bit of liquid starter for wet days and gather tinder the rest of the time.
Also: I suggest a square of TP from your cathole kit (if you carry it) to hold the starter portion of the fuel load. That way any liquid starter you apply will stay at the top rather than run down into the rest of the fuel (less waste), and any tiny stuff used as tinder will stay topside as well.
Doug Frost
DLFrost,
Good thinking.
My only aversion to using liquid fuel as a starter is conceptual. The thing I really like about the wood stoves is that you can take just them along without having to worry about fuel or fuel weight or how much you need for a given amount of time, etc.
I'll stop yapping about it and actually build one, though. I'll let you know how it turns out and if it works well without the fluid starter.
I guess my next big questions will be about the soot and whether it's going to stink up my whole pack.
fiddlehead
11-28-2005, 15:18
I used a zip stove for years and it really came in handy many times. My best recollection was when i was staying in a bamboo hut in thailand on Ko Lanta and all my neighbors would gather every morning at my hut as i provided hot water and they provided everything else we needed for a nice breakfast, complete with a good high every day. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.
I don't think you need to go to all this trouble of wax paper, liquid starting fuel, etc. You will get used to finding good tinder. (under pine trees is some of the best as well as inside hollow logs on the ground. )
Keep it simple. You will be a pro in no time. even in the rain.
For packing it, simply put it in a free (yes i said free) plastic bag.
I noticed Nimblewill Nomad carries one of those little boxes to build a fire in.
I no longer carry a zip stove because i too often hike above treeline now. but if i was traveling around the world again, i would definitely carry one. (we even burned peat in Ireland)
Hello again,
Firestarter, Simple: 35 mm film canister stuffed with cotton balls and soaked with alcohol. Will start a fire with anything but completely soaked wood, it's tons better than wax paper and great for first aid too. I only use them when weather is wet and dry tinder gets hard to find. Is that cheating? HMMM.
Wind? Windier the better. Isn't that why zip stoves have fans. Just face your intake vents INTO the wind.
With any "good" wood stove you buy/make you should not have any troubles getting a fire lit. No need to blow and fuss with it. Just install your tinder (cotton balls, wax paper, dry grass, etc.), install kindling (toothpick thru pencil size), fill it up with anything up to finger size. Strike a match and you are cooking within 30 seconds.
I have also heard it stated that wood stove's are hard to control. I have found it to be quite the opposite. When your water is getting close to boiling, just stop adding fuel. My Nomad stove will simmer water for quite awhile with the remainding fire/coals. More than enough to finish off my Lipton noodles.
For storage, I simply made a "tyvek" envelope to store my colapsed Nomad stove in.
I'm sure everyone has their little bag of tricks and opinions for wood stoves, these are just some of mine. Give me a second and I'll change my mind.
Have I ever told you guys how much I love my Nomad stove? Hmmm.
Enjoy,
Chris
justusryans
11-29-2005, 08:28
I have a zip stove and love the versitility. My favorite toy!
I got my stove from trailstove.com and have to say that it's bigger than I'd expected. Also, there is a "drop plate" that forms the bottom of the stove that I think they could have made much lighter. So, my first mod was to get rid of the bottom plate and replace it with heavy-duty hardware cloth. Big weight savings.
That being said the weight of the stove is about equal to a big water bottle full of denatured alcohol. The bulk of the stove can be countered by using its (sooty) interior as storage space.
I was thinking yesterday after posting that just a gallon Ziploc would be a good way of storing it. The bulk is another question. I'm wondering what I could keep in there that I wouldn't mind getting sooty. Maybe a big enough bag could be pushed into the opening so you wouldn't have to worry about it.
Lanthar Mandragoran
11-29-2005, 14:30
I was thinking yesterday after posting that just a gallon Ziploc would be a good way of storing it. The bulk is another question. I'm wondering what I could keep in there that I wouldn't mind getting sooty. Maybe a big enough bag could be pushed into the opening so you wouldn't have to worry about it.
If it were me, I'd put my matches and fire-starters in a ziploc inside of it... that, and it's not like they are so heavy that strapping it to the outside of your pack (where volume doesn't matter) will make a difference in your center of gravity.
Don't forget, they sell an alcohol burner and a carry bag for this stove on their website.
Trooper347
12-03-2005, 17:10
Thanks for the tip C Brice. What a great alternative to a battery operated stove! I was going to purchase a Zip stove, but after your post, I ran to Home Depot, bought some 22GA stainless, and made a Nomad. Overall size 6"Lx4 1/2"Wx4 1/4H, and stored flat is less than 1/4" thick!! Weight at 9oz with bag. Easy to make (jig saw, drill were the tools I used, about 2 hours total) and after hitting it with a wire wheel, it came out perfect! I cannot wait to try it out this weekend. Thanks again!
Hey trooper,
Glad you liked it and let us know what ya end up thinkin of it. I love it myself but some think I'm half bubble off plumb anyhow. Hint: to garrentee(?) good air flow I drilled about 40 - 1/4" holes in the base plate. Might not be needed but did it anyway.
Enjoy,
Chris
Trooper347
12-04-2005, 04:42
I love the idea of the simple stove, and look foward to using it. With no messy, somewhat dangerous fuels to carry, and will always be able to find wood for fuel, my "camp comfort" has increased. I also do not care about my pots getting blackened, that is something I am used to going all the way back to the old scout days.
I did end up drilling holes in the sides and back plate instead of the large slots, about 10 on each wall plate and rear, and like the fact it decreases the chance of embers coming out of the larger slot.
Thanks again,
Eugene