Finding fuel on the trail

[TurboPants]

Everyone says it is very easy to find Heet on the trail at town stores. I have a pepsi can stove that works well. I'm going camping this weekend and wanted to try my new MSR pocket rocket thinking it would be good to try both methods. Only problem is none of my local stores carry the IsoPro fuel canisters, just green coleman propane 1lb cans. If my local walmart and gander mountain don't carry it how hard is it going to be finding it on the trail if I opt to take the pocket rocket? I've read you only need a couple cans to get from GA to ME, but still... I wanted to try it this weekend and it looks like I won't have fuel for it.

I know Jetboil is carried by a gander mountain and there is a bass pro on my way to the camping destination, but their websites don't list the IsoPro canisters online, just the stoves themselves. Are the threads the same for all of these small IsoPro canisters or do I have to get MSR brand?

[Just Bill]

You can use any name brand canister interchangeably. Since chilly weather is coming- toss a few bottles of heet in your trunk, and bring the alchy stove. If you strike out on the way to the campground then you're covered. If you get lucky, well it's always nice to get lucky. No matter what fuel you choose, at some point you may have some trouble finding it, but alchy and cannisters are by far the easiest to find on the AT. Esbit is the only one folks report having serious issues finding.

And while the internet is a wonderful thing, occasionally the telephone works just as well.

[daddytwosticks]

Canister fuel is available at every outfitter and Wal-Mart along the trail from AFSP to Hot Springs based on my experiences and living locally. Hope that helps. :)

[Venchka]

In theory, any canister and any stove with the universal Lindahl valve connection are interchangeable. Manufacturing tolerances are the only variable in this arrangement. Primus, MSR, Snow Peak, JetBoil, Coleman, etc. canisters will all work on any Lindahl valve equipped stove.
Look harder. I dare say that hardware stores & grocery stores in areas where folks go backpacking will stock a small supply of butane canisters. Heck, I've found bicycle tubes in the most off the wall places. The Walmarts that I have been in during the last year have had the Coleman mid-size butane canisters. Don't be too picky. Your stove will work with all 3 sizes of canisters. My Gander Mountain stores in Texas carry butane canisters.
"I've read you only need a couple cans to get from GA to ME,..." You WILL need more than a couple canisters. Personal testing and experience will provide the answer to your fuel requirements.

Wayne

[T.S.Kobzol]

Every walmart/rite aid box store will have pure alcohol alcohol (desinfectant). you don't need heet.

[88BlueGT]

This is why I stick to my pepsi-can stove :D

[Venchka]

I prefer the hydrocarbon solution.
"Hot. Fast. Cheap..." Jim Varney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz-KU3gMZSk&list=PL5WtURIBsOzj7mBjD_syVp9l6YHP4GaD4&index=6

Hydrocarbons support my habits.

Wayne

[TurboPants]

I am leaving this afternoon for my trip so I asked at 1 AM when I couldn't call the stores. Turns out my gander mountain does have it, as does Bass Pro. The reason they don't list it online is they cannot ship it. Thanks for the fast replies folks!

[RED-DOG]

Both Canister's and Denatured Alcohol or Heet is easy to find all along the trail from GA-ME, I use a Pocket Rocket and never had problems finding Canisters.

[fredmugs]

Where did you read you only need "a couple" cans to get from GA to ME?

[T.S.Kobzol]

You will need one can per week.

Bumblebee Tuna

[Another Kevin]

Every paint and hardware store carries denatured alcohol. It might be labeled 'lacquer thinner,' but then look at the fine print and read the ingredients. (I cooked four meals on my Penny Stove this past weekend over 'lacquer thinner' from Ace Hardware.)

But just in case I can't resupply (or my fuel bottle gets lost or damaged), I use a fairly robust homemade pot stand. I built it from a couple of U-shaped pieces of aluminium rod stock tied together with steel bailing wire. It weighs maybe an ounce more than the ones made of coathangers or irrigation stakes. It's solid enough that I can scrape up a little pile of hot coals from a campfire, stand the pot stand over them, put the pot in place and wrap my windscreen around the whole thing to serve as a chimney. (And yes, I've tried this: it wouldn't do to find out that it doesn't work when I need it.) So at need, I can cook over wood, or rather, field-made charcoal. The poopoo trowel does nicely for shoveling the hot coals, and the business end gets sterilized in the bargain!

A refinement here, which I have yet to try, would be to prop my Fauxbaker disc up on three pebbles and pile the coals atop that, to see if I can get a good draft going through the coals from below. I suspect, though, that I'd just burn through the disk. It's disposable-pie-plate aluminium, so it's pretty flimsy.

Tuckahoe, I know you're a smith. Any suggestion about what might work for a field-expedient tuyère so that I can keep the coals hot? They do tend to burn out before they're completely consumed in this arrangement.

[Starchild]

I've had no problem finding canister fuel on my thru, and they are also common in hiker boxes and sometimes shelters will have some with a some fuel left. They also last longer then a typical alchy fuel resupply, so you don't have to look as often. Also you don't have to make a special trip to a hardware store, as they are usually available where hikers go anyway.

If in doubt call ahead, I did that I think 2x when I eas cutting it close and both places had them. Also I would recommend learning how to make a alchy stove on the trail, well at trail towns. Should take maybe 15 minutes at most. This way you have the best of all worlds as you now can use either fuel. I did do this for my thru yet never had to make one, but it's nice to know you can.

[Another Kevin]

Also I would recommend learning how to make a alchy stove on the trail, well at trail towns. Should take maybe 15 minutes at most. This way you have the best of all worlds as you now can use either fuel. I did do this for my thru yet never had to make one, but it's nice to know you can.

+1 the idea of knowing how to make an alcohol burner. That said, the soda can stove that I can make at home with proper tools is a good bit more efficient than the one I can likely make on the trail. I've never made a good pressurized burner in the field.

[Theosus]

Every walmart/rite aid box store will have pure alcohol alcohol (desinfectant). you don't need heet.

Have you run that in an alcohol stove? One of the people in our newbie group tried burning isopropyl in her CAT stove last time. It would burn okay until she set the pot on it, then it would go out. I guess it really depends on your stove design. The open top ones with a stand might work better with isopropyl, than the Cat food stoves with the holes in the sides.

I like HEET, but I have also used denatured alcohol (which is about 195 proof - or 97% pure alcohol - if I remember what I got from my hydrometer test). Denatured alcohol is just plain old high-test drinkin' alcohol with some methyl alcohol added to keep you from drinking it. Therefore: if all you can find is a liquor store, you could really use Everclear. If I remember right, denatured alcohol is cheaper by the ounce than HEET, but it seemed to me it burned hotter. It is also a heck of a lot cheaper than anything you can drink, because its not taxed...

I also tried burning some 160 proof alcohol in my stove. It would burn, but much like Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, once the pot was put on it, the flames never really would come out of the holes right. I'm wondering what the threshold is... and may have to do some tests with different proofs and figure out what is the minimum that will work.

I suggest you test your stove with the various kinds of alcohol fuels you may run across, like I did, so you know what will work for you.