Light weight cooking for backpacking

BenBow · March 24, 2010, 04:05:00 PM

I posted this info in the camping classifieds but I think this might be good info for anyone who hunts away from the roads and home and spends all day hunting.

Quote"You can make a simple and very light alcohol stove.
Check out this site if you're interested. Stove building page "

and

Quote"I picked up one of those grease pots and pack the alcohol stove, stand, and screen inside it. It weighs very little and if you use Freezerbag Cooking you can have a good warm meal with very little weight. One of my favorite stoves is the Penny stove There is a different version of it here Bill Waite\\'s method "

Flinttim · March 24, 2010, 06:30:00 PM

I've made several of the penny stoves and they work great. You can find the grease pots at KMart. Wally no longer has them, at least here. The big Heineken cans also make good pots to boil in. You need to check out Tinny's site

http://www.minibulldesign.com/
check out his youtube videos for some great ideas.

WVeer · March 24, 2010, 09:05:00 PM

I really appreciate this info. I haven't backpacked in a long time but this is a great way to get me interested again. Thanks

Broken Arrows · March 24, 2010, 10:56:00 PM

If you do a search on youtub there are other kinds I used a venom energy drink can they work great.

Flinttim · March 25, 2010, 06:53:00 AM

I made what is known as a plumbers stove. Pint paint can with lid, stuffed as full as possible with cotton balls. fill with denatured alcohol and you are in business. As you will read on Tinny's site the yellow bottle HEET is very good fuel. And catch it on sale and it's way cheaper. This stove fits down inside the grease pot as does the stand I made to sit the pot on. I even made a clip on handle for the pot to make it easier to handle. I carry this rig in my backpack while deer hunting. It and a bag of Lipton Rice or Noodle Sides and you are good to go.

ron w · March 25, 2010, 10:02:00 AM

I got an alcohol stove from Sportsmans Guide, I think it was Swiss army. It came with a pot and all fit inside it's self. Boil soup in about 2 1/2 min. All so made box Mac and Cheese in short amount of time, only cost abuot $7 I think!

lpcjon2 · March 25, 2010, 11:57:00 AM

W used Trioxalyne tabs(heat tabs) in the Corps they were great.you can get them at a military surplus on line stores.

hayslope · March 25, 2010, 02:10:00 PM

Great information guys. Thanks for posting.

jhg · March 28, 2010, 11:55:00 PM

Not exactly homemade but consider the SVEA 123. The longbow of the hiking stoves.

If you see one of these little gems at a yard sale snap it up.
You won't be sorry. In any weather, wet or dry. Any altitude. Any temperature. These do not fail to work. One moving part.

But don't take my word for it. Considered the most reliable hiking stove ever made. Google it.

Joshua, who wouldn't part with his for anything.

Soilarch · March 29, 2010, 01:03:00 AM

QuoteOriginally posted by Flinttim:
I made what is known as a plumbers stove. Pint paint can with lid, stuffed as full as possible with cotton balls. fill with denatured alcohol and you are in business.

I've not used this but I've seen a similar setup with a roll of toilet paper (with the carboard center carefully removed) shoved into an appropriately sized coffee can. Always thought it was cool that it burned the fuel instead of the paper. 0.02 may help someone.

OkKeith · March 29, 2010, 02:16:00 AM

I agree with Joshua. The Svea Climber (123) is about the best little stove I have ever used. On portage trips in Ontario, it is the only stove I would trust my life to (take a stove that far out, in those conditions and you really do).

I bought mine for $25 on the auction site. A light weight pot that holds half a quart and a fair sized no-stick fry pan with the handle knocked off and you can cook anything. I have had mine for 15 years and it has never failed me, even in some nasty weather.

Mine doesen't have the pressure-up pump (one more thing to possibly fail in my opinion) so you sort-of set the thing on fire to light it.

Not pocket sized by any means. I am not that minimalist. It fits down in my coffee pot along with tea-bags, coffee singles, a couple of the small broth packets and a windproof lighter backed up by windproof/waterproof matches in my Marbles match safe. More survival "in a can" than you could ever buy. Full of fuel it does weigh more than the alchohol stoves, but I don't mind the weight. I probably carry more weight in spare broadheads or fishing jigs.

OkKeith