Most popular stove's used in Overlanding

[bishop2queen's6]

I have these 3 stoves when ever I overland/car camp:

MSR Pocket Rocket

MSR XGR

Partner Steel 22" dual burner stove

The Partner Steel 22" I picked up on the group buy recently and I run it off of a 5 lbs propane cylinder which also feeds my quickfire camp fire ring. I've haven't been on trips longer than 4 nights and I have had enough propane to feed the firering lightly for ambient light and cooking on the partner steel stove.

The MSR Pocket Rocket is perfect for cooking in hotel rooms when I go to conferences so I can save some money. It's perfect if I just want to boil water for tea/coffee and go on mornings when camping. So much easier to set up than the partner steel stove, hooking up the propane, etc... It's also there to use if I do run out of propane. I only carry 1 canister of iso-pro since it is a back up/minimal use.

My MSR XGR is my if all else fails back up, which has happened in immensely windy or very cold conditions, I've needed to run this stove. Even with the wind guards on the Partner Steel stove, the flame has gone out. I have one bottle filled with white gas, and it's the same jet for gasoline so I can always fill from my jerry can if I use up the white gas. I prefer white gas since it has nearly double the BTU value of gasoline and is easier on plastic and rubber since it doesn't have the detergents like gasoline does. Plus white gas burns cleaner. Gasoline leaves a sooty mess...

 

[alsmith]

This is all interesting stuff thanks for the input ... I am surprised some of us carry two stoves because we already carry lots of weight in the vehicles but I guess stoves are light enough. I'm thinking of building a custom shelf that the 2 MST XGR's drop into so it would be just like cooking on a dual burner coleman stove but two separate burned for redundancy .... I love the partner steel stoves I'm just shying away from propane as when the weather gets colder here in Canada they take longer to heat and it's hard to find more propane when I'm off grid if I run out. If you have other solutions than what's already listed please shoot them here

 

[perkj]

This is all interesting stuff thanks for the input ... I am surprised some of us carry two stoves because we already carry lots of weight in the vehicles but I guess stoves are light enough. I'm thinking of building a custom shelf that the 2 MST XGR's drop into so it would be just like cooking on a dual burner coleman stove but two separate burned for redundancy .... I love the partner steel stoves I'm just shying away from propane as when the weather gets colder here in Canada they take longer to heat and it's hard to find more propane when I'm off grid if I run out. If you have other solutions than what's already listed please shoot them here

The MSR XGR may not be a good choice as they aren't the best for simmering and are more of a boiling stove. you may want to opt for something that has better simmer control.

 

[photo nomad]

The MSR XGR may not be a good choice as they aren't the best for simmering and are more of a boiling stove. you may want to opt for something that has better simmer control.

I believe from MSR's backpacking stove selection, the Dragonfly is the only one that is reasonably good to actually cook with. Most of the others are basically just on or off. That was part of the reason I went from a Whisperlite to the Reactor. I figured if it's basically just a water boiler, might as well get their most efficient model.

 

[toyotech]

Should look at jetboil genesis. Tad on the $$$ but takes up little space. I just ordered one. Still waiting on it.


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[Semi-Hex]

Partner steel and jet boil. It doesn't matter what the weather, altitude or time of day. As long as I can get propane (mix) these will work. We do camp quite a bit so they need to eat reliable.

 

[alsmith]

I have to disagree on

"Partner steel and jet boil. It doesn't matter what the weather, altitude or time of day."

I was in the arctic with a friend with partner steel stove and it couldn't even boil water with out waiting an hour .... That's not partner steels fault just the challenge with propane.

 

[Stumpalump]

I have to disagree on

"Partner steel and jet boil. It doesn't matter what the weather, altitude or time of day."

I was in the arctic with a friend with partner steel stove and it couldn't even boil water with out waiting an hour .... That's not partner steels fault just the challenge with propane.

What makes Partner the best in it's class for the cold is that a 1 lb can of propane can is attached to a rubber gas line. That lets you place the bottle close enough to the flame to warm it. Once it's warm it flows. Of course no manufacture will recomend putting a gas bottle near the heat but "ya gotta do what ya gotta do" when your freezing. Normal operation makes all gas bottles drop in temp due to the release and expansion of the gas. What is best at 20 below temperatures?

 

[perkj]

What is best at 20 below temperatures?

Any White gas or Kerosene stoves.

 

[DaJudge]

I have a Coleman. I have had it for 12 years and it has worked perfectly! I believe it is the same as the one they market as "Classic".
The Partners are very nicely built but I just couldn't justify the expense. That might be different if I was really traveling far off the beaten path.

 

[Roger M.]

Propane concerns seem to be twofold, extreme cold (which affects the propane's ability to boil and flow), and extreme altitude, which could be considered over 10,000 or 11,000 feet.

Considering that many of the folks who overland likely don't do so in the kind of cold weather that makes propane useless, the cold "issue" is one that doesn't affect a lot of overlanders at all. However it's definitely worth it for those who do camp regularly in below freezing temps to move to something other than propane ... as if it's cold enough, propane simply stops flowing (more accurately - stops boiling).

As for altitude, I experienced a mild change in heating ability of my 22" Cook Partner while camping at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite, which is around 9000 feet. Not enough to consider another stove type, but noticeable.
If I camped above 11,000 feet on a regular basis, I'd use a fuel other than propane.

But for many folks, who normally camp at 10,000 feet or lower, and tend to do that camping in weather not Arctic in nature ... propane could be seen as ideal. Available in nearly every town and village in North America, relatively cheap, and super flexible for the overlander (space heat, cook, coffee, campfire during fire bans, bbq, etc)

BUT: if I had the proper vehicle, and the serious money that said proper vehicle would cost, and if I ventured out in the world (with a vehicle) beyond North America ... I 'd likely do all of the above with diesel, which seems far more the ideal utility fuel for those parts of the world (a majority actually) where propane isn't commonly used, and may indeed even be relatively unknown.

 

[perkj]

Diesel is pretty dirty to cook food with. Kero is the way to go in the third world.

 

[Roger M.]

Lots of commercial fisherman, as well as the Earthroamer class of overland vehicle use diesel stoves for cooking.

The new diesel ceramic stoves are as clean as any other stove.

The advantage with diesel is one and only one fuel on board for cooking, heating, and transport.

 

[alsmith]

This is a great thread thanks I never considered diesel. And I get why I lean to gas stoves as I am often in cold weather. Maybe the idea is two different solutions I can put into my stove drawer depending on the trip I'm doing.? In this shot I'm in the arctic at usually cooking breakfast at about -20 degrees .... I guess the only other concern is weight ... white gas is light and gets lighter on a trip propane bottles are heavy and will stay heavy even empty ... unless you go for the little cans but they really aren't good for the environment.

 

[perkj]

Lots of commercial fisherman, as well as the Earthroamer class of overland vehicle use diesel stoves for cooking.

The new diesel ceramic stoves are as clean as any other stove.

The advantage with diesel is one and only one fuel on board for cooking, heating, and transport.

Fair enough. Those ceramic diesel stoves have the ceramic top separating the "flame" from your pots and pans and allow them to vent the fumes away from the food. My statement was based on using Diesel on an open flame stove. I personally have yet to see a ceramic diesel stove that is compact enough to carry around. All I've seen need to be built into some type of cabinet or drawer.