Does anyone here have any heroic stories of fettling in dangerous situations or anything like that?

Once when i was beach fising with my coleman 242 and vapalux 300, my coleman suddenly died.

I didn't have any tools, exept from the cheap pressed steel spanner that came free with my fishing rod holder, but it was the wrong size.

So, i grabbed a rock, bashed the spanned into a new shape, and stripped down/put together my 242.

The problem was the pricker control was totally shot, so i removed the pricker, and it burned on for the rest of the night...

Anyone esle had anything like that happen to them?

thats why i take two stoves on wilderness canoe trips. but
in 20 years i have had only one fail.. i would rather carry
a bit of extra weight than fool around with a stove in the cold and wet with a swiss army knife and fishing pliers.

No where near as heroic but...

I took a Optimus 45 out camping for the weekend and had some rather fun since the leather cap seal was deteriorated just enough to lose all pressure once the stove warmed up. I was forever pumping the unit to keep things cooking.

I only tested the stove at home for a couple of minutes.

Now, I take the time to burn the stove an hour or longer before I declare it suitable to bring on an interior canoe trip.

While camping in Snowdonia, on a cold February evening, I found I had a faulty cap on a bottle of brandy, it just would not open; as luck would have it, I realised that a tent peg wacked into the cap would release enough brandy for a good nights sleep

Rik

That's some good Gospel there!

Aleksi Karpov Dromavich