Hello, I'm a scout leader and we've a boggle that I know only CCS members can advise on. We use MSR pocket rockets, light small, great for short hikes but unsteady and pots have toppled Cast iron gas burners double and single, steady, reliable, great for standing camps, but heavy and not suitable if you've to carry gear any distance. Trangias, good, one 'ring' means one pot at a time or two trangias needed, fuel getting a little expensive and a little hard to get where we are, one shot of fuel lasts only so long before refuel. What we need is a patrol stove, something scouts can carry as a patrol to a overnight camp, thats not too heavy but is compact and can cook for five or six kids and be safely operated by teenagers with some guidance. The compact flat stoves that run on aersol shape butane bottles look like an obvious choice but I have heard of misfit bottles causing fires etc. Also bottle availability ?? Oh and lastly, we live on the wild atlantic way so hardy wearing and resistance to wind is also needed. Simples, , or is it !> ?
Buy cheap 3 legged cake stands and sit them over the MSRs to put your pots on. Chop the legs to adjust height. Add corks as feet to stop them sinking in soft ground. They will tarnish - cheap enough to replace when too far gone. I even use sometimes over the 533 pictured left for 10" pan of water needing a long simmer. Large dia frying pans are better on it too. The only downside is they don't collapse. I put the stove box inside the legs of it and then it hardly takes up any more room + it doesn't weigh much.
I think there will be endless suggestions. A few more bits of info might help. a. Are there any fuel preferences or restrictions? b. Budget? c. Do you want something new, or are you willing to work with something used that possibly needs a little work? It is my experience that the stoves designed to use the long butane cans are rather cheaply made. Plus the un-blended butane is best used in mild condition. I'd not recommend them as a primary stove. There are several hose-and-bottle dual-fuel or multi-fuel stoves that can use either canister gas or liquid fuel. The design is inherently much more stable than the sit-on-top type canister stoves. They are robust, effective under harher conditions, and are used with wind-shields. These are made by some reliable companies (Primus, MSR, etc). I'd avoid the off-brand Chinese versions for a while longer. If you want to go with liquid fueled, the list is long. It would be nice if you could arrange to borrow some stoves to demo and test.
I'd say a couple of Optimus 111s. Good reliable sturdy stove, if you take two there is redundancy, fill before trip, you can carry spare fuel/meths/spares/starting equipment in the tins. Food for thought? Alec
Couple of Trangia 25s or similar sized copies, set up for gas & using the cheap Chinese butane. Original Tran burners as backup.
For anything involving youngsters, my rec is a Trangia on the intended fuel. I'm a nordie and up here we can get a "ticket" from the revenue to buy industrial meths. I qualify as a hobbyist/enthusiast so, if there's an equivalent south of the border a scout leader should have no bother. Edit:- Bit of googling says Green Hobby & Model in Templeogue, Dub will do a gallon of pure methanol for €10-ish. Worth a patrol expedition?
An Optimus 45 or similar 1 3/4 pint classic keroburner would do nicely. It will cook for that many. Two would be even better. 96s and 00/210 are too small for the patrol. The suggestion of 111s is also good. The stoves should also be interesting and take a bit of "process" to light, hence the classics. Safety isn't a problem. We used an Optimus 45 in our local ravine when we were 13 and 14 every week for months without adult supervision, cooking coffee and breakfast. This was in 1961 and '62 with the Royal Order of Mountain Beaver, our local gulch gang of 5 guys. I also carried said stove 50 miles on the Wonderland Trail around Mt. Rainier back then, too. In the ROMB on Saturday mornings we'd get up at about 5 a.m., descend one gulch in the dark to the waterfront, walk along the railroad tracks (a spur, next to the main line) to the next gulch, and enter it to our camp. We'd do breakfast, explore, and get home by 10 a.m. or so. I still have the journal of all of our outings. Our folks certainly had no objections.
Whatever you get, make sure they pack a repair kit along with it. There have been times I've ended up cooking over a fire because a simple o ring gave out-- and of course I didn't bring along a spare. Looking at you, Nova and Dragonfly... especially the O ring on the fuel bottle. Fwiw, I love the Nova-- the original version. Not a fan of the plastic msr pumps. Fwiw, last month I had a 111 not work because the check valve loosened, and an 8r not work because the fuel cap that used the mini pump failed. I think that every kid should have their own stove/cookset/food, but scouts have their own way of doing things. But if one kid's stove fails, there is redundancy. My kids will be packing their own Optimus 8R's with their patrols. They may not need them, but this group of scouts is not organized to my liking-- so be prepared!
So many good suggestions. I concur to the suggestion of the Optimus 45s. Whatever stoves (plural for redundancy) you must have the skills to operate and repair safely as well as the spare parts/tools to keep it running. You still need to train the youths to safely operate it. One drawback to meths can be the invisibility of the flame. But, a meths fire can be quenched with only water. I like the safety of kerosene. Ken in NC
Safety is in the head and the routines of the user in my opinion. All fuels have downsides and unless you use something with obvious design flaws i think the options are rather similar safetywise. That said, all but a few scouts here use trangias. The single burner problem when cooking complex meals is offset by stacking the pots, something few other stoves offer enough stability to pull off.
I'll just add my endorsement for Trangia 25! Nowadays we use 3-4 25:s to cook for around 15 11-year old kids and 3 adults. We have gas-burners and spirit burners for all stoves, 2 trangia and 2 Chinese gassies. You get a good fuel economy if you use gas to get stuff up to boiling and then change to meths (alcohol) for simmering. When cooking for a group it helps to get things organised, if you cook pasta you drain into a empty pan and just start the next batch cooking in the already hot water. We have 2 of the Trangia 2.5 litre billys that fit the 25 just fine. We also cheat a bit since if I am along I usually have one or two extra stoves along..... With a lot of young kids involved in cooking I would not like to have a lot of boiling water balancing on spindly stands..... The price of fuel is a problem! I find that buying in bulk is a good way to avoid thinking about it that often. /Lars
