Hi Team. I've got the option on a battered but unbowed 421-D suitcase, seems complete and easily saveable, but the $million question: is it worth the effort? I was thinking fix and flik, or does it have a place next to the Campingo2, Opt 22 etc? The styling does nothing for me, but I've never owned a Coleman before so I'm open to suggestion.....
Coleman suitcase stoves are as close to bullet proof as you can get . Not really collectable but a great stove ,and everyone should have at least one I have a bakers dozen and find them difficult to part with even though storage is a minor problem . If you get it , clean it up and take it camping.(you can pretend you're camping in Canada Pete
What Pete said; and you can pretend you're camping anywhere in North America. The Coleman suitcases are utilitarian in appearance, true, but they are more importantly fully reliable and last forever. The one I use I bought in the early 80s, and my grandkids will be able to use it with theirs. One of my brothers has the 3-burner Coleman our family camped with starting in the fifties; still uses it.
Hi Mike, It looks to be all there. There's a good step by step refurbish article on the old time coleman site. http://www.oldtownyucca.com/coleman/tech.htm If you need parts, I'd be happy to foward them to you. Happy fettling !!!
Thanx Steve, thats a kind offer. I still havent decided about getting it, most likely I'll play it out and see how the bidding goes, I have already set myself an NZ$10 limit on it, to borrow a recurring line from the 'Predator' movies, it's 'one UGLY motherfather!!!' No doubt it would go like a champ given half a chance, but it's living proof that form doesnt always follow function. Watch this space for developments....auction day is thursday......
From the appearance, there's nothing really wrong with it. Some ijit has closed the lid on a lit burner, other than that the only obvious need is some 409 and a little elbow grease. If you're really anal retentive, some green rattlecan paint might be in order. That old stove looks just like tens of millions all over North America. It's a good deal for $10 NZ. I just checked my currency converter. That's only $7.03 USD. Sheesh ! ! Buy it now, quit messing around ! ! With that stove and a $2 thrift store cast iron skillet you could fry up some bacon, potatoes and eggs, boil some coffee on the #2 burner and feel like you're camping anywhere in the US and Canada. The only machine I know of that's as generally reliable as a Coleman suitcase stove is an anvil. I bought a three burner last Spring for $15.00. It's as rough or rougher than this one. I got it home, put some fuel in it and lit it. The center burner would only put out flame around about half of the circumference of the burner so I shut it down and took the burner plates apart to see what the problem was. I had anihilated four or five spider egg cases. I took all three burners apart, wire brusned the loose rust, blew out the vapor galleries with compressed air and reassembled. All three burners work like new. The date on the tank lug is 9-59. The only other thing I did to it was to squirt some 3 in 1 oil into the pump barrel, then scrub the whole thing with 409 and a dish rag. There is something endearing about a beat up old Coleman stove. Like an old camping buddy, rough looking, comfy as your favorite ratty wool shirt and absolutely reliable. Gerry
I have a 421-D and I quite like the way they are started without having to preheat them - seems a bit starnge for someone brought up on Optimus pre-heating. I use it to cook seafood chowder with my bro-in-law each Xmas when he says over. The missus won't let us cook it in the kitchen. The stove just sits in the porch in the damp air for the rest of the year. I read somewhere about the burners rusting out so I spray CRC into them afer each use. It stinks a bit when started but should stop it rusting. The generator unit has a little brass lever than closes down the air supply after starting (or adds more air?) but this doesn't work on my beast. I like the way the 421-D works with such a gentle quite burn but it is still a pretty effective cooker. I can see why those Yanks are so attached to them. The Coleman website mentioned previously has some great info on maintence of these things.
Hey, Mike, I really cannot add anything new to those comments that have already sung the praises of the good, old, Coleman suitcase stoves, other than I agree with them completely. There is nothing you cannot do with such a stove, barring backbacking. If you are going car camping, or on a canoe trip, or have a mule to carry your equipments, a Coleman suitcase stove is a perfect addition to your gear. I now have four of them, three 2-burners, and one 3-burner, and I think they are all "The Tits"!!! Once you've spent a little time making sure you bring it back to working condition, and as Gerry says, that won't take long, these stoves will earn your heart in a very short time, by their reliable functioning!!! Though not at first thought of as a beautiful stove, after you have used one for a while, you will soon think it quite lovely!! Good luck, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc Mark
Pete has it, if you have to have it light and work, get out the Coleman first. When I was in scouting in the early sixties were using them and they had to be decades old, countless boys had used them. My own is a 425B and it works like a charm. Does anyone know what years the 425B's were made? There doesn't seem to be a date on mine in the places I had heard to look for one. Regards, Ed
I've always had a Coleman suitcase but I've never even looked at the model numbers. The one I have is the larger 2-burner red-tanker. Over the years, I bought a couple of the basic 2-burners for presents for kids. It's hard to describe for non-North Americans just how ubiquitous these stoves are (or were; lots of propane 2-burner Colemans have been sold in the last couple of decades). Generation upon generation grew up with them as the indispensible car camping stove. Every household seemed to have had one, and the garages of America hold them by the millions; some used heavily, some used little, some bought to camp but never used. I've never been on a camping trip without one (apart from hiking), and I've been on a lot of camping trips. Last used mine to cook stew three weeks ago at the Lake Easton campout with the grandkids.....
Prindle : with regards to dating your 425b stove ,according to coleman collectors site http://www.colemancollectorsclub.com/tech_models.htm 425 1948---53 425b 1962 425c 1956 58 425d 1961 63- 425e 1963- 425g 1963- There is info for dating most coleman products on this site, also check the underside of the tabs on the fuel tank for month and year of issue(usually there ,but not always) There seems to be a totaly different numbering system for Canadian made vs U.S. made coleman products, for instance :in the U.S. I think the 3 burner stove is called a 426 , while in Canada it is a 444. I believe the 421model is a Canadian model. ( a little useless trivia for thos interested)
We recieved a pair of colemans, xmas of 1971. A brand new stove and a 220F lantern. They both have been around the world ! and they both work great, altho the stove is a bit... bent, as I last used it to melt lead ! about 30 pounds at a time ! The grill sagged a bit after a while Probably should get out the acetylene torch and fix that... The lantern? My daughter has been asking for it for years, so I fixed up a as new thrift shop special ($2) that only needed a clean. The hardest part was finding a reflector with the handle and a 'lantern safe' for the bottom ! E-bay to the rescue, but Damn, I hadn't realized they were made of gold... ouch ! She loves it!
Well, it looks like the mob has spoken, guess I'll have to make a sort of effort to bring it home to roost.....watch this space....
Hmmm.... mine must have bin a Monday-morning-model then, it was a 424 I think... I sold it after 3 summers because it got too expensive to use. It consumed about 5 fire extinguishers. In fact I didn't really sell it, I offered a bottle of wine for the first person who'd take the thing for free. I do miss it though, especially on those early morning, when everything is soaked with dew. Nothing like cooking breakfast on an ill tempered Molotov coctail
The first new stove I ever bought was a 425C I paid $7.95 for on sale at Pay 'n Save in Ballard, WA in 1963. I still have it, use it and it still runs like new. It still has its original generator and a few sq mm's of its original paint.. Like I've said, the only machine more reliable is an anvil. OK, maybe a hammer. If you're having trouble with a Coleman suitcase stove you're doing something wrong. Follow the instructions exactly because they are directly from the lips of God. If you don't, it will not work right. There are no shortcuts, no creative methods of lighting a Coleman stove. It is their way or the highway. Resistance is futile. Submit and enjoy the warmth. Gerry
Well, I'm now officially a Coleman owning dude. And it only cost me a NZ fiver 8) Got home from work, dragged it out to the garage to try it out and....discovered I'm out of white gas..... Oh well. Not such a bad thing really, the bone dry tank makes distressing sliding rattly noises from the scale and rust in it and the whole thing really is a bit tatty, so I think a freshen up is indicated. Watch this space......
