Hi, I’ve been doing a ton of research, but research and long term experience of members on this forum are two different things… so, please help me find the perfect piece of kit :-) I’m planning on doing a motorcycle trip around the world. This will probably take about two years. What I’m looking for: - Durability - Sustained use with gas station petrol (in some countries it can be difficult to buy anything higher than 86 octane though generally you can find 91) - Ability to simmer, I love cooking, even on the road I sometimes enjoy cooking more complex meals - the quieter the better I’ve really liked the soto stormbreaker but more in-depth research pointed to it not being ideal for sustained use with petrol, can anyone confirm or deny this? Thanks!
Some places it can be lucky to even find petrol… Central Asia especially, so I’m not too sure how possible it is to buy even Kerosene. Outside of main cities it can be very hard to buy just about anything.
around me there is no kerosene at all... forget best is BRS 8A by APG cheap as possible 100 euro dollars ponds - you can buy 2 examples one can be as reserve - and "clean" for plane transport problem LPG option - solve tea make problem
While your motorcycle might "think" differently, as far as your stove is concerned, octane is not a concern whatsoever. The least expensive gasoline with the fewest additives is actually what you want, not to mention what you'll find in remote areas. A Svea 123 with a Bernie Dawg (silent) burner might be just the ticket for you.
/ around me there is no kerosene at all... forget best is BRS by APG cheap as possible 100 euro dollars ponds - you can buy 2 examples one can be as reserve - and "clean" for plane transport problem LPG option - solve tea make problem / Have you found it working well with petrol over long periods of time? Does it get much dirty over time, or not really? Thanks!
/Phoebus 625 or Schmel 1./ Interesting options, I'll do some reading. How do they handle wind and how heavy/bulky are they? Thanks!
The pump is of complex construction (dismantled HERE) and barely serviceable on a workbench at home. In the field? Forget it, yet pump gasoline would probably bring on a need for repair pretty quickly. A noisy stove (unless you couple it with an after-market silent burner converter cap) but an MSR Dragonfly ticks all the other boxes and its ‘Expedition’ maintenance kit is comprehensive … … and includes a reamer to scrape deposits out of the burner inlet tract.
That's a very good point. The Svea looks quite good but from what I'm reading it's very bad in terms of handling wind? I do have to say as much as I understand many will have preference to have a all in one unit, for my packing system etc., I would actually quite enjoy something that has a standalone bottle with a pump. Though maybe I'm looking for a stove that's yet to be invented haha!
I believe it was your post that made me think twice about the Soto! Have you considered/do you think it would work - using a different pump? Though that would probably also negate some of the reasons for buying soto haha. What sort of liquid have you found best to use with it long term?
@jb.rtw The Soto stoves (Muka, Stormbreaker) depend on the pump’s fuel metering mechanism to prime them. They’ve no priming cup. Theoretically another pump could be grafted on, but a priming cup would be needed too. The Muka doesn’t simmer easily - I’ve not tried the Stormbreaker. Fuel with the Soto has been Aspen alkylate gasoline exclusively (no additives to coke up the generator). It’s not everywhere in the UK that has it, let alone Kazakhstan!
I'm starting to think perhaps I'd be best served with a Dragonfly and just make myself at peace with the noise. Do you think it would handle long term use of petrol well?
I’ve not used pump petrol in my stoves, so I’m not the best judge, but it’s easily maintained - the ‘Expedition’ maintenance kit is worth having - and it burns kerosene as well as petrol so it’s not fussy on fuel.
As a rule, there are no single burner portable stoves that will do well in the wind without adequate shielding. I wouldn't eliminate the Svea or any specific stove on that reason alone. They all benefit greatly from supplemental shielding. This becomes second nature in the field. For ease of use, quiet, high BTU output yet the ability to simmer - a multi-fuel Coleman Peak 1 should be considered.
A few years ago I saw an on-line video where a world traveller spoke praise of his Coleman 533. He carried a spare generator (the vapouriser tube) but otherwise found the stove effective with nothing but motor gasoline/petrol. Per @presscall 's advice, I would trust a Dragonfly in the setting. It will simmer, it is readily cleanable, it will burn any liquid hydrocarbon. It packs separately, you can use cheap aftermarket fuel canisters. In your setting, you are carrying a small amount of fuel reserve easily tipped into the bike. I've owned both, I would carry the Dragonfly. It is built for the purpose. The Coleman happens to work rather than is designed for world travel. The "flip" of it is that the Coleman stoves are really simple to use. Really simple. A Dragonfly has a collection of bits, needs priming, maintenance etc. The Coleman is the stove equivalent of a sealed bearing, the Dragonfly is a repackable bearing with a grease nipple.
The Dragonfly will do the job. Great piece of kit and simmers easily...keep in mind the pump it uses is different than the one used by all the other MSR liquid fuel stoves. That being said I've had three different gens of the MSR XGK (including the latest one, the XGK EX). It's considerably more robust and simpler than the Dragonfly and will happily burn anything. MSR offers field maintenance and rebuild kits for the XGK EX that are slightly different than the Dragonfly's but just as comprehensive. Common assumption is that the XGK EX only has 2 settings, space shuttle launch or 747-400 gross wgt take-off, but it can simmer adequately. I fiddle with less fuel pressure by using fewer pump strokes and use the small stainless simmer-plate that came standard with the military-issued XGK-EX stove kits (not offered on the civilian market but easy to make, I can post pic/measurements). I almost always use Jet-A without additives like "prist."...just sump it out of the wing tanks. ;-) Simply put, jet-A is just refined kero, and it IS available globally. No matter how much of a "backwater" your immediate location is, someone in the area will be operating turbine-powered aircraft or helicopters, and nobody puts crap fuel in multi-million dollar flying machines. ...or burn whatever petrol is handy.
@stumpy , I just want to question 1 small part of your otherwise excellent summary. The Dragonfly is a first generation X-GK bell with only 1 functional modification: the use of a heat sink under the bell vs a generator loop. Before that there is the second tap, and therefore the reamer for cleaning, vs the cable. But at the flame end, everything is interchangeable with even a pre-shaker X-GK. I can't really see how it is any less robust than the X-GKs prior to the EX, given the parts interchange.
Scrambler, yup, you are correct sir. My comment regarding the "robust" comparison between the Dragonfly and the XGK was indeed referring only to the recent XGK EX. On the new EX I've been happily impressed with the stove frame and folding legs & pot supports. While there's absolutely nothing wrong with them, the heavy wire supports on the older models were never my "thing," although their simplicity was great.
If I were on my cycle, first order would be to bin anything made by MSR. More bits to lose, seals to go to blazes, in short, trash of the first order. Since I'm on a cycle, I'll grab my Coleman 502, fills the bill, no call to assemble the sodding thing when you need it, or take it down to stow, either. Only thing to possibly go bad is the pump leather, make one of those in your sleep, you can. Murph
