Well, here's something I'd like to try: A "Stove of the Week" post. I doubt I'll be able to post a stove every week (but I'll try), but I collect stoves, I've got quite a number of interesting stoves, and I'd love to share them with you. I take them out quite frequently in the winter, but when the temperatures climb, less frequently so.

For starters, here is the Coleman Xpedition two burner backpacking stove. Yes, you read that correctly, a two burner backpacking stove. Not many of those out there!

The stove is shown here on the ruins of Echo Mountain House a hotel built in the late 1800's atop Echo Mountain (3207'/977m).

Now the stove has something of a story. First it came to me by way of a friend in England. Ian sent it to me simply because he knew of my affection for and interest in this type of stove. He asked for nothing in return. I thank you very much, Ian, and I apologize that it's taken me this long to get it fettled (repaired) and posted. :oops:

In terms of fettling, the "X" stoves that Coleman produced do have an achilles heel: their connector. I own half a dozen of the three types of "X" stoves (the Xtreme, Xpert, and Xpedition). I've seen multiple problems with their connector (the point at which the Powermax canister attaches to the stove).


Basically, the canister has a hex shaped protrusion on it. The hex is placed into the connector pictured above and rotated 1/6th turn to the right. As the hex rotates, it causes the inner cam in the photo above to rotate with it while the outer "finger plate" (Coleman's term for it) stays stationary. The protrusions on the inner cam force the "fingers" on the finger plate to expand and a small ridge on each finger is forced into a grove on the inside rim of the canister's valve assembly. The fingers when forced by the cam into the grove hold the canister in place such that the lindal valve is depressed, opening the valve and allowing the gas to flow. If you look closely at this photo, you can see the grove on the inside rim of the canister's valve assembly.

In theory. In practice, however, the inner cam just wasn't rotating. Instead, the canister's hex was rotating within the cam, stripping the plastic of the cam. If you look closely at the photo of the cam, two photos back, you can see some wear where I've stripped the cam.

"Well," thought I in all my full brilliance, :roll: "the fingers must be too tight, and they're not allowing the cam to rotate properly. I'll loosen them up a bit." Crack. One of the fingers broke off. Oh, great.

Well, no problem, I'll just order one from Coleman. Nope. Coleman no longer carries either the cam or the fingerplate. Stumped, I laid the stove aside for a while.

Some time later, I was tipped off that Campmor.com carries "trail maintenance kits" for the Coleman "X" stoves. The best deal is the Xpedition trail maintenance kit: it has more parts (and for a lower price) than the other kits. All of the kits are interchangeable even though some of the kits are labeled for one of the three "X" stoves or another. A bit expensive to buy an entire kit for just the finger plate, but having no other alternative, I bought a couple.


Here in this photo, you can see the difference between a nice, new cam and a worn cam.


But no dice. The derned thing still won't turn. ](*,) I tried oil. I tried swapping parts out for new parts. I tried powdered graphite. Nothing I tried worked. The cam just wouldn't turn. I admit that at this point I just about binned the danged thing.

Now, fast forward some months. New Year's day 2011 is fast approaching. Now, we've something of a local tradition hereabouts, it's called the Rose Parade, which is a nationally televised event. As part of that parade, the US Air Force usually does a relatively low altitude fly by over the parade route. Lately, it's been the B-2 Stealth Bomber. Fascinating! There's a mountain that has a commanding view of the parade route. The last several years, quite a crowd has gathered upon the mountain top so as to have quite the view of the B-2 as it flies by. It's become an event in its own right, with people bringing stoves, cooking, and having quite the festive occasion. Well, if one wants to cook for a crowd AND one has to carry the stove up a mountainside, what better stove than a two burner Coleman Xpedition stove? It's relatively light, yet it has not one but two powerful burners. I thought, what could it hurt to pull the Xpedition off the shelf and have one more go at fettling?

Now, take one more look at that last photo. Note that the protrusions on the cams have sharp, hard right angled edges on them. What if I beveled them a bit? I got out a file. I don't know how well this will show in a photo, but here's a cam after I've beveled the leading edges of the protrusions.


Now, have I just wasted my time yet again?

NO BY GOLLY I HAVE NOT!!!

Phew! That's the best looking flame I've seen in a long time. The worst part of it of course is after months of time spent and untold frustration, it only took me a few minutes to bevel the edges and have the stove up and running. It's a fairly simple fettle -- once it occurs to you to try it. Don't become a stovie if you're not prepared to have a good laugh at yourself once in a while. :lol:

Well, then fettle done, off we go early the next morning. We've got to make it to the mountain top and be in position before 0800 when the fly by occurs. I'm carrying about 30 pounds of gear (about 13.5 kg); this will be no fast trek. My friend calls. He's running late. Ack! Off we go in a bit of a race against time!

It's a fairly cold morning by California standards; there's frost on the ground, indicating that the over night low has been below 32 F (0 C).

The San Gabriel Valley of California, pre-dawn.


Here's another view of the greater Los Angeles area from further up the trail a bit later that morning. If you look closely at the uppermost of the two blimps, you can see the rose colored light of dawn. Downtown Los Angeles can be seen at the lower right.


Finally, we're in position, and it's nearly 0800. We've made it in time. And there it is! The stealth bomber!


Unfortunately, I couldn't get him in frame when I maximized the zoom level (he was moving too fast), so that's not the best photo in the world, but I assure you it was quite exciting in person.

Here's my set up on the mountain top after the crowds have departed. I made hot water for instant oatmeal and instant cocoa for folks. The Xpedition did an admirable job of it.
[img]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_o5608HJMn44/TS4bA1N9laI/AAAAAAAAJXY/LvDi4WgxtCU/s800/P1050332.JPG[/img]

The pots are 0.9 L and 1.5 L Primus LiTech kettles. Very convenient to pour from. By having two burners and two kettles, I could serve with one while heating more with the other, allowing me to provide hot water to a fair number of people.

The canteen seen at left is an orginal Swiss military one produced by Sigg. Sigg recently issued a retro version made of steel with a screw top. I saw one go recently for about $75.00 on eBay! :shock: I bought the original version for $7.13 total, and mine is lighter aluminum. I think I'll stick with my version although a cork stopper is not as secure as a screw top, and I worry I may get water spilled on my pack some day. I carry it strictly for the cool factor. 8) :lol:

The windscreen you seen in the photo is the concatenation of one and a half Olicamp windscreens. One and a half windscreens makes an almost perfect fit for the Xpedition.
[img]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_o5608HJMn44/TS4bAUqhUBI/AAAAAAAAJXU/D9RPiVeJ0sI/s800/P1050331.JPG[/img]

Here's the view from the top. The signs you see are historical interpretive signs explaining the various features of the site. The blue you see on the far horizon is the mighty Pacific Ocean.
[img]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_o5608HJMn44/TS4bBDSP6RI/AAAAAAAAJXc/UixlaTYc-Dg/s800/P1050333.JPG[/img]

And now that the crowds have gone, it's my turn to enjoy a cuppa.
[img]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_o5608HJMn44/TS4bBr7EbpI/AAAAAAAAJXg/KWhl1u6hQKo/s800/P1050334.JPG[/img]

And if you look behind me, you can see why so many people have chosen to live in California: It's January, but it's a beautiful day. It's cold, there was frost still in the shady spots, but out in the sun a light down jacket like the one you see me wearing was all I needed. Not too bad for January.

Well, I thank you for joining me on my New Year's Day trip up Echo Mountain. I hope you've enjoyed the trip -- and the stove.

HJ

Very nice! Although I'm not a collector of stoves I do appreciate the many different designs. That's the first time I've seen a dual-burner in a pack stove. I've been using homemade alcohol stoves when I go hiking/camping.

Are the photo links working? A couple of people have suggested that they are not.

I do not see any photos.

No, the links aren't working I copied and pasted. Sorry, for not posting that.

Nice dual stove. Can you get hold of the Powermax fuel adapter

http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colemancom/detail.asp?product_id=9705-725&categoryid=2005

so that you can use the more commonly available gas cartridges rather than the the powermax cartridges, which are pretty hard and expensive to get hold off in this part of the world.

The Coleman Xpedition was known as a good lightweight and low temperature operation stove and at one point I considered getting the single burner version but ended up getting a Primus Omnifuel Himalaya instead. The non standard fuel cartridge was the only downside despite its excellent performance.

For a group cooking system I have settled on either the Primus Omnifuel or the latest addition being a Esbit Alcohol Stove with a replacement Go Systems GS2000 gas burner adapter.



The whole weight of the cook system weigh in around 1.15 Kg without the gas cartridge. (Very lightweight and efficient performance and includes 3 hard anodised pots and pans (2.3 litre, 1.8 litre pots and an excellent fry pan about the same size as the Trangia 25 fry pan.)

I will post some boil times and fuel consumption figures later.

I've got one of the X-stoves. I don't have that much trouble with the locking mechanism (except for one gas cannister that had a dent in the collar) but I did have a problem with the gas tube leading to the stove. It was one of the earlier models and Coleman has since redesigned the tube with a heavier duty wire braid to protect it. These are the only butane/propane stoves that I would use below freezing. They work well at altitude compared to other gas canister stoves.

But as with most canister stoves, it is a good idea to preheat them by putting them next to your body for a couple of minutes to improve performance in cool conditions. I've heard that putting the cannister into another small container with water will also help to prevent it from cooling off and therefore keep the pressure up.

Hikin_Jim - I am also a Camp Stove Junkie and really like your "Stove of the Week" Idea.

Sorry to say, but I also cannot see your photos or connect to the links?

Later, Mike

OK, I think I've got the photos working now although the last four are showing as links instead of in-line photos.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW if they're working or not.

HJ

Nice looking stove. That's an Esbit stove? Quite a bit different from the Esbit stoves I've seen here.

The Powermax fuel canisters are still readily available here in the US and actually cost less per gram of fuel than standard threaded canisters. The canisters are so light. An empty 300g sized Powermax canister is actually lighter than a 110g sized standard canister. More bang for your backpack weight buck.

HJ

All Photos/links working now Jim. Beautiful Country! Mike

I too had a problem with the fuel tube on an older "X" stove. The wire braid had gotten crimped in storage and the hose was permanently kinked. It just wasn't safe to use.

Since this stove is a liquid feed stove, you shouldn't have to warm it unless it is really freaking cold. As long as you're above 0F, I wouldn't think it would be necessary. In really frigid temps, then, yeah, you'd have to warm it. Putting it in a pan of water is a pretty standard technique. However, if you're going out in sub-zero (Fahrenheit) weather, I'd take a liquid fueled stove, i.e. one that burns Coleman type fuel or kerosene.

HJ

Yeah, I was kind of thinking that there might be others on the forum that might enjoy this sort of thing. I mean camping AND lighting explosive fuel mixtures on fire? What's NOT to like?

Stay tuned; I've got some interesting ones.

HJ

Are the last photos showing as in-line photos or are they just showing as links?

HJ

Jim:

All the photos are not showing as there is a limit of about 10 photos per post on this forum. I usually make one post with the max # of photos then reply to that post with a new post with the remainder of the photos.

Ah, OK, got it. Well, if people have read through the first 10 photos, hopefully they're interested enough in the topic to click through on those last few photos. One of them is of yours truly, so no emergency if people don't click on that one.

HJ

OK..Jim it looks like we are both posters at CCS!!--along with Doc,Kerophile,Motoshi,Rik,Lance and world of others to great to list here...the two burner was on my list after i saw a guy up in Canoe Country use one to cook for a gang of fishermen.great fettling work on that stove.parts are out there but it takes luck and some deep digging to find them.that Swiss canteen is the type i cut down to use as a pot and cup for my PFD ditch kit.i ran a post here about that.i was looking at the connector and it looks like one end of an adapator i saw on Ebay to match it to the Lindal type connector used on most carts now.great post and photos and i'll look it over in a lot more detail in a minute..i think a stove is right up there,or even above,a knife as a prime survival tool....hang in there for stove talk Blast!!

Jim, a series of stoves is a GREAT idea! I'm looking forward to it.

I'm sure Blast is, too, as he probably wants to see if he's been "out-stoved". (You can't use that term just everywhere...)

Sue

I can't wait for the SVEA 123 as the stove of the week. I too have quite a few camp stoves but the SVEA is my favorite! Love the ROAR!

A lightweight two burner like the Coleman Xpedition is just right for Scouts or other slightly larger groups in the outdoors. It's really pretty light -- certainly a lot lighter than carrying two stoves. I really like the darned thing. Set up is a complete snap -- about 10 seconds or less.

I have one of the adapters so that I can operate off of standard threaded canisters should the good ones, er, I mean the Powermax ones ever become unavailable. I really do like the Powermax canisters. WHY lug around a heavy steel one when there are efficient aluminum ones?

The "X" stoves were developed with an eye towards cold weather, but the fuel is actually slightly cheaper per gram than standard canister fuel, so why not use them year round. I'll have to make a video of the set up. It really is incredibly simple and fast. When you're cold, hungry, and border-line hypothermic, do you really want a tricky to set up and light stove? With an "X" stove, you shove in the canister and turn 1/6th of a turn. No threads to line up. Nice.

HJ

lol. "Out-stoved." I love it. Well, I dunno if I can out-stove Blast, but I'll sure enough give him a run for his money. I haven't lined up all my stoves, but I'm pretty sure I can put 52 (one per week for a year) up on the internet. Time, not stoves, will be the limiting factor. I'm a collector, so I have different versions of a particular stove. For example, I have early (non shaker jet) Whisperlites, regular Whisperlites, first edition Whisperlites, and Whisperlite Internationales. In the XGK family, I've got the fairly rare "G" stove which is basically an only slightly modified version of the first production stove Larry Penberthy, the founder of MSR, put out. This is the stove that revolutionized pack stoves in the 70's. Crazy Penberthy thought that those Sigg bottles of fuel that everybody carried around for fuel could be used as the tank of the stove. Why, he reasoned, have a built in tank AND carry an aluminum tank as well? He did so, and now every manufacturer of backpacking stoves offers a variant of his "remote tank" flash of genius (Primus, Snow Peak, Optimus, Coleman, Kovea, etc.). He was also the one behind the idea of a lightweight, folding aluminum windscreen.

Anyway! I digress, but it's for dang sure I'll give Blast a run for his money! And I'm totally looking forward to whatever Blast can dish out. The more I see, the more I learn. Bring it on, Blast!

HJ

Does you collection include a Borde? That's a really exciting stove!

Svea 123? Fresh out. Why, I don't even like Svea 123's. Don't know a thing about them. Not me.

Shh! Don't be giving away the future of this series of posts! lol

Stay tuned!

HJ

Let's just say you will get borde, er, bored I mean, while reading my postings. Try to stay awake. lol.

By the way, I should mention, I'm really a collector of pack stoves, that is my collection is generally limited to those stoves that are packable/suitable for backpacking. I have a couple of the big two burner "suitcase" style stoves, but I'm pretty thin in that department, so also in stoves that run on the green Coleman type 16.4 oz propane tanks. I'm sure you all will have a lot of things to show/teach me in that department, and I look forward to every minute of it.

C'mon folks, drag on out those burners and post 'em up. Let's have fun with it. Go ahead, out stove me, I dare ya. lol.

(Sheesh, what an instigator I am)

HJ

Now you have started something HJ! I too have a lot of camp stoves but am not a collector, just an accumulator maybe verging on hoarder. Looking forward to this thread, Mike

Stop accumulating and start photographing. Post 'em if you've got 'em.

HJ