How Many Complete Camping Packs Can You Fashion Together From Your Unused Camping Gear? Im talking old mess kits, old Canteens, Old packs, spare items, cheap might as well purchases, dollar store purchases, garage sale purchases, goodwill purchases! How many people can you fully stock with your own stuff without going to the store? I can stock Three, Three people I can stock.

Right up there with you, Frisket.
I can do about three and still have spare stuff...
What does that make us, I wonder ? Greedy; paranoid; overcautious; plain smart or all of the above ?

Pharaoh.

10+. Not sure how that happened.

The exception is internal/external frame backpacks, which stands at 4. But the spring catalogues are out ...

Id Say None of the above! It just Makes us Long Time Hobbyists. Most of my Gear Is older outdated Camping gear that I replaced with newer stuff. As Time goes by Gear changes for the better in all categories and after purchasing this new gear rarely do I throw out the old. Some of it is Dollar store purchases and I infact have made a Full messkit from the dollar store. Can one really complain when drinking from a 1$ plastic cup and eating with 1$ metal flatware if an emergency struck or an unprepared camper joined the group before leaving home?

Clepto

You're absolutely right Frisket.
However.. where you've been replacing older kit for newer thus having stuff to spare, I've been stocking multiple identical items. Backups for backups-system. Why ? I'll ask my shrink and report back to you asap.

Pharaoh.

I'm at three plus. Comfortably. I could probably outfit six but with serious compromise on tent/sleeping gear weight. No wonder I need to build a shed.

i would say two.my Wife and i have a old set of gear that we replaced a few years ago.however i have stoves,tents and gas lamps for a Scout Troop.

I'm at 5, although with a couple more backpacks we'd be up to 7. It's a martially/financially dangerous, but awesomely practical addiction.

Looks like the interior view of the mountain hideout after the Grinch stole a Boyscout jamboree. Somewhere there are very sad and perplexed Boyscouts standing in an empty field wondering where everything went while they were swimming in the lake. And if they looked behind them they would see the canoes, paddles, life jackets, BBQ pits, and the last of the coolers getting hauled off to parts unknown. But the Grinch is a sly one who knows they will not look in the right direction until he has absconded with the last of it.

Does anyone else here keep Bottles from Drinks like Gatorade or Powerade as spare/lightweight Canteens?

Absolutely. My preferred canteen is a 32 oz Gatorade bottle- light, strong, and durable. a few year ago, Gatorade was sold in gallon containers that made perfect large canteens,perfect for kayak camping and storage. I wish I had more of those.

Typically, large containers of two liters or more are rinsed out, filled with water,and stored away in various spots to add to my emergency water supply.

I could make 2 kits. Sleeping bags being my big holdback. Actually, make it three, I just remembered I have a third small bag.

Cooking supplies quickly become the second limiting step.

I'm assuming that I don't have a sleeping pad for persons 2 and 3.

Yup. Nalgenes and KleenKanteens are nice but heavy. Backpacking requires less robust h20 containers. There's no reason to pack around a pound of weight just to hold your water. I like the wide mouth varieties in 1 liter.

Metal water bottles also allow you to sterilize your water and allow hot beverages to be produced. This would be quite tricky with just a PET bottle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gASh1B5bOKI

The survival tasks which can be accomplished with a single 4.6 oz water bottle will make the ridiculous cost (esp compared to a free PET bottle) seem acceptable as I suspect a lot of folks will own a $70 survival knife.

If given the choice between having just one survival tool such as a metal water bottle or a knife, I might well just pick the metal water bottle.

About 15 years ago, I cleaned up and sold at least 1 full camping kit setup. Then a couple of years ago I tossed out some worn out stuff when I moved. I could probably outfit 3 complete sets with lots of spare pieces left over right about now. Ie. about 15 spare knives or so and 5+ survival mini kits, numberous whistles, lights, camp kitchens, stoves, clothes, yada yada yada.

Then of course for some reason I just bought 2 more stoves off EBay the other day. -- "What was I thinking?"

Yep. I use one as my powdered drink mix container. My Playtpus bladders get filled only with clear water. They are definitely durable enough for hiking and far better than the very lightweight ordinary water bottles but obviously they aren't as durable as a Nalgene wide-mouth which I will use for car camping and kayaking.

In fact, I re-use PET bottles as my EDC water bottles. Bear in mind that the water/soda PET bottles sold locally where I live are meant to be recycled, cleansed and used again (about 20 times or so, untill it's too worn out). They're a lot thougher than single use PET bottles.

Just to clarify, my response was for backpacking purposes. I always have one of these with me on backpacking trips so carting an additional metal container is redundant:


I do tend to use metal containers or nalgenes for car and every day carry. Each car is equipped with an esbit stove and one of these:

How you like them MSR Stowaways there desolation?




Interesting, Where you at?

Norway.

You may also consider that pressurized bottles (coca cola and any other kind that goes fzzzzzzzzt when you open it) are much stronger than PET bottles for plain water and other unpressurized drinks.

Seems that the Sport drink bottles are thicker then soda bottles around here. I think the point is they are expected to be tossed around more.

Nice solid pot w/ lid that you can stash other crap supplies in! Nice price, too.

"What does that make us, I wonder ? Greedy; paranoid; overcautious; plain smart or all of the above ?"

If you're not paranoid by now, you haven't been paying attention.

Sue

LOL @ Sue!