Factory-sealed "coleman fuel" cans are a great way to cache stove & lantern fuel in my experience. The one gallon cans are best for SIP and the 1 quart cans are great for BoB. After sampling many other brands, I returned to and stick with Coleman brand because the factory seals are the best. <shrug> I prefered Blazo in Alaska, but the smallest increment I bought that in was 5 gallon cans and they are NOT sealed as well as the Coleman cans.

This spring I cracked open a can (out of a couple of cases) that I know is 11 years old - fuel was like-new in appearance, odor, and performance in my stove. But in a damp or salt-air environment the cans will get rusty on the outside and that implies a long-term storage concern (rust-thru). I'm guessing that there are solutions to that, such as spraying the outside with LPS2 or LPS3 or RiG... etc.

We have more Coleman green boxes than we should have... but never have purchased dual fuel versions. We DO have conversion generators for the liquid fuel stoves that allow us to substitute LP gas for the liquid fuel and that is quite nifty - IIRC, they are Primus brand, but in any event, they work quite well. Remove the fuel tank and plug in the propane generator - takes 5 seconds if you're slow. We also have various hoses and adaptors, so a basic green box readily burns white gas, disposable propane cylinders, or bulk cylinders. If you apply that to a dual-fuel green box, it's even more versitile. FWIW, I have burned both Mogas and Avgas in a regular green box and it worked fine (a little stinky); just carboned-up the generators a bit. A good hot burn latter with standard fuel cleaned everything up just fine. I think I've only had to replace a generator once on a green box, and that was because of physical damage. Great gear.

We have a 3-burner propane only green box as well and while I like it fine, it's not as versitile as the liquid fuel stoves coupled with a propane generator.

Tom

Thank you. I last looked at this technology about 5 years ago, and the prices were twice that. I have since moved, and simply cannot put up a dish now. But I am imtrigued by the possibilites of economical portable solutions, short of Irridium technology. Maybe I'm behind the curve on that as well. Those prices may well have come down, too.

Maybe Benjammin isn't too busy beign on vacation to chime in here.

At the rate things are going, I hope my range rover will run on camp gas at $4 a gallon.

Thanks again. The RV class gear is probably beyond the realm of practicallity -- it certainly is for me -- I don't want to maintain an RV.

It looks as thought he state of the art is still Irridium sat phone with its inherent expenses, or go up to dish level technology with inherent losses of portability.

One of the things that always bothered me about DirecTV was alleged necessity of constant phone line service.

Yes. I had a photojournalist friend -- killed in Iraq, oddly enough -- who relied upon a European sat phone/net connection. Can't ask him now.

Well, we have progress. Yesterday, the mial came for the first time, and at noon today, we have POWER!! But on the down side, our old fridge gave up the ghost. It worked OK this morning but when I went to move it to plug in the new extension I wrote about, it sadly expired. It wanted donations to the "Ancient Frigidaire Home for Non-Icemakers" instead of flowers at the service. And a new fridge can't get here before Wednesday.

On to old news and clarifications.

We aren't stocking charcoal. if the new Coleman should fail or I don't horde enough gas, we'd have to cook over open fire. But fuel won't be a problem, I've got acres of highly flammable pine forest to pick over.

The generator is a Porter Cable 5250 continuous watts with higher surge. It burns about 5 gal per 12 to 14 hour day. Easy to start. We'll be changing the oil tomorrow before storage, and I'll run it every couple of months to keep it and us in practice.

Now for something new.

For light we couldn't use candles since my mom is here, she's on O2 part time. Oxygen and flames are a bad combo. So we had to use electric torches. We had numerous varities, including the Photons. But one of the nice surprises were some hand crank lights from Walgreen's, $14.99 each. Very effective.

But for next time, I'll get four Krill lights, two 180's and two 360's with rechargeables and a small solar charger. Unfortunately many of the neato lights use 123's or other batteries while AA's are highly available even in times of crisis.

Tomorrow more tree clearing, and Monday I get to haul the spare barn roof I have to the dump.

More reports as necessary.

Peanut

Izzy, I have a Honda EX-1000 generator that I bought several years ago. It is 1000W and starts on first pull every time. I paid $599 plus shipping from Harbor Freight. It weighs 65 pounds, takes just under a gallon of gas and will run all night on a light to moderate load.

This model has been replaced by the EU1000, 1000 watts, and weighs only 29 pounds. I don't know how them managed to shed so many pounds. I see it on eBay in the 500-600+ range. One is advertised for $638 with free shipping. (Item 7545465729). These little Hondas cost more than others but they run forever and are well built. To see a bunch of Hondas, search eBay "HONDA GENERATORS". There are several used ones for sale. Some are probably bargains but I am leery of a used one not knowing if it has been abused, do all the accessories and manual come with it, etc. You won't go wrong with Honda no matter what size you buy. They have several model 7500's going for around $900. I wish I could afford one of them. Problem with a big generator is the seller doesn't want to ship and if he does, the shipping is rather high although I got a big one from Chicago about ten years ago and it was only $30 to West Kentucky by motor freight.

An added feature of these little generators is they come with a little cable and clips to charge 12V batteries.

I have had three big generators, all with Briggs engines and they all blew up. The last one, not very old threw the piston completely thru the aluminum housing. Needless to say, I couldn't patch this hole with J B Weld. It was just out of warranty and Briggs essentially said, "Tough luck". Had the I/C engine too! No more Briggs for me. It had low oil shutoff but it failed to work and the engine blew. <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

I don't have a lot of experience with small motors, but we have run a lot of spray rigs and APUs over the years, and after a lot of bitter experience, never bought anything other than Tecumseh engines.

Just wanted to add that I have a diesel generator, which I like a lot better then gas generators. It will run off gas mixed with motor oil, taxed diesel, untaxed diesel, home heating oil, vegetable oil, you name it. Plus being I have a 1000 gallons of diesel up at my yard for running equipment I don't expect to run out any time soon. Also, in an emergency diesel is usually easier to find then gas. Also, diesel isn't as dangerous as gas to store. Just a thought to add.

Well, Izzy, after I blew the last Briggs I decided to go with Generac so I bought a 4000XL in June, 2001. Ha! Rid of Briggs at last! Then guess what? Briggs bought out Generac! Thats my kind of luck. The Generac runs and starts fine...............until it gets below 30 and it wouldn't start for hell or high water. Took it to small engine repair place and they said a new $60 carb would cure the problem. I now have a spare carb and a generator that still won't start below 30. I never know if I am choking it enough or too much but as I don't smell gas, I don't figure I have flooded it. I am reasonably sure it is a female generator with a mind of it's own. It sure as hell won't start if it doesn't want to. <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />