for car camping/SHTF backup (non-bugout)
 

I'm looking at getting a stove and lantern for camping...also to double as a SHTF backup in case we need it.

I'm just confused what to get...here is what I've looked at:

Coleman double burner propane stove
Coleman model 5159 propane lantern
Coleman "coleman fluid/gasoline" double burner stove
Coleman "coleman fluid/gasoline" lantern

Are there other brands I should look at? Is coleman the gold standard for this type of equipment? Should I be looking at something else all together?

I read about the pros and cons of white gas vs propane but I wanted to hear it from you guys perspective instead of the BSA perspective!

Should I instead look at a kerosene "16 wick" stove / kerosene lantern? Would you guys take that camping vs what I'm looking at? Are they for different purposes all together?

I need help!

Re: for car camping/SHTF backup (non-bugout)
 

hit the yard sales in your town or city their lot of good camping stuff out there

Re: for car camping/SHTF backup (non-bugout)
 

Thanks...I'm gonna get me one...or two.

Re: for car camping/SHTF backup (non-bugout)
 

Kerosene and propane both have advantages and disadvantages. It can be argued that there are normally more places to buy kerosene than there are for propane, but in a SHTF situation there may be essentially no difference in the two shortages.

Some rural people already have their house set up to run on one fuel or the other, so they already have a big honkin' tank of that fuel around, and so they want all their little survival/camping stuff/portable heaters/generators to be able to burn the same kind of fuel.

One nice thing about kerosene is that it pours into the tank of anything you have that runs on it. Propane doesn't--it comes in a few different common-size bottles that don't share the same physical connectors.
Even at that--my emergency stove and heater are both propane.
I have a 2-burner stove (Coleman) and a indoor-rated heater (big buddy) that are designed to run off the disposable small cylinders, but I bought the hoses to run them off of 20-lb grill tanks, and the 20-pounders is all I keep around. You can get filler kits that allow refilling the little disposable tanks off of a BBQ tank, but the smaller tanks have issues separate from that: they tend to ice up if the stove or heater is turned on full-blast. The 20-lb tanks have enough heat in them that they don't show that problem.

Also note that many pre-fill refill propane places are only putting 15 lbs of propane into 20-lb tanks! So you need to find out first before deciding if their price for a "refill" (or 3/4ths of a refill, as the case may be) is all that good a deal or not.

Coleman does seem to be pretty much the only game around in the USA for "camping stuff that burns fuel". Most of the non-Coleman camp stoves that I've seen advertised were very tiny single-"burner" European brands, intended for alpine hiking. These tend not to use propane because it doesn't flow well in very-cold weather. Camp-mor sells a whole bunch of them, if you're curious.

-end-

Re: for car camping/SHTF backup (non-bugout)
 

2 things pro propane:

Propane never goes bad.

You can't accidentally spill propane all over the place which could turn into a fire right qiuck depending on what you are doing at the time.

Just some other things to think about......

Re: for car camping/SHTF backup (non-bugout)
 

Re: for car camping/SHTF backup (non-bugout)
 

one thing that concerned me with the propane was the warning plastered all over it about CO poisoning. Basically it said to never burn propane anything in the house. This isn't that great for SHTF then if I always have to go outside to use the stove and a can't use the lantern inside, where I would most likely want it the most. Is this even a real issue inside a house?

Is this an issue with other fuels too? Are there any "camping lanterns" that use kerosene as a fuel (other then the hurricane type lantern...they aren't very bright). I know I can safely burn Kerosene in the house without worrying about CO.

What about the coleman fluid/white gas? Is there a CO danger with these?

Re: for car camping/SHTF backup (non-bugout)
 

All of the heaters say there's danger with using them indoors--even the indoor-rated heaters say this.

The Coleman propane stove I got is not indoor-rated, it says to use it outdoors only. I wouldn't feel too good about falling asleep with it burning, but for cooking I would just crack a window and make sure I stayed alert.

The little buddy and big buddy propane heaters are indoor-rated,,,,, but even so, the instructions still say that it's a good idea to crack a window.
And there are plenty of indoor-rated kerosene heaters too.

...Unless you buy both you're probably screwed anyway, because the one fuel you'll need is the one you won't be able to find. :s10:

-----

I'm not real wild on the idea of burning fuel just for light (-but then again my home doesn't have propane or kerosene service...). There's plenty of decent LED lights now, and with a solar panel battery recharger and a few sets of the right batteries you can take care of your lighting needs for a very long time, without burning any fuel at all.

Also We Note: you can use a stove for heating if you have to, but the radiant-type heaters work WAY better for space-heating purposes. ....And then again, there's radiant heaters that burn either propane and kerosene.

In a Camp-mor catalog I saw that there is at least one single-burner alpine stove that tilts flat for cooking and tilts sideways for heating use, which I thought was astonishingly sensible, I only wonder why they all don't do that--but it was a pretty small-output unit, as these things usually are. They aren't intended to keep you comfortable, they're just for keeping your hands from freezing while you're huddled inside a 1-person tent.

-end-

Re: for car camping/SHTF backup (non-bugout)
 

You're probably right. I went out this morning and got a lantern and stove. Both Propane. I also bought 2 sets of backup mantles for the lantern. I still need to get a backup globe. I'm gonna have to sock away some of the little propane tanks for later.

The stove, lantern, and a storage box for the lantern set me back $100.

The coleman fluid stove was $90 by itself so I went with the cheaper option, though the fuel for the liquid stove is cheaper, I think it will take a while to realize the savings.

I remember the propane stove and lantern my parents had when I was younger...they have sure lowered the quality on this new breed of coleman stuff. The metal was thinner and lighter, the connectors and knobs felt cheap and weren't as sturdy as I remember my parents stove being. The stove says MADE IN USA too and it still feels cheap. The lantern is made with parts from Thailand and China.

Re: for car camping/SHTF backup (non-bugout)
 

For camping/SHTF? Well, if you're gonna get there by gas powered vehicle I'd recommend gasoline fueled cookers. I have 2. (Coleman....used....Ebay...)
For light definitely get LED, and be sure to buy on that can be charged by plugging in to a cig lighter/power point.
Headlamps are worth more than lanterns, get a headlamp you like and power it with hybrid batteries that are to be charged by either a solar unit or an adaptor that......plugs into the car.

Re: for car camping/SHTF backup (non-bugout)
 

I recently bought one of these...little pricey at $170.
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...=1&topnav=&s=1
http://content.costco.com/Images/Con...uct/303320.jpg

It's a cooktop stove with an oven. It includes a pressure regulator that fits perfectly into a standard replacement hose for a 20lb propane tank.