stoves

I own several camping stoves.

Some I bought for parts, a couple I bought new. I have 3 that I use and a 4th that is operable.

Back packers are always on the alert for simpler, lighter equipment, so they upgrade as often as the technology improves.

Car campers, on the other hand, are different, way different.

The main stove I use when we camp from the teardrop is a two burner Coleman that was made right after World War II. It was like new when I bought it a few years ago, and works very well. It is two burner, but I don’t remember when I used the 2nd burner.

Usually I take along a contemporary Coleman single burner stove. When I car camp that little one is the only one I take along.

They all work fine, and when I do grape juice I set up three of them in the backyard and we make a lot of hot.

But this morning I was thinking about my first back pack stove, which I still have. It is an Optimus 8r. The technology is as old as gas blow torches. You fill a little pan with gasoline, it flares up and heats the “carburetor” which vaporizes the gas and it burns.

It works well. It is not quiet, and parts are still available. Not a few back packers prefer these old ladies to the new fancy ones, the old ones are so reliable. Mine sure does not look new, it has cooked for 5 or 6 people a lot of times and it shows it.

I noticed some 8r stoves for sale and the price was 2 or 3 times what they sold for new.

To paraphrase the famous general: “old stoves don’t die. . . they just keep on going.”