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Re: Resuply of fuel.

At 03:08 PM 7/24/96 PDT, John A. Scott wrote:
>At 12:26 PM 7/23/96 -0500,Sandy and Alison wrote:
>>. So by using places we
>>found and also discovering that Primus will ship fuel cartridges by UPS
>>ground (its costs extra of course , hazardous material fee ) we decided
>>the propane/butane mixture was do able, and we could still achieve our
>>goal of weight reduction. 
> S&A: ware of the fact that UPS can't drop ship you to a Post Office along
>the Trail and unless you are lucky enuf to be standing there at the Post
>Office as I was in Catawba VA to get my new Lowe Pack from REI you may be
>SOL in the delivery dept> Fuel drops will probably have to be made to non
>P.O. spots like hiker centers etc. good luck, Dr Doolittle (John A. Scott)
>GA->ME'90-00 ?
>

By the way, it is possible (and legal) to ship certain flammable substances
by US mail.  The trick is to label them properly.  If you do that, the post
office will ship them by ground.

I wouldn't dare try to give the complete details of what is legal/illegal
but will note the following:

(1) Smallish quantities of "class III" flammables (e.g. alcohol, lamp oil, etc.)
    are OK IFF under the volume limit, packaged safely (not hard to do), and
    labeled correctly.

(2) I found all this out from the "Materials Safety" person at my employer.
    Almost any company that has to ship anything will have someone who knows
    about this kind of thing.

(3) I had to EXPLAIN ALL OF THIS to the clerk at the post office.  The first
    clerk I talked to didn't even know that it was possible to ship anything
    by ground.  I'm not slamming the post office... they found someone who
    knew about shipping flammables and gave me no hassles.  Just be aware that
    they don't get many requests for this!

(4) I looked that the actual regulations and they were NOT easy to follow.
    Try to find an expert to help you out.

(5) You can ship empty fuel bottles this way.  It is a lot cheaper than going
    the "special shipment" route that the airlines talk about.

Anyway, Sandy, you MIGHT be able to have your cartridges mailed (US Mail) to
general delivery addresses.  Ask around at work... there will probably be
someone who knows all the regs cold.  You might also call Primus and ask
them to send you a "materials safety data sheet" on the fuel canister...
that info might help you find out if you can ship the stuff legally by US mail.

-- Jim Mayer