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Re: [at-l] Trangia Westwind

At 05:12 AM 6/5/97 PDT, Charles Peters wrote:
>
>Does anyone know where I might mail order a Trangia Westwind stove?  The
>local outfitters don't seem to carry it and I'd like to try it.  The light
>weight of this stove is very attractive.  Does anyone on the list use this
>stove on a regular basis?
>
>Charles Peters

I ordered mine directly from MSR (the US distributors).  They encouraged me
to order through a local retailer, but after that didn't work they were
happy to send me a stove.  It did end up backordered though.  MEC (Mountain
Equipment Coop) in Canada had the stoves in their catalogue last year, but
were out of stock when I tried to order one.

I've had the stove since early this spring, have used it on three trips,
and am making it my primary stove when hiking by myself or with one other
person.  It is quite slow, but I find I don't mind.  I always have things
to do around camp.  Three hints:

-- I found the stove hard to light when it gets cold.  Spilling some
alcohol onto the rim of the burner and lighting it there seemed to help.
For really cold weather I'd take the burner (unlit, of course) into the
tent to keep it a bit warmer.

-- Make sure you tighten the lid when carrying the stove with fuel inside.
If you don't tighten it enough, it leaks.  When tightened down enough to
not leak, you'll have to use a good bit of strength to open it up again.
The screw on lid uses a heavy O-ring to make a good seal.  Make sure that
the stove is not hot before you screw on the cover.

-- Don't forget a windscreen.  An MSR wind screen works well, or you can
make one out of piece of heavy foil cut out of an aluminum oven liner (or
similar source).

-- A 16 oz. narrow mouth Nalgene bottle makes a nice fuel container that
won't leak.  In addition, it is tall enough to wrap a MSR windscreen around.

-- the stove has NO moving parts.  There is really nothing to go wrong with
one.  I suppose the O-ring in the cap could fail, but then you'd just pour
the extra fuel back in the bottle instead of travelling with the fuel in
the stove.

-- the stove cannot flare up, explode, or do any of the nasty things that
gasoline stoves can do if you don't speak to them nicely.  You can knock
the stove over (if you try hard) and spill burning alcohol though.

-- Alcohol doesn't smell as bad as gasoline.

-- When you first light the stove, the flames will be nearly invisible.
Test whether it is lit by feeling or heat, not by looking for flames.
After the stove gets going you'll see a blue ring of flames jetting out
like a home gas stove.

-- The stove will fit (just) in a 1.3 litre Evernew titanium pot.  The
combination makes a very neat, light weight, package.

-- If you use the Evernew Titanium pot and an MSR windscreen you'll have to
cut a notch in the top of the windscreen to acomodate the pot handle.  If
you do cut a notch in the windscreen, I recommend folding about 1/8" of the
aluminum over on itself and flattening the fold with a hammer.  This makes
a very nice, smooth, edge.

-- A full stove seems to last me about two days (including hot breakfasts),
so I'd guess that 2oz/day of fuel is a good, conservative, estimate for
fuel usage.

-- If you are travelling with a group steel yourself against the sight of
other folks drinking coffee before your water is warm.  I found myself
suffering from a severe case of Feather 442 envy on one of my trips.
Remind yourself of how much lighter your stove is, and how ecologically
virtuous you are!  Try to think of the other persons stove as a time bomb.
But if you're hiking with Sandy and Alison Smith and their 4oz Primus 3273
titanium stove... just ask them for some hot water :-)

-- Jim Mayer
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