Trangia clikstand - review

[beachlover]

Hoodoo. You must be well upset with yourself not to have marketed your version first!
Instead all of us lazies are going to waste almost £40 buying someone elses, as indeed I did from Jack's outfit at Woodland (great service and delivery again, special thanks to jamie). That said, it is a great piece of kit I think and having got it today and tried it out in the wind, I am impressed enough to have already flogged my old trangia set and if anyone wants a swedish army trangia for the postage have a look in the classifieds or PM me.
I am seriously taken by the clickstand and have already steamed rice in the bigger zebra billy, just a shame the 10cm is just a mite to small for the clickstand.

 

[Martyn]

I'm always interested in trying out new gear but I haven't quite figured out how this is an improvement over the trangia stand that came with my stove?

Well iot's a lot lighter than the trangia stand. The stand you have pictured is the westwinds stand, not trangia. To be honest, if you've already got that kit I dont think I'd bother with the clickstand. There are reasons why the clickstand is better, just not £40 worth of them if you already have a westwinds and a suitable windshield.

 

[jason01]

Its a very neat and cool looking bit of kit but can someone tell me why its better than three alu tent pegs pushed into the ground and a foil windshield if you wanna go ultralight?

Or indeed Hoodoo's setup which would be dead easy to make yourself.

I was put off Trangias years ago by their weight, ultra slow cooking speed, the stink of meths, lack of control and tbh I havent used one properly for 10+ years so pardon me if this is a stoopid question and Im missing sth obvious!

Jason

 

[johnboy]

Hi,

As far as I can see it the Clikstand is a product of a maturing Ultra-lightweight movement in the US.

A good hunt around on the web will produce hundreds of variations of Pepsi can stoves, foil windshields, tent peg and coat hanger potstands, esbit burners, meths burners.

So while Ray Jardine enthused people to make their own gear in his book Beyond Backpacking some did but a lot didn't hence the birth of companies such as Golite and the adoption of ultralightweight products into mainstream manufacture ( the new ultra light thermarests for example).

So people want ultralight gear but dont want to make it themselves. That's where the clikstand the brasslight and the triad stoves fit in. An ultra lightstove for consumers who are a bit beyond epoxing two pepsi cans together and want to buy a quality product.

Meths ( or esbit) is the fuel of choice because it doesn't need to be pressurised to burn efficently or safely ( like gasoline) and it's obtainable in lots of different forms, and from a green angle is from a renewable source (corn). For me speed of cooking with meths has never been a problem. My home made pepsi stove (which is just a pan type no fancy holes) boils a ltr of water in 12 minutes or 250 ml in 3.5 mins. If my life depended on a hot drink while I clung to my Ice axes on the slopes of K2 then that would be a problem and I'd probably opt for a gas canister stove. But I spend most of my time in the woods or on the hills where 12 minutes is ok of a ltr of water and I'm there because I want a different pace of life.

What I like so much about the Clikstand is it takes the proven burner from the trangia and puts it in a well designed durable stand and wind shield. Which has a low pack size and low weight. If you like meths fueled stoves that's a win win situation.

My clikstand is on it's way from the US and I'm really looking forward to using it.

Cheers

John

 

[Hoodoo]

Interesting. My Trangia came with that stand. I didn't realize it was made by someone else. I have indeed made a copy of it and use it with my homemade tuna can stove. While the Trangia catches on its rim in the westwind base, I had to drill some cross holes in the bottom of my homemade version and insert some aluminum rods to hold my tuna can stove. I'll try to get a pic up later on.

As for putting pegs in the ground. That might not work well if you happen to be camping on solid rock, along a rocky shore, or where there is snow on the ground. Generally though, sounds like a good idea.

 

[Gary]

Never owned a westwind stand but the clikstand site states that the Clikstand out proforms the westwind in every test - if the westwind is good hoodoo I guess that means the clikstand is brilliant!

 

[Martyn]

Never owned a westwind stand but the clikstand site states that the Clikstand out proforms the westwind in every test - if the westwind is good hoodoo I guess that means the clikstand is brilliant!

One of the main differences I can see, is how the clickstand controls the airflow. I knocked up this diagram....

see...

I mimicks how the full size trangia windshield/stand controls airflow, ...that's the thing that makes the full size trangia so good. Take away the windshield and the trangia burner itself is mediocre in blustery conditions.

I'm not sure this makes a huuuuuuge difference, and if you already have a westwinds and a homebrew windshield, you may find little overall benefit. But it's well thought out, ultralight, compact, sturdy and pro construction - fab kit, no doubt.

According to the manufacturers website "Performance of the Clikstand will far exceed that of the Westwind stove under all condtions".

 

[CLEM]

Well iam convinced and iam going to get one.

 

[Martyn]

I am seriously taken by the clickstand and have already steamed rice in the bigger zebra billy, just a shame the 10cm is just a mite to small for the clickstand.

Yes it is a shame, a limitation of the design of the feet the pots stand on means that much smaller than about 11cm and the pot will fall in the middle. Ideally, pot diamerters should be 12 - 14cm, which gives a suprisingly large choice. I bet the feet could be modified though, to take smaller pots. I wonder if it's worth mentioning to Scott Reiner?

 

[RovingArcher]

Hmm, I was planning on matching the Clickstand up with the MSR titan kettle, which has a 4.5" base. Should work and pack together well, dont you think?

 

[Martyn]

Hmm, I was planning on matching the Clickstand up with the MSR titan kettle, which has a 4.5" base. Should work and pack together well, dont you think?

I think so RA, but cant be sure - it converts to 11.43 cm, which I think will fit OK. The only problem I can see, it that you may have to take care that the pot is well centered on the stand, but again, I cant be sure - it might be a little precarious. Does it have much of a rounded base? It'd be better if the walls met the base at a pretty square angle.

 

[Gary]

For a pot smaller than 11cm I use an old tent peg laid across the stand to act as a support (works great with crusader cups) - seems to work ok.

Nice diagram Martyn - NASA would be proud.

 

[RovingArcher]

Martyn, thanks for the response. Here's a link to the MSR kettle on ebay.

I was a little concerned about how it would set on the stand, but I'm thinking that it will be ok. From the looks of the kettle used on the Clickstand site, I'm thinking that the Clickstand will pack neatly into the kettle along with the trangia and maybe have enough room for the makings. Maybe.

 

[Gary]

Thats the idea RA - mine all fits nicely into a 12cm billy along with brew kit, spices, tea towel, matches, scourer, folding cup and a spoon. Making it a nice compact kit which is easily stowed.

 

[Moonraker]

If you read the review site I posted earlier from the stove nut guy I posted before, you will see he says the Clickstand is certainly better than any westwind type stand.

http://art.simon.tripod.com/Stoves/

The reason the Quickstand is worth the extra money is better design and better performance than the Westwind style. You need another reason to buy it? Granted anyone can make a wind shield and stand but this is very well thought out ( see the design and construction) and most importantly, works well in the field where other stands and shields do not.

Great illustration BTW Martyn :biggthump

 

[Martyn]

Nice diagram Martyn - NASA would be proud.

Ta. I did it for part of me big clickstand review (If i ever get round to it), but it seemed appropriate to p[ost it here.

 

[SquirrelBoy]

I think so RA, but cant be sure - it converts to 11.43 cm, which I think will fit OK. The only problem I can see, it that you may have to take care that the pot is well centered on the stand, but again, I cant be sure - it might be a little precarious. Does it have much of a rounded base? It'd be better if the walls met the base at a pretty square angle.

Wonder if the three pot stands could be open to a little bending in to enable smaller diameter pots to be used?? They seem to have round `corners` at the bottom where it meets the `main body` of the stand - am guessing it wont crack the steel as a sharp corner could... :?:

 

[Martyn]

Wonder if the three pot stands could be open to a little bending in to enable smaller diameter pots to be used?? They seem to have round `corners` at the bottom where it meets the `main body` of the stand - am guessing it wont crack the steel as a sharp corner could... :?:

I was looking at tyhose round corners last night and thought they would be ideal to hold 3 pieces of coathanger layed accross the top.

 

[SquirrelBoy]

I was looking at tyhose round corners last night and thought they would be ideal to hold 3 pieces of coathanger layed accross the top.

Or one piece of coathanger bent into shape - less kit to loose then? Interesting....

 

[beachlover]

Or one piece of coathanger bent into shape - less kit to loose then? Interesting....

Just done it!
It works a treat and I now have the option of 10cm to 14 cm billies depending on the occaision.
Even more pleased with it now and I'd agree with the earlier review that it seems more efficient than the original trangia.