Trangia + Cold Weather

[addyb]

I need some advice. I bought a Trangia 28 "Mini-Trangia" stove setup, apparantly designed for the Karrimor Internation Mountain Marathon. I really like it, it's light, and works extremely well in the conditions we get in Canada. I've used it in really bad weather, and it's never failed me yet.

Well, I was wondering how Trangia's are in cold-weather IE: Winter. I've read that Trangia's don't light very well in freezing weather. Any tricks on that? Also, is it possible to melt snow with them? Or are meths basically useless for winter climbing? If it is possible, how bad is the fuel consumption compared the white-gas/iso-butane? Is it recommended?

My usual stove setup has been an MSN Whisperlite shaker-jet, but I hate how bloody heavy it is. Hence the reason I bought a Trangia.

Opinions?

A.

 

[innocent bystander]

I would say pre heat it, but it's not too practical with the mini. Unless you could pre heat it outside of the pot stand..

 

[Viking]

Carry the burrner and the fuel close to your body so that it will keep warm and use a board or similar (spruce boughs for example) under the burner stand so it´s not in directly contact with the cold ground/snow.

Trangia is made to work in all climates and work good even in the cold winter if you do it right. I would prefer a Trangia 25 or 27 during the winter.

 

[Paganwolf]

Hi the swedish army keep the burner inside their clothing in very cold weather to keep the meths warm and at a combustable temp, also carrying a small square of chip board in your pack enables you to sit it on snow and cook, the swedish and norwegian army's use these burners through the year so thats a damn good recomendation if you ask me, Johan (Viking) is the guy to ask he is ex-military and has used the swedish mess set extencively
Edit! well Johan beat me to it lol

 

[arctic hobo]

I didn't know what fuel is used in the arctic until Leon enlightened me at the Dartmoor meet - naptha. With this, a Trangia is a wonderful cold weather stove, and apart from hexiblock burners (which I haven't used), it's probably the best there is. Only issue I've ever had is that it struggles in a whiteout - but then if you're not undercover then you'd be better off digging than cooking, and who knows a stove that will work in those conditions??
Even in the UK winter gas burners pack up

 

[george]

Trangia's struggle in cold weather. Pre-heating is possible, but not great. Using naptha certainly helps but if you want a real cold weather stove use petrol.

Apart from that trangias are great.

george

 

[arctic hobo]

Trangia's struggle in cold weather. Pre-heating is possible, but not great. Using naptha certainly helps but if you want a real cold weather stove use petrol.

Apart from that trangias are great.

george

Surely petrol would wax at about -30?

 

[innocent bystander]

Diesel will, depending whether it's summer or winter grade - different coud points. In winter we have to heat all of our diesel samples for testing, to make sure all the additives are in solution. It's amazing the amount of crap that get's left in the bottom of a drum. The petrol usually isn't a problem, though with unleaded it goes off after about 6 months and can cause all sorts of problems. The ideal would be white gas, because it hasn't had all the real crappy additives put in... And believe me, there is some real horrible stuff in petrol. For some of the fuels additives we have to wear respirators, and some decent PPE. Yet it's okay to use in a forcourt....

 

[Ex Member - Sidney Bounty]

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread but this is info I was wondering about the use of naphtha in a Trangia for cold weather use and if it could handle the more volatile fuel I think this thread just made up my mind to get a Trangia stove now....

Thanks Bill

 

[Karl82]

to preheat my trangia/whitebox stove in uk winnter when it got to -12c, i tore a strip of a tisue and diped it into the meaths burner to soak the tisue strip in meths then wraped it around the rim below the jets and lit it. it preheated the meaths and started it burning. winter i normaly take about 1L meths for a 3 day trip and normaly have about 100ml to 200ml left depending how many brew's i have and weather i have a fire or not. hope this helps you.

 

[rik_uk3]

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread but this is info I was wondering about the use of naphtha in a Trangia for cold weather use and if it could handle the more volatile fuel I think this thread just made up my mind to get a Trangia stove now....

Thanks Bill

You can use naptha if you like hospital food.

 

[Chris the Cat]

Well I shall be taking my 25 to the Arctic with the BcUK trip, wish me luck !!
Chris.