Trangia Swedish Army Mess Kit

[TAHAWK]

They were issue to several NATO militaries, including Ger. and Swed. Still showing up in numbers on eBay for 5 GBP/8.50 USD + shipping.

Lighter versions can be made of pet food alum. cans and soda cans. Search "backpacking stove" + "alcohol" on Google or the like for directions. Good project for club or Scouts.

 

[Martyn]

One thing to bear in mind here is that these kits are Aluminium and as such aluminium cookware has been like with Altziemers disease - curiously enough the mess kit does seem to be flooding the market at the moment and Im wondering why the Swedish are binning them and what is the replacement kit like?

Any one?

I read somewhere that all the Sweedish stuff hitting the surplus stores at the mo, is to do with the collapse of the soviet union. Apparently, the Swedes had been hoarding army gear and now the threat has vanished, are offloading it into the surplus market.

 

[Martyn]

Found something really interesting regarding trangia gear. The stoves you mentioned....

Well they certainly get a lot of praise. I think this is the kit that has either inspired, or was inspired by the swedish army mess kit. The only downside is they're alu and take an age (14 minutes) to boil a cup of water. Well, I discovered, not only can you get stainless steel pans, you can also get none-stick pans (pictured) and titanium pans. You can also get a gas burner for them....

...to replace the trangia meths burner, turning them into a really good gas cooker.

But what really, really interested me was this....

I have an absolutely brill multifuel stove, the optimus nova...

...this thing is brill, very few flare ups, very reliable, very stable and can bring a litre of water to the boil in 3.5 minues (MSR eat your heart out). Admittedly I dont use it much, but it is a brill stove if you have to use a stove instead of a fire. I was curious to see a version of the trangia stove called the "trangia nova", which is basically a standard trangia 25 or 27 set, but with a multifuel burner designed around none other than my beloved optimus nova...

Wow, I thought - trangia meths burner = 1 cup of tea in about 1/4 of an hour, trangia nova = 1 cup of tea in about 45 seconds - but these things are £100 just for the burner - and I already have the damned burner - but wait, what's this - a conversion kit for £7.00 :-D

Basically, you remove the housing, legs and pot stands (which are all one unit) from the optimus and attach the primer tray and trangia bracket in thier place. The just pop the converted nova into the pre-formed holes (that's what they're for if you have a trangia kit and were wondering) and bingo - one seriously powerfull cooking system.

It's a bit OTT for my needs, but if you already have an optimus nova and are thinking of getting a trangia - or vice versa, the converter will allow one to be used with the other - it's also an easily reversible conversion.

Here's the interesting thing, by stripping off the steel body, legs and pot support from the optimus, the weight of the bare bones burner isn't that much more than the weight of the trangia meths burner. I figure that the fuel must weigh about the same for both stoves, except the nova is a billion times more efficient (so you need less of it, or can cook more for the same amount). The pans can be replaced with trangia's own titanuim pans (which are very cheap BTW - well, they are for Ti) and can double as billy cans if you want to use a fire to cook.

 

[the naughty boy]

i.ve been told that you can use diesel, petrol,cooking oil? almost anything that burns as long as it will vapourise. anyone got any info on the most bizarre fuel it will use? 100 quid is a bit steep dont you think?

 

[Adi007]

Excellent write-up Martyn!

The Optimus Nova is a very good stove ... I had a hard time choosing beetween that ot the MSR and went wsith MSR in the end after some concerns raised about the Optimus pump from several users I talked to. Personally I have no idea whether there was a problem or not and I have an MSR that boils real fast but I have to live with flare-ups and it's not very stable onthe ground. Reliability isn't a problem.

My MSR is a multi-fuel stove that works well ... you do have to remember to change jets for heavy fuels like diesel, and change back again afterwards. It's also easy to field strip with the Ta spoon/tool I have.

 

[Martyn]

i.ve been told that you can use diesel, petrol,cooking oil? almost anything that burns as long as it will vapourise. anyone got any info on the most bizarre fuel it will use? 100 quid is a bit steep dont you think?

I think £100 is par for the course for these burners, I think in the bracket it's a choice between the optimus Nova, Himalayan Omnifuel and MSR. I've only used coleman fuel in mine, but apparently they'll burn anything - petrol, diesel, alcohol - whatever.

 

[Adi007]

Coleman fuel is the best fuel to use ... it's clean and lights easily.
It does, however, make petrol seem cheap (which isn't an easy feat nowadays!). I used to use coleman fuel but now live with a little more soot and burn unleaded (Shell Optimax is cleaner than other unleaded petrols).

 

[Martyn]

Excellent write-up Martyn!

The Optimus Nova is a very good stove ... I had a hard time choosing beetween that ot the MSR and went wsith MSR in the end after some concerns raised about the Optimus pump from several users I talked to. Personally I have no idea whether there was a problem or not and I have an MSR that boils real fast but I have to live with flare-ups and it's not very stable onthe ground. Reliability isn't a problem.

My MSR is a multi-fuel stove that works well ... you do have to remember to change jets for heavy fuels like diesel, and change back again afterwards. It's also easy to field strip with the Ta spoon/tool I have.

Well I havent used it much - it was a bit of an impulse buy. I'd read some good write ups and saw one in the flesh and bought it. But it's very good. I havent tested it to the extreme, or anywhere close, but it has nice features. I've never had a flare up at all, but then I havent used it a lot.

It is very stable though, minimal wobble (none), but the steel shell is a little heavier than that of the competition - so swings and roundabouts. You dont have to change jets between fuels either, it only comes with one jet and that does the lot - I've read you can even burn fuel "cocktails".

You can actually simmer with it as well, it'll go from a roar, down to a really small flame without popping or spitting - very controlable. I havent much experience, but i think it's a great stove.

Cant comment about the pump, except to say it seems to work well and it's an all metal thing, which struck me as a little better built than the MSR plastic pumps.

 

[Adi007]

"Simmer" isn't in the MSR dictionary ... it's full blast Saturn rocket stuff, or off!

 

[slyfox]

Hi all

This is the best thing since swedish slice bread,
it lights with a flick from a swedish fire steel or an old lighter,
and is so compact and light.
it makes the british and yank kit look prehistoric.
OK it's not as fast as others but why would you want to carry gas????you cant be in that much of a rush.


swedish mess tin and swedish fire steel hale to the swiss.....

 

[Adi007]

Don't forget Swiss Army Knives! :-D All you need! :chill:

swedish mess tin and swedish fire steel hale to the swiss.....

 

[slyfox]

SEE !
stick with the swiss and you wont go far wrong !!

cheers Adi007

 

[Martyn]

Dont you mean Swedes? The Swiss are from somewhere else. :-D

 

[the naughty boy]

i use a trangia . why? because i like to take it easy when im in the woods or roughing it.im never really in a hurry so i dont need a blasting flame ,nor am i usually in snowy conditions where i have to melt snow in a hurry. i knew a guy who burned pure alcohol in his in an attempt to keep his pots clean as he thought they always needed to be spotless [ when he brought them home he would bring them to a high shine with duraglit] the thing that made me laugh is that i always keep them blackened as there is better heat transference.i know its personal choice as to which burner to use but i find the trangia easy going and i quite enjoy slow cooking at the end of the day ,very relaxing i find. one of the joys of being outdoors.
1/2 pound of mince,a carrot an onion and three spuds in water , let it all reduce in the pot and hey presto a beautifull bowl of stew.

 

[Stew]

Dont you mean Swedes? The Swiss are from somewhere else. :-D

You know, I never even noticed he got it wrong! It's all foreign anyway!

 

[Adi007]

:?: :boot: me neither ...

Dont you mean Swedes? The Swiss are from somewhere else. :-D

You know, I never even noticed he got it wrong! It's all foreign anyway!

 

[Duncs]

I have to agree with that naughty boy...Trangias may be slow but the upside easily compensates: Cooking silently without the roar of a pressurised fuel stove, the fuel is far less harmful to the environment if spilled, no flare ups etc etc. The stoves themselves are bombproof - I've heard of them being squashed and just pulled back to shape. For me it's the Trangia or the open fire and a billy can! The Titanium pans are excellent - pricey but the weight drops big time.

 

[Great Pebble]

The principle reason I use a Trangia is that I feel a lot happier carrying meths as fuel than I would carrying anything else.

 

[Adi007]

Yeah, carrying litres of petrol and then pressurizing it and setting light to it does take a period of mental adjustment and a lowering of the perceived dangers of the stuff ... :bu:

The principle reason I use a Trangia is that I feel a lot happier carrying meths as fuel than I would carrying anything else.

 

[slyfox]

i better check my map next time or my spelling !!
Swiss Swed's i dont no ?