What do you keep in your mess kit?

[Viking]

Thanks for the other tips Viking, great stuff. I think I will continue with the pot grabber as I like it so much, but the Y stick is a great tip for if ever I loose or misplace the pot grabber. :biggthump

But to use the Y stick you need the pot hanger
I don´t have a picture how it works but it´s really easy to do and it works fine

 

[myakka]

This isn't my setup, but I really like it. :biggthump

 

[jamesdevine]

I have one enamel mug and one emenal bowl with a wooden spoon and SAK.My brew kit is but in the mug and this but in the bowl and food etc but around and put in a stuff sack. I use this set up when using an open fire and I have my bake bean billy can soon to be replaced by my new Zebra.

I Also have full trangia kit including the kettle I only use this when I out with someone else like the scouts as it is pretty bulk and heavey when you add the fuel and food. I don't bring my bowl as the smallest pot in the kit covers that but I do bring my mug which has to be stored seprately in my pack with tea etc. in a small bag and duct taped in to it.

I am working on changing this set up and I am seriously thinking of getting rid of the larage trangia set and replacing it with something more suited to solo travel.

Nice set up Martyn it's give me a lot to think about. :biggthump

James

 

[JakeR]

Yep sure do, but it's also to hide the taste of some less than tasty stuff you find. To quote Crocodile Dundee "...you can live off it, but it tastes like s".

There is a lot of tabasco in one of those pots! Could get nasty :shock:. I have never used any of these kits, anyone used MSR? We've got loads of those in our shop and i can get a discount

 

[bushblade]

Hi Martyn, are you sure thats a sigg fuel bottle? It looks like a drinks bottle to me. The fuel bottles have black seals and the drinks bottles have white seals. Also sigg have stopped making fuel bottles.
I'm sure there is a very good reason for not using drinks bottles as fuel bottles but I can't remember it at the mo :?:
Those little bottles are available all together in one blister pack coghlans make them (Hi-Gear distribute them) so should be fairly common in most camping shops. We have them at our place, but I can't see them anywhere on the website.

 

[Martyn]

Hi Martyn, are you sure thats a sigg fuel bottle? It looks like a drinks bottle to me. The fuel bottles have black seals and the drinks bottles have white seals. Also sigg have stopped making fuel bottles.
I'm sure there is a very good reason for not using drinks bottles as fuel bottles but I can't remember it at the mo :?:
Those little bottles are available all together in one blister pack coghlans make them (Hi-Gear distribute them) so should be fairly common in most camping shops. We have them at our place, but I can't see them anywhere on the website.

Yeah, it is a drinks bottle - sorry, I meant I was using a sigg drinks bottle as a fuel bottle. I dont think there are any issues with meths - it's just acohol after all (If I put scotch in it, it'd be a drinks bottle again ): ), but I think there are problems for petrol based fuels - in particular pressurised fuels. I think the threads on the sigg bottles are push fitted into the bottle and there have been some examples of them failing under pressure.

 

[JakeR]

They are Sigg fuel bottles. Most you can't drink out of them as they stink when you first buy them. Some fuel bottles you can drink out of but once you have used them for fuel you can't as you lose there enamel. (my basic work training mixed in with some of my experience!)

 

[Adi007]

The reason that Sigg used to suggest that you NOT use a drinks bottle as a fuel bottle is that the inner coating could be removed and clog burner jets - bad for pressurized stoves but not an issue with a meths burner.

 

[Martyn]

Ahhh, thanks Adi. :biggthump

 

[JakeR]

Oops, posted at the same time!

 

[alick]

Yeah, it is a drinks bottle - sorry, I meant I was using a sigg drinks bottle as a fuel bottle. I dont think there are any issues with meths - it's just acohol after all ....

Martyn, unless they've changed the formulation of the lacquer used inside, sigg drinks bottles are a no-no for meths. The meths attacks the lacquer and corrodes the aluminium.
I learnt this the hard way storing bog standard meths in one of the shiny blue colored sigg bottles. Came to open it one day and found it jammed shut. The thread area is particularly vulnerable to wear and this is where the attack was most obvious. The ally was rough and powdery aluminium oxide very evident when I finally got it open. :yikes: Since then I've used trangia plastic fuel bottles for meths, which are great, and unlacquered sigg bottles for petrol and coleman fuel. I have bottles over 10 years old so I'm sure of these.

Cheers,

 

[Martyn]

Thanks Alick, I didn't know that - I guess I'm looking for another solution then.

 

[leon-1]

Thanks Alick, I didn't know that - I guess I'm looking for another solution then.

Martyn, I use these for carrying meths in

if you wrap a little duck tape around them they are very robust.

 

[bushblade]

MSR still make fuel bottles, the same size as the Sigg ones if thats any good to you.

 

[Adi007]

Martyn, I use these for carrying meths in

if you wrap a little duck tape around them they are very robust.

Worth pointing out that you should be extremely careful if using drinks bottles to hold meths - injesting meths is extremely dangerous (especially to the young) and even though most supplies now contain Bitrex to discourage drinking, in a bottle like that it's still a possibility.

As an aside, Bitrex is fantastic stuff that has probably saved millions of lives - for more info take a look at http://www.bitrex.com

 

[TheViking]

Worth pointing out that you should be extremely careful if using drinks bottles to hold meths - injesting meths is extremely dangerous (especially to the young) and even though most supplies now contain Bitrex to discourage drinking, in a bottle like that it's still a possibility.

I always keep the alcohol in a coke flask, and water in military canteens. In addition, I have marked the coke flask with two big X'es.

 

[Great Pebble]

Uhh... I've been carrying meths in a sigg bottle for the last 15 years (very nearly).
The thing's darn near square in section due to the many dents, and it's certainly stained purple on the inside, but it works fine. Keeps the meths in and the air out like....

Edit... oh right, drinks bottles...mmmkay.

 

[leon-1]

Worth pointing out that you should be extremely careful if using drinks bottles to hold meths - injesting meths is extremely dangerous (especially to the young) and even though most supplies now contain Bitrex to discourage drinking, in a bottle like that it's still a possibility.

As an aside, Bitrex is fantastic stuff that has probably saved millions of lives - for more info take a look at http://www.bitrex.com

ADI, this is where I am quite fortunate as at home there are no smaller people to worry about, but fuel is still kept seperate to everything else, @ the end of the garden in the shed with a few of my other bits, these bottles also have "METHS" printed on the sides in large black letters so there can be no confusion when it is dark (apart from these being the only bottles like this that I carry). ):

 

[Gary]

Just a thought but another thing you can carry in your kit if you want a easy hot meal is a packet of cuppa soup and some beef jerky - soaking the meat in water for a few hours reconstitutes it and then chop it up mix it with your soup made a little on the thick side and you have a good trail stew! Makes a good breakfast too.

Add spices to taste! although Millagatwany soup and peppered jerky will warm the cockles .........