My Mountain Ranger Wood Gas Stove.

[FlaMike]

There was too much time while building my Glades Skiff that I couldn't actually work on the boat, so I spent that "extra time" on some other projects. One was coming up with an alternative to my
Turbo Cat II alcohol stove and my Nimblewill Nomad "twig stove. I'd tried a couple of the wood gas designs, but didn't get one working as well as I thought they should. I suspect something wasn't quite right about the internal air flow. Then I came across some YouTube videos on the Mountain Ranger Wood Gas Camp Stove. It looked pretty good to me, so I built one.

For me, the only hard part was getting the side-cutting can opener to work! Then again, it was the cheap model from Walmart. . . Or, I'm not smart enough to operate the thing. But I DID get it working after a while.

I didn't take and "build" pictures as the videos do such a great job of showing exactly how it's done. I'll just show you my results, then give links to the YouTube vids.

Here it is, ready to be packed up for the trip:

With all the components laid out:

Last, in the cooking configuration, a full load burning. The flame is very hard to see and almost no smoke at all. That's what I love about this one. I'd intended to get a shot right after it was lit, but missed it. It does start out with a large, yellow flame, and a fair amount of smoke. But after a minute or two, the flame becomes very hard to see and the smoke is just gone.

NOTE: The videos below do NOT open in a new tab or window. You might want to "right click" them to open them in a new tab. At least, that's the way they work for me. (It's a formatting problem I have to work on.)

Here are the "how-to-videos" the first being a demo of a finished stove:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VX1CgxlpLM

Next, how to build it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMTUfNoJPws

And last, how to finish it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P1dOlV3YZE

As happy as I was with the way the Turbo Cat II worked out, I'm just as pleased with this one.

Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL

 

[oldsparkey]

"O" Boy I do like this wood burner , it is quite the design and does what it says.
This would be a great stove for folks hiking in wooded areas and to top it off they would not have to shell out anywhere from $85.00 to $200.00 for a backpacking wood gas stove. Especially since when there is a burning ban you have to have a self contained stove to cook over and this fills the bill on that , no open fires.

I like wood burning camp stoves here in Florida since there are very few places you would not find some sort of wood to burn. Just another reason I enjoy a hammock , plenty of trees to hang from and those trees mean small branches on the ground to use as fuel.

I take one precaution and that is to have a small amount of alcohol with me , both the denatured kind for a small alcohol stove and the spirited kind for the camper to use as an internal medication for mosquito bites , if there aren't any mosquitoes then as a preventative medication against any that might come along. :roll:

There are a ton of different alcohol stoves a person can make or purchase already made. The simplest one to make is the Fancy Feast Cat Food Stove and when it is made it weighs 0.3 of a ounce and you set your pot right on the top of it. A really light weight stove to have along as a back up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pajkt594Ruw

I like the Trangia which is the Swiss made one and is heavy compared to the Fancy Feast stove since the Trangia weighs 3.5 ounces , It is made from Brass.

I use the Trangia as a back up stove if the woods are wet or if it is raining for a couple of days and dry wood is hard to locate. Or if I just get lazy and want a quick cup of a hot beverage. It fits in the firebox area of my wood burner and replaces the wood when needed.
5 or 6 ounces of denatured alcohol carried in a small plastic bottle provides the fuel for it.

By the way , A point of interest.
Andrew Skurka who is showing how to make the cat food stove in the video is an accomplished hiker and backpacker. As a lot of publications refer to him as the Superman among Trekkers since he has backpacked more then 30,000 miles all over this world. When he is hiking solo this is the stove he likes.

Chuck.

 

[FlaMike]

Even though this latest wood gas stove does work about as well as the original maker claims, I will probably use the Turbo Cat II that I posted about a while back as my primary cook stove. Time from "out-of-the-pack" to "up-to-cooking-temp" is so much faster than the wood burner, and a lot easier, too. It never smokes and you don't have to think about finding dry wood. The Turbo Cat also has a pretty good range of burn temps unlike most DIY alcohol stoves, but is still quite light and fits inside my coffee pot.

I'll still take either the Mountain Ranger WG stove and/or the Nimblewill along, as often you will want a real, wood fire to site by when spending the night out in the back-end of nowhere. And there are too many places where wood fires simply are not allowed these days, either during no-burn periods or at all.

When I get my mess kit together, I'll have to do a pic-post of how this particular alcohol stove can actually cook a meal, rather than just boil water.

Getting my kit together, story of my life. . .

Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL

 

[Kayak Jack]

My stove burns ancient wood and animal debris - Coleman fuel. It's a Svea 123.
When I want a campfire, I carefully gather wood, selectively sort it by diameter, break it into specific lengths, and lay it just so. Then, I toss on a little Coleman fuel, step back upwind, and casually toss in a lit match. Works every time.

 

[grandpa paddler]

...a little Coleman fuel, step back upwind, and casually toss in a lit match...

My kind of fire starting!!!

 

[Kayak Jack]

I learned it from reading "The Old Man And The Boy", by Robert Ruark. He camped with an Indian in Canada. It had been drizzling all day, and when they made camp at night, the Indian built a fire like that. I didn't see any reason to reinvent the wheel.

 

[FlaMike]

Guess it depends on where you are. I suspect that in most parts of California right now, that "tried and true" method would likely have you getting "tried". Tried by 12 anyway. :shock:

And I will be able to cook IN the boat if I want to. For that, I think I'd prefer a little more finesse.

Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL

 

[Kayak Jack]

Mike, I've camped, hunted, and panned a lot of the Sierra's in California. Unless a lot has changed, you'd have to place a call to find a ranger.