CAMPING!

Eric's bachelor party was last weekend. We went whitewater rafting on the Deerfield river. We did the Monroe dam section which includes class 2, 3 and 4 rapids. It was AWESOME. For the second half of the ride I was the "bow bitch" which means I kneeled in the very bow of the raft and got slammed around by the water. Amazing...

Anyway we camped Friday and Saturday nights at the Barton Cove campground. I brought the Coleman 425E stove that Angie's grandfather gave me, the AGM 2572 lantern that was my grandfather's and my $5 Coleman 202 lantern.
Everything worked great. I burned both lanterns quite a bit and found that we would have done just as well by having only one lantern, the second was excessive. The AGM is slightly brighter but in some cases is TOO bright... I need to buy one of the quart bottles of white gas, the full gallon cans are decidedly unhandy for pouring, I end up spilling a lot...

I did have one time where I tried to start the AGM too quickly and got fuel dripping from the mantles, that caused BIG fire. Fortunately nobody (especially me) got real excited...
One guy brought a 2 burner propane stove but after seeing the heat my 425E could put out nobody was all that interested...

Here's my AGM 2572 in action at home on one of my proving runs before taking it on the trip with us:

Coleman 202 video

Got my 202 video up this morning, as much as I thought it was "big flames" I've not see clips from other people lighting videos that have way more...

The 202 lives!

Got the 202 lit today. Took some fiddling... I'd ordered a new generator which arrived Thursday but I didn't have any time to mess with it until today. So I threw it all back together, these are pretty simple lanterns I can reassemble one in 5 minutes or less. It fired up with a surprising minimum of fuss but there was a definite halo of fire around the mantle. This is apparently a sure sign of over fueling though the gas tip was marked "6" the same as the old generator.

So I pulled the new generator out and put the old one in. This one was a pain to use because I had to keep cycling the tip cleaner to get it to work but when it did work everything was fine, no halo... So I tried the new generator again, still the halo. Finally I took the old tip and the new generator and together they make a pretty good team... I've got video of this one firing up but its pretty exciting. For some reason it didn't light on the first match which led to gas buildup which all lit at once, flame action! I'll post some video links (I've done videos of the AGM and Kerosafe also) here soon.

Ranger repairs

My dad always said that when you buy a used car you buy somebody else's problems. My Ranger is a 2003 but when we bought it only had 25,000 miles. That means at some point it sat... Well when things sit the rust monster gets to make a play for them. On the Ranger the rust monster got to the bed and in places got to it BAD. It had 3 or 4 good size rust holes and when I attacked with a screwdriver they got worse. So Monday I pulled the bed off (lousy job when working alone) and started cutting. I ended up with about 1.5 square feet of bed cut out. I'd bought a repair panel from JC Whitney and some angle iron from the hardware store. The angle iron is to remake some of the bracing underneith that had rusted. Its MUCH stronger than the origninal. The repair panel doesn't match the bed exactly but isn't too bad.
Tuesday I had to take off because I'd hurt my back pulling the bed (bad job as I said). Yesterday and today were spend grinding and welding, welding and grinding but finally all the repairs are done. The underside of the bed has been painted and then covered in rubberized undercoating. Tomorrow I'll get Randy and Chuck to come over and remount the bed (no big job with 3 guys) and then I'll paint the patch panels and coat the whole bed with Herculiner.

I used Herculiner on the Dakota 10 years ago this year and that bed had no rust inside when I traded the truck. Its good stuff and helps keep stuff from sliding in the bed. I hadn't coated the Dakota thick enough because cold weather caught me, this time I'm going to do both coats in 2 days so I should be okay.

I think the patch looks like hell but Angie says it looks good to her and anyway its way better than rust so that makes me feel good. Still I think I'll either put a piece of plywood or a rubber bedmat over it...

I can't believe

I can't believe I didn't post here when I figured out the problem with the AGM... That was like a week or two ago too.
Anyway heres the deal, the AGM 2572 would light if it had been sitting for awhile, it'd burn for 20-30 seconds and go out like it had run out of gas... I cleaned the fount, cleaned the fuel/air tube, cleaned the valve, installed a new eccentric block so I could use a new Coleman 220 generator, cleaned and painted the air tube and burners, nothing...

Then one day I tried opening the valve MORE after the problem started, fuel came pouring out... So whats happening is that with the needle only a couple turns open the fuel/air tube is still closed and we're burning on fumes from the top of the tank. Its not that the lantern needs to sit its that the pressure runs out too quickly... With the valve open more like 3 full turns the fuel/air tube is opened and fuel can get to the burners.

This lantern is now the absolute brightest in my collection.

More Kerosafe fun

Tonight I experiemented with a mix of Coleman fuel and kerosene. I've noticed a little smell when using Coleman fuel.
So my goals:
1. Light with just a windproof ligher for preheat
2. Low smell
3. Brightest light possible

Started with 50/50 Coleman fuel/Kerosene. No-go, it won't light with just the lighter, I can't get enough heat into the generator. If I use the propane torch its the old game where I can't keep enough heat in the generator.

Went to 75/25 Coleman fuel/Kerosene and I think I hit a sweet spot, easy to light (as easy as with just Coleman fuel) no smell to speak of and brighter than Coleman fuel or Kerosene alone.
I may try a 66/33 split somewhere down the road but for now (until I burn off most of a quart) I'm quite pleased with this new mix... I ordered a cable for my digital camera, its supposed to be in by next week (stupid special Samsung cable) so I can post the good pics.

Coleman 202

Cruising Craigslist the other day I noticed an ad "Coleman Lantern $5". I figured it was a propane jobbie but was surprised to find a nickle fount single mantle. I called the guy and arranged pickup for a few days later, then posted about it on the forum. The guys there went bannanas "Thats a 202!"...
So a 202 is a form of 200A with a nickle fount and some stainless and ceramic bits. It was more expensive than a 200A and thus is a bit rare.
Angie and I went on Saturday and picked it up. I made sure I gave the guy the $5 before giving it more than a cursory examination. The picture on the web was better than the reality, the lantern is pretty gross but all the important bits are present.
I'd guess that its been run on unleaded gas at some point and the fount was left pressurized but the cap leaked a little so over the years gas has spit out and varnished on the side of the fount. The fount smells AWFUL, I drained out a trickle of horrible orange nasty last night.


The fount is covered in a green corrosion thats hard to pick up on the photo.


Notice the nut on top of the vent is upsidedown.


Surprisingly the pump works fine though as I've mentioned the cap leaks. The valve was stuck but disassembled it looks fine so it was probably just varnish. The fuel/air tube was gross and will need to be soaked in carb cleaner. Valve packing looks perfect, I don't think this lantern was used much. The vent is very good with only a couple tiny chips.
Tonight I'll set it to soak with Marine Clean and BBs to breakup the varnish in the tank. A new generator is already on order though I think the one on it is okay, it seems to work on my 200A anyway... Hopefully this will be a relatively quick cleanup job.

-Curt