Camping and Backpacking GEAR thread

Acidic foods (like tomato, citrus, vinegar) can ruin aluminum so if you're looking for a "do all" piece stainless is the way to go.

 

Magma ... I got this one LINK
I purchased an additional handle. It all fits inside. My wife sewed a cloth sack, with drawstring, to protect during travel.
It fits in a square less than 12" cube.


It works really well on my German NATO Dieselkocher stove.
https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/heinze-geniol-dutch-army.27935/
https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/heinze-geniol-military-stove-germany.30183/



Ken in NC
(But, on road trips I used my Trangia kit so much, it was the only stove I had to buy more fuel for.)
(Oh, one more thing, I have 2 of these Dieselkocher stoves, one unfired.)

 

We center it in our little camper when we take it out. It keeps everything from sliding around and falling out of the cupboards when in transit. If I toss it in the 5’ bed of the truck I pretty much have room for that and a couple logs for a fire.

I probably wouldn’t have bought it if I hadn’t gotten such a good deal on it. They’re always for sale for $400+ on eBay, but I found mine at Goodwill for $75. Couldn’t pass on it for that price.

 

Oh man, awesome trailer. I love little Scamps and Casitas!!!

 

That is a steal of a deal.

 

My finalized new toy... a .5 micron prefilter for nasty high-sediment drinking water when backpacking. I gutted a "survival filter" what I was never going to use and got some .5 micron polyester filter cloth that I cut into a long 5" wide strip and rolled up tight to fit in this thing snug. The intake end is threaded to fit a water bottle, water bag, etc. so I put the dirty water in the bag and either squeeze it through or hang it as a gravity system. In my tests, I took muddy water and pushed it through this thing and clear water came out the other end. Finally, I run that prefiltered water through my Sawyer Squeeze to purify it from the microbes.

I created this to save my Sawyer Squeeze from getting clogged up with yuck cattle tank water out here on the Arizona Trail and in other places where water sources have high turbidity. It's right at 7" long which sucks, but it's only 3.25oz which is a small penalty considering what it's doing for me.


Here's the unassembled device. The intake end is threaded so I can remove either end and get the media out to rinse. It screws right onto a Smartwater bottle or the bag in the picture. The output end is just the old mouthpiece of the survival filter. I wish it was also threaded but beggars can't be choosers:



Here's a picture of the media tightly rolled up inside. It creates a 5" deep filter to trap sediment down to even clay particles. I can push it out and unroll it to rinse when it gets loaded up with too much junk:



Final assembly on the bag I use for dirty water. Ready to squeeze into my water containers and then be put through the Sawyer afterwards for final purification.



Here are the test results. I filtered one full liter in just under 30 seconds with no decrease in flow rate. I have no idea yet how many liters it will prefilter before I have to rinse the media though. I'll be finding out next month on the trail.

 

Looks good. If I'm in the desert I use a coffee filter as a pre-filter and then rinse it out when I can. Not as precise, but it weighs very little.

 

Would anybody be interested in an osprey Atmos 50 AG, I've used it on a handful of trips and its just been sitting. Looking for $130 shipped obo.




Sleepy hiking partner for attention.

 

I had a similar idea to get a Katadyn BeFree with the 3L bag, and put a prefilter on it. @skier’s idea of a coffee filter will work perfectly for that I think.

 

Also, Havasupai reservations open next week. Hopefully I will get one.

 

Coffee filters were quickly ruled out in my testing for clay particles, which get down into the 2 micron size and smaller when soluble. Standard coffee filters only go down to 20 microns which will let clay pass right through but will catch sand and a good share of fine rock sediment. True turbidity in water is almost always caused by clay or fine mineral deposits which will pass right through coffee filters and still foul a Sawyer or other hollow fiber filters (usually rated to .1 microns) pretty quickly. My testing with my .5 micron cloth was barely "ok" when I used 1 layer but still left a lot of turbidity. This cloth is like a thick felt, as thick as about 20 coffee filters. 2 layers slightly improved the clarity, and so on and so forth. That's why I rolled up the larger piece to provide real depth and compactness which created better complexity of fibers to catch almost all of the clay in this setup.

 

Finally found the damn elusive pinhole in my NeoAir Xlite today by dunking it in the bathtub. Took me 3 different searches for it to show itself at just the right angle. Marked it with a Sharpie, cleaned it, dried it, and patched with Tenacious Tape. It's been holding air firm for 12 hours now with no sign of leaks. YAY!!

 

If the tape doesn't work, a pinhole is often fixed with a drop of Superglue. Thermarest warranty service trick.

 

Superglue breaks down eventually with sunlight or moisture.
Tent seam sealant might be better.

 

Tent seam sealant is silicone caulking with a little more alcohol to be thinner. Thermarest swears by glue, perhaps because UV is not a big problem with mattresses.

 

Ok.
For silicone I do dilute with mineral spirits and have not tried alcohol.

 

@Seabass
Where do you get the .5 micron cloth? Thanks!

 

After lots of research, and the fact that we are finally going camping next weekend, I finally bought a couple new tents: the new 2018 REI Half Dome 3+ tents. 1 for my wife and I (and dogs when they come along), and another for the kids.

Both tents together take up less space when packed and weigh less than my old 8 person behemoth that would always blow over and leak in moderate winds now matter how well it was staked down.




Test setup - I don't have it staked down except on either side of the door. Extremely easy to setup! It may look tall next to my fence, but that fence is only a couple feet tall to keep in our mini daschunds.






It's got overhang on both sides (that can be propped open with hiking poles like a small covered porch).




Has lots of storage up top (in the mesh) along with the 4 mesh pockets in each corner





Also has 4 vents at the top that should help keep the condensation to a min

 

Love Osprey backpacks!! I bought one a few years ago and it still looks new despite using it 5 days a week when I go to work (usually on my bike). I love it so much, I bought my wife one too! lol Someone should snatch this up

 

I've been using my REI Halfdome 2+ for motorcycle camping for several years. Great tents! You'll enjoy yours.