White gas vs propane stove for tailgate cooking

In the market for a new stove and thinking about white has instead of propane. Any who has switched from propane to white gas or vice versa able to provide some feedback?

I’m looking primarily at either the Jetboil genesis halfgen or the MSR dragonfly.

 

I'm a fan of whitegas, but as a liquid fuel, you need to pressurize it, and there's no piezo built in to most whitgas stoves. But if you're truck camping... :shrug: I'd just roll with a propane 2 burner.

 

I’ve used both and like both. Being old school I’m a little partial to white gas. But now a days I’m 100% propane. The number one reason is that propane is way more available than white gas. You can find it anywhere and everywhere. Also easier to use, less hassle. You can either use the small disposable containers or you can go with a small couple gallon refillable tank. With a tank you are good for a week or more camping using it for cooking, lanterns, small gas grills etc. I’d go propane.

 

I primarily use these guys as a go to for camping/cooking accessories. Storage, travel containers, accessories.... and these are what Smartcaps new Kitchen model uses so its compatible if you have that system as well!

https://gsioutdoors.com/?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7u392p3WhQMVXaJaBR3yFgx5EAAYASAAEgLYUPD_BwE

 

Propane is so much easier and convenient. The only real downside is using it at high altitude or extreme cold.

 

The “disposable” thing bites. Convenience is going to end us.

 

Yep, the sky is falling and the zombie apocalypse is about to begin all due to disposables.

 

There's coleman style propane cannisters that are refillable.

 

The earth isn’t disposable nor is it replaceable but we can trash it to our hearts content so please go ahead and conflate science fiction with the reality.

 

Been absolutly abusing a 2 burner coleman propane stove for years and it lights off everytime. Also you can refill the 1lbs bottles off of the larger propane tanks. Or get an adapter to run a larger tank on the stove. We get a few days of use out of the 1lbs cylinders.

 

buddy you'd have to be really cold and/or high to get beyond propane's limits. with a -44 boiling point, at 10,000 feet you'd be good down to about -24f. at that point I hope you have taken other precautions to survive. you may be thinking of butane

 

I used a 2 burner homestrand alcohol stove when I traveled in my old van. Alcohol is pretty safe, but if you are trying to heat water, it takes quite a bit of time.

 

Not that it should ever happen in the hands of a responsible person, but I have seen people spill white gas in the most inconvenient of places.

I have also seen people accidentally light the outside of their leaky gas bottles, more than once. Again, it shouldn't happen, but I've seen it happen.


If you're putting your stove on the tailgate, I would 100% choose propane. You don't want uncontrolled oopsies in proximity of your truck.

 

Propane is more convenient for truck camping, but I've had a couple backpacking white gas stoves. White gas will do better once the temperature drops below about 20F. I've had trouble with propane bottles freezing up once it gets that cold. Propane also struggles a bit more if you start getting above 10k ft of elevation, but there aren't too many roads higher than that.

 

I like the idea of flexibility. A propane stove runs on propane only. Some of the gas stoves can use anything from gasoline to kerosene.
If you should happen to run out mid-trip or forget to grab fuel before you roll out, a multi-fuel stove might give you more options.

 

Different stoves for different uses. I have a whisperlite international that'll run on anything (primarily whitegas, though), and it's my mountaineering stove. For scout style camping, I run a single burner (not iso) butane Snow Peak Home and Camp. I like it for actual cooking a little more than the isobutane since it's wide and low and can support actual cooking pans with weight on top, and has an autoignighter. Then I have the biolite fire pit for wood burning and charcoal, a two burner for car camping ...

Just about all of them have their place in the scale of 'what kind of thing do I want'. Heck, I don't have one but the little jetboils are nice for heating water quickly, too.

 

I’ve been rocking a Coleman Dual fuel with gasoline for the past 5 years and it’s never missed a beat with freezing temps or altitude. Best of all, I can get fuel for it at any gas station

 

A gallon of white gas lasts a LOOOOOOONG time and can be used for cooking or light. They [the stoves or lanterns] are also pretty cool to collect.

 

White gas and gasoline are dirty, they leave black soot on my pots and pans. But it's easy to pack a small MSR bottle and little pump stove so that's what I use when I backpack. Use a filtered funnel to keep flakes of crap out. But for car camping, I just bring a 20lb propane jug. I can hook the lantern and stove up and live like a king. I also bring a propane torch to light campfires. Grain alcohol also works great in a Coleman fuel stove, plus it will also get you hammered. Don't leave it in there because it will destroy rubber gaskets