Coleman Liquid Fuel

[85_Ranger4x4]

Tore into my 295 last night.

One kinda sad thing about Coleman lanterns in general, especially when you line them up is you can see generally each "new" model is mainly just the previous model made cheaper. They monkeyed around changing the fill cap and pump locations but generally they didn't really make anything better IMO. The only possible exception is I do like the air tube design of the K/295 better than the one in the J.

I can see the 295 is heavily based on my 220K, the air tube assembly is nearly identical. But the burner tubes are not removable.



Which is really freaking awesome when there is a dead asian beetle stuck in one of them.



With my K and every lantern older that I have the two air tubes have a hex bit on the end so you can unscrew the whole works from the manifold. With the older ones you can even replace the screens, like my 200A which was also full of bugs.

 

[Shran]

They do seem to cheapen up as time went by. I certainly wouldn't kick out newer white gas appliances but they certainly aren't built the same.

One notable exception I'll make is the 425B and 425C stoves. I have seen a ton of them, even some really nice ones... for as old as they are (late 50's-early 60's) they sure look like a cheap sheet metal piece of crap. Never could bring myself to buy one.

 

[Shran]

I did something I have never needed to do before... I had to use a fire extinguisher, on my aluminum stove. I got it all cleaned out and figured I'd see if having a clean burner assembly helps it not flare up. Well, it did, MUCH worse than before. I had it inside my shop on the floor and the flame from the main burner started getting a little higher than I'm comfortable with so I shut it down, stepped back, and waited for it to burn out...well... it did not. About the time it was several feet tall I decided to blast it with the extinguisher. Kind of irritated that I have to clean out all that yellow powder now.

I'm guessing the valve on the tank is messed up. After it cooled down, I dumped probably a cup full of liquid fuel out of the burner tube... not cool. I swapped a valve from my 413E onto this tank and it runs perfectly. The search for parts begins.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Seems I remember my dad and an old single burner stove we used to heat the spearing shack with run wild like that. The shanty door went open and he pitched it out on the ice.

That could have been much worse... glad you got it under control... with just some clean up and not a fire truck.

 

[Shran]

Two more 502 stoves, a nice '65 and a beat up '73. Scored these on Facebook today for $30. I was a little skeptical about the '73 in particular, it looks like it got sat on and the burner bowl is really rusty. I dumped some fuel in them both, oiled the pump leathers, and they both fired right up!!! I let them both run for about an hour each boiling a pot of water, cooled them down and cleaned them up. They actually don't look too bad, the '65 is in real nice shape and the '73 just looks squished but works fine. I may keep that one in my camper for when I don't want to cook inside.

Pre cleanup test run:

Cleaned up:

You can see how the '73's burner assembly got squished down somehow. Even the fount has a big dent on the bottom edge. Oh well.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Alright, who got it? @Shran?

Coleman 201 Lantern 2/75 UNFIRED!!!!!! | eBay

This lantern is unfired and about as close to mint as it gets. Outside of a tiny bit of blemishing around the bottom of the collar from years of storage, I see no flaws. It's a beautiful example of a rare model that displays very well.

www.ebay.com

 

[Shran]

Alright, who got it? @Shran?

Coleman 201 Lantern 2/75 UNFIRED!!!!!! | eBay

This lantern is unfired and about as close to mint as it gets. Outside of a tiny bit of blemishing around the bottom of the collar from years of storage, I see no flaws. It's a beautiful example of a rare model that displays very well.

www.ebay.com

not me!! That thing is awesome.

I got my aluminum stove fixed - ordered a new valve and generator from Old Coleman Parts. Works better than any other stove I have, new parts are real nice.

I think part of the pickup tube was missing - maybe that was the problem... I dunno.

Runs really well, boiled up some potatoes and made gravy on it last night.

I also ran the beater 502 stove a lot over the weekend to make coffee at camp. Worked flawlessly, I think it's a keeper.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Nothing as cool as @Shran has... but I fired my CL-2 and ran it for a couple hours today. Hopefully my new globe shows in the next couple days. This one is special to me I guess... I bought it new... dated 6/85. It has seen a few miles... some not so easy ones. Smelt dipping... sucker spearing... deer camps... and just camping in general. Also used it in an ice fishing shanty regularly for over twenty years. It's been sitting in the case since I broke the globe when the case come unlatched. There is a reason they call them the case of death. It runs pretty good... made me smile.

I'm not so sure what makes this fuel special... but I wanted the one quart container. I will just fill up my my lantern and stove before heading out with a spare quart of fuel... should last me a full week of camping.

 

[Curious Hound]

I have no idea how much fuel I need. I'll be camping 5 nights this coming week. Not 100% sure how many meals I'll cook. Tried to plan menus today so I can grocery shop tomorrow. I'll be working Monday afternoon and 12hrs Tuesday, then get on the road around 5:00am on Wednesday. So I have 2 of those quart containers that I filled today. I also filled the lantern and the stove tank. Might also bring the tiny bit thats left in the big square can. And 4 extra mantles for the lantern.

 

[Uncle Gump]

They will run a pretty long time on a full tank. I think I would be surprised if you even had to refill the stove.

 

[Shran]

Lanterns sip fuel. 7-8 hours on a tank is about what I'd guess... stoves depend, I used about half a tank in my single burner to make coffee three days in a row (12 cup percolator.) Last time I had a two burner stove out I used about 1/4 tank over a weekend.

My observations are leading me to believe that CF is superior to propane in quite a few ways and it's cheaper.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

A customer brought this in to show us the old guns available, me being curious I flipped to the sporting goods section:



They rarely go for that now...

 

[Dirtman]

When my house was fitted with indoor plumbing sometime around 1920 they used crumpled magazines and newspapers to insulate the walls during the renovation. I tore out a wall about 10 years ago and started reading all the ads. Stuff like 5 cents for a theatre ticket, new cars for 400 bucks. I gotta see if I can find all that stuff. I saved it somewhere.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

When my house was fitted with indoor plumbing sometime around 1920 they used crumpled magazines and newspapers to insulate the walls during the renovation. I tore out a wall about 10 years ago and started reading all the ads. Stuff like 5 cents for a theatre ticket, new cars for 400 bucks. I gotta see if I can find all that stuff. I saved it somewhere.

The 1901 one he also had was fascinating. In addition to a bunch of snake oil cures, buggies/wagons And weird decor they also had some cool guns. A “surplus” Springfield trapdoor was like $2. For a big spender you could upgrade to a Spencer repeater for an extra buck.

A new Winchester 30-30 was $11.55. Yeah I know a 1901 dollar isn’t the same as a 2020 dollar... but dang. Figure a new 30-30 is 800, the trapdoor would be under $200. That is cheaper than a mosin-nagant.

 

[Dirtman]

I know one of the ads was for a new model T for like $400 bucks... And that was "expensive" back then lol. Today $400 bucks doesn't even make one payment.