Ivan the Butcher
Member
I have enjoyed camping since my middle teen years. As I got older I could afford more, newer, and better equipment. However I am a sucker for a good-looking gadget!
In the Summer of 1974, I started buying real, "For a lifetime" camping equipment. The "Gold Circle" store was right behind where I worked. and they considered hunting and camping to be in the same summer season! From Memorial Day to Labor Day was camping season with weekly specials on the limited equipment they carried. The first thing I bought was a Coleman 2 mantel lantern, model 220, cost $18.88. Two weeks later I bought a Coleman 2 burner stove, model 425, cost $18.88. I bought a Nylon 2 person tent, and an air mattress. I didn't get a cooler until May of 1978 while on our honeymoon, it was a Coleman steel belted model. This is the foundation of my camping equipment. All these years later I still have and use the items when camping and also during power outages.
If I see a gadget, I usually buy one to try it out. But the greatest gadget I saw and didn't buy was in about 1975. It as a replacement "Hood" for gas and propane lanterns sized around a two mantel Coleman, but were supposed to fit other brands also. To use it, you replaced the top hood of the lantern and used the same wire handle and same nut. The new hood was chrome plated and had a flat surface that you used as a cook stove. It was $15.00 and I thought it was too expensive. I told one of the guys I worked with about it and he bought 3! For a fishing buddy, his brother and himself. A few weeks later he told me how great it works for having a lantern and brewing a pot of coffee while fishing all night. I went back to buy one and they were out, and I've never seen another!
About 10 years later, I made my own from 5" or 6" heating duct connecters and steel pop rivets, but the balance was off and was unstable.
That is about the only gadget that got away from me.
Please enlighten us to useful gadgets and handy techniques you have used camping.
Ivan
In the Summer of 1974, I started buying real, "For a lifetime" camping equipment. The "Gold Circle" store was right behind where I worked. and they considered hunting and camping to be in the same summer season! From Memorial Day to Labor Day was camping season with weekly specials on the limited equipment they carried. The first thing I bought was a Coleman 2 mantel lantern, model 220, cost $18.88. Two weeks later I bought a Coleman 2 burner stove, model 425, cost $18.88. I bought a Nylon 2 person tent, and an air mattress. I didn't get a cooler until May of 1978 while on our honeymoon, it was a Coleman steel belted model. This is the foundation of my camping equipment. All these years later I still have and use the items when camping and also during power outages.
If I see a gadget, I usually buy one to try it out. But the greatest gadget I saw and didn't buy was in about 1975. It as a replacement "Hood" for gas and propane lanterns sized around a two mantel Coleman, but were supposed to fit other brands also. To use it, you replaced the top hood of the lantern and used the same wire handle and same nut. The new hood was chrome plated and had a flat surface that you used as a cook stove. It was $15.00 and I thought it was too expensive. I told one of the guys I worked with about it and he bought 3! For a fishing buddy, his brother and himself. A few weeks later he told me how great it works for having a lantern and brewing a pot of coffee while fishing all night. I went back to buy one and they were out, and I've never seen another!
About 10 years later, I made my own from 5" or 6" heating duct connecters and steel pop rivets, but the balance was off and was unstable.
That is about the only gadget that got away from me.
Please enlighten us to useful gadgets and handy techniques you have used camping.
Ivan
