Pocket Rocket Adapter

[John Wu]

Hi,

I just came back from the “100 Miles of Wilderness” on the AT and I met a thru hiker who devised an adapter for his MSR Pocket Rocket to a Coleman canister. I just somehow remember him telling me about using the tip of a torch gun somehow shaving off bits of metal to fit it onto the pocket rocket. I’m not that tech savvy, but anyone really know how this would work? Thanks

-John

[Dale Wambaugh]

I hate to rain on your parade, but when people start doing backyard adaptations on pressurized flammables, I wanna put my hands over my ears and sing “LALALALALA…” Go hike and have fun and don’t blow yourself up!

[Mike Barney]

We had a similar thought several months ago, and had a machinist look at it. He did, came back and said don’t. Reasons given were likely having to shave too much metal off to get the adapter to fit might weaken it too much, issue of gas vs liquid feed, and potential liability issues.

There’s some pretty creative people here who might be able to tinker and get an ultralight safe version to work (Bill F. you there?), but the existing steel canisters don’t weigh that much for what you use.

(FYI we boiled water for 10 trekkers for 10 days @ 1 cooked meal per day on two one lb steel canisters)

Who knows, maybe Coleman will make a Pocket Rocket equivalent ultralight weight version.

Regards,
MikeB

[Bill Fornshell]

Coleman has their version of the Pocket Rocket and they call it the F1 Ultra Light. It uses the regular gas canister. When I was playing with the Coleman PowerMax canister I was making a small fitting to adapt the end of the PowerMax gas line to what ever stove I want to use it with.

Then I got smart and just made my own stove out of a bunch of the lightest parts from several other stoves. It will burn the PowerMax or Regular canister with a just a small fitting change.

Safer and a lot easier.

[Mike Barney]

pictures or a link maybe?

Thanks,
MikeB

[David Bonn]

The outdoor product I really, really want to see.

Propane is widely available and much, much cheaper than canister fuel. The problem is that propane is stored at much higher pressure (usually around 50psi) so it typically comes in quite a hefty steel container. That high pressure is a feature, though since a small hiking stove would run longer and much better in lower temperatures than with typical propane/butane fuels.

I see no reason that a pocket rocket or similar stove would not run on straight propane rather than a butane/propane mix.

The problem is that canister. I’ve seen oxygen bottles used for climbing mt. everest that were aluminum reinforced with kevlar. Chances are the oxygen is stored at even higher pressure than 50psi (I don’t know this) and I suspect that a variant of that design would produce a reasonably light canister that could hold straight propane.

Now if you sell it with a regulator you can fill up your canister anyplace that sells propane. Given that I go through a hundred bucks or so of canisters every year, you could charge me quite a bit for this whole gadget and I’d joyfully pay it.

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