Lite Trail Solid Fuel System

Nice. I've been fighting the urge to get V3 for a couple weeks now.

Ryan

I have V1, and really loved it on the trail last year. However, V3 appears to have corrected all of my minor complaints about V1–lack of handles, thicker Ti foil. As soon as Jhaura released the parts individually, I upgraded my V1 to V3.

I'm excited to use it again this year.

Save some dough and buy your pot direct

http://toaksoutdoor.com/titanium550mlpot.aspx $29.95 vs. $44.95

Or spend more dough (at LiteTrail) and save 16 grams (72g vs 88g).

Yes, the LiteTrail pots are made by Toaks but they are of a thinner Ti than the regular Toaks models.

Hopefully someone will have the thinner one at the GGG for comparison but I'm pretty happy with the kit and don't see any reason to swap out the mug.

Ian, I think you already have the thinner one since you got it from LiteTrail.
Edited to add: I just reread your OP. The LiteTrail pots are branded Toaks, but as I understand it, they are specialy made for LiteTrail and are not the same as the standard Toaks 550ml pot.

Maybe but mine has the Toaks branding on it which is why I have my doubts. He did a second run of the V2s and possibly used the regular Toaks mug to fill the order. Again, I'm very happy with this kit and don't have any complaints or wish to swap it out. I'll weigh the mug solo later to determine if it's the thinner one or not.

Despite Craig's claims that my 550ml mug is for child sized portions only, I think it's perfect for me as I can warm up a pint of water and still have a little room to spare to avoid boil-over. If I was actually looking to do any real cooking in the pot then obviously I'd need something bigger but freezer bag cooking is fine for me.

I have the pot from version 1. It also has the Toaks branding, but weighs 41 grams (no handles on version 1). I would be interested to see what yours weighs but I expect you have a thinner walled one too.
We find 550 ml to be the perfect size for 2, but we share one meal while the water is boiling for the second.

I may have misunderstood Jhaura's comment from a previous thread:

"It will be in stock before the holidays. More news to follow on Nov 1. Our pot is not the same as the Toaks. Our stove is modded for snug fit on our pot only, it is not marketing, it's design and really does work, you can mod one yourself, but the ti is hard to grind. We will have most of the pieces avail. individually. ~J"

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=83139

I’ll post the weight later tonight and hopefully that answer my question.

"We find 550 ml to be the perfect size for 2, but we share one meal while the water is boiling for the second."

What we do is share a "two person" meal (with olive oil added) which typically requires two cups of water and add other non-cook items (Fritos, dried fruit, jerky, etc) to round out the meal and to add some calories. We typically graze throughout the day so I'm not necessarily ravenous by dinner time.

"Or spend more dough (at LiteTrail) and save 16 grams (72g vs 88g)."

I just weighed my pot with lid at 70g / 2.5oz.

.

I upgraded mine from V1 too. The new pot with lid is 70 grams on my bilingual scale.

I am still going back and forth between my Caldera GVP and the LiteTrail system. I have been mostly taking the GVP unless space in my pack is tight and I need to cram in the stove. It is a conundrum between the two.

We’ll see if the handles and improved screen make the LiteTrail more attractive to me. It was already 4 grams heavier than the GVP. I haven’t bothered to figure out how much heavier the new pot and screen will make the kit — really doesn’t matter, I’ll take the one that works the best. Will be trying out the new pot in a few days.

For anyone who is interested, here is a comparison I did in May. LiteTrail vs Caldera GVP

Both are excellent set-ups. It’s good we have choices :)

Yes, as has been noted, Toaks actually make the LiteTrail cook pots for Jhaura, which is why they are branded “Toaks.” But no, the pots sold from Toaks are different from the ones that are sold by LiteTrail. The ones they make for Jhaura is made from a thinner ti, which means they do weigh less. I have the Toaks 375 ml mug and it does have a slightly thicker feel to it.

And as far as weights are concerned, my LiteTrail 550 ml pot only (without handles) weighs 1.4 oz. The Toaks 375 ml mug with handles weighs 2.2 oz. Of course it would be more of a fair match had the handles been removed from the mug, however, the handles I removed from another ti cook pot sometime back (which are actually a bit larger than these on the Toaks mug) weigh 0.5 oz. So, this would make the 375 ml Toaks mug without handles around 1.7 oz, which is heavier than the 550 ml pot by 0.3 oz, and has a lesser volume.

As for price, that is up to the person to decide if it is worth it to them. From my understanding, it takes a little more care to work with thinner ti, which increases the price. Of course I don’t know this for sure, however, it is a safe bet to figure that as things get lighter in the backpacking world, the prices go up.

Me myself, I love Jhaura’s kit, and is probably my favorite cook kit. I have the original version 1. No handles, super thin ti windscreen and uses paper clips to hold it together, and I have no reason to change it. I love the way it works, how it all packs together, and that it is as light as I can get it. My ENTIRE cook kit weighs 3.9 oz (which includes spoon, bic, towel, parts to use pot as mug, etc…)

It is cool that Jhaura does offer the different pieces of his kit separately though for others that may want to “upgrade” their older kits, or piece together their own.

Nice article Chad. I picked up the Hot Lips idea from one of your videos so thanks for that. That carbon fiber lid is pretty tempting…

Nick, a quote from your site: "Typically in the field I use at least 1/2 of a 14 gram Esbit cube to heat 16 ounces of water. But it is not unusual to get two pots of heated water from a single cube.
Lets start with the Caldera system. It consists of"

32 ounces of heated water on one cube is fantastic. Even if it doesn't get to a boil, it's still fantastic. It seems like we should be seeing a shift from alcohol to esbit this coming season, don't we all agree?

All of you that are using these ti systems, how do you pick-up and hold onto the hot handles?

Dan,

I don’t use handles on my 550 ml pot. When I am boiling water for a meal, the pot is filled up to about half, or three quarters of an inch from the top. When the water is to the point that I need it to be (not quite boiling, but close) I just use my LiteLoad towel folded longways to grab the pot near the top and lift it off. Also, I use 4 g Esbit tabs, so am able to choose as much fuel as I want so that by the time my water is to the temp I want it at, the fuel is almost gone anyway, which means the flames are not an issue when grabbing the pot off like this.

When heating water for coffee/cocoa/tea, the pot is only about half filled. Since the water is no where near the top, I can simply grab the pot off with my bare fingers, then I slip it into the DIY cozy I made for the pot when using it as a mug.

For an idea, check out this video around 11:45 or so:

LiteTrail Cook Kit video

"All of you that are using these ti systems, how do you pick-up and hold onto the hot handles?"

If it's too hot to pick up with my bare hands, then with a bandana.

"32 ounces of heated water on one cube is fantastic. Even if it doesn't get to a boil, it's still fantastic. It seems like we should be seeing a shift from alcohol to esbit this coming season, don't we all agree?"

32 ounces of sufficiently heated but not quite boiling water is my experience with this too.

I love Esbit and use it for the very large majority of my backpacking.

The pros:

lightweight
nothing to leak. Pulverize it and it'll still work.
emergency fire starter

The cons to me:

More expensive than alcohol
For someone who's through hiking, I presume much more difficult to find when making resupply runs.

For me this is my go-to kit but when I start my PCT through hike in 8.5 years from now, I’d probably bring my TD sidewinder paired up with my Evernew 600ml pot and my handy dandy super high speed low drag high testosterone low drama all killer no filler gangster of love starlyte stove.

"32 ounces of heated water on one cube is fantastic. Even if it doesn't get to a boil, it's still fantastic. It seems like we should be seeing a shift from alcohol to esbit this coming season, don't we all agree?

All of you that are using these ti systems, how do you pick-up and hold onto the hot handles?"

Contrary to what I expected, the Caldera Cone beer can pot (tall, small diameter) is more efficient than the LiteTrail pot (short, wide diameter) by about 30% in fuel consumption.

I haven't used v3 of the pot yet. But with my MSR Titan pot or Snow Peak Ti pot I grab the handle with my bandana or am wearing a glove liner when it is cold out.

The Caldera GVP system is lighter and more efficient. Sometimes I would rather have the larger pot, as I can pour hot water into my freezer bag meal and while it is "cooking" I can immediately enjoy a hot beverage — much more efficient use of my kitchen time, and welcomed in colder weather.

The LiteTrail packs down to a much smaller package, and the pot is more robust.

Either system is a good choice.

I have been using Esbit almost exclusively for the past 4 years. If I need to re supply in a town, I bring alcohol; Esbit is too difficult to find. If I am flying to my destination I bring the alcohol stove unless I know Ahead of time I can find Esbit.

Here's my latest take on a LiteTrail 550mL pot alcohol kit (either Heet or Kleen Strip denatured). I haven't made the switch to Esbit; I know I should try it, but just haven't yet. I know this is a thread about solid-fuel but I thought I show the pot in yet another configuration. I wanted to see how it did with a tall wind-screen, with maybe some of the benefits of a Caldera Cone, funneling the heat up around the pot.

LiteTrail 550mL pot, RL carbon lid, Zelph Starlyte stove + pot stand, QiWiz Tall windscreen, ground protector/reflector, cuben Litetrail sack (not shown):

My only issue is the handles. I decided to keep the handles, but removed the gray heat-resistant coating. My idea is to have the handles folded up while boiling, like in the photo below. They are too hot to immediately use to remove the pot, but cool down quickly and then I can use the pot as a mug if I want. Alternatively, I can leave a gap in the windscreen where the handles could stick out, but I haven't tried that yet to see how it affects the system.

Ready to boil:

I have some weight and boil-time numbers I'll have to add later.

Thanks Steven. If it's not too much to ask, it'd be interesting to see your kit without the windscreen. I'm interested to see the flame pattern and wonder if a modified starlyte might work better in this case.

Steven and Ian,
We use the LiteTrail pot (version 1, no handles) with a custom made TD Cone (no cut out for handles and air holes around the whole cone). I have tested quite a few systems, including wide pots (Evernew 900ml with Sidewinder) and Foster Kegs with various stoves and windscreens, and this set up with the Starlyte stoves was up with the most efficient. The modified Starlyte is a little more economical on fuel but slightly slower than the standard Starlyte.
Previously, we used the LiteTrail pot and Starlytes with a home-made windscreen similar to Stevens's. The advantage of the TD Cone is doing away with the pot stand. Everything fits inside the LiteTrail pot and an Evernew Ti cup.

Ian: I'll try to take some photos later and post the weights/boil times.

I should add that the QiWiz tall windscreen doesn't fit inside the pot. Everything else does. I just roll up the screen and slip it into a cut-down lower half of a Smartwater bottle. This gives me another small container/water scoop/whatever and I can fill it with other small items. I don't mind this extra piece but others might want a screen that completely fits within the pot. I do have LiteTrail's spot-welded screen, too, but I think it's too short for use with an alcohol stove that ideally needs a pot stand (I have a cat-can stove but the diameter of the 550 pot is too small to use it).

del

No gunk on windscreen. Gunk on Esbit holder. Small Ziploc takes care of that.