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Stove Setup: MSR Whisperlite

This is the MSR Whisperlite Internationale Multi Fuel. One of the lightest and most compact multi fuel stoves out there.

Combined with the MSR 0.59 litre fuel bottle.

For the test run, I’m burning unleaded petrol (79p filled up my bottle!).  A cleaner version is to burn “white gas” – that’s pure petrol without any additives.  Apparently, you can get this from hardware stores although I’ve not checked this out yet.

The MSR multi fuel stove can even burn leaded fuel or diesel using different adaptors in the fuel pump. A pretty versitile bit of kit.

Update

This is Coleman Fuel or “White Gas”. You can buy it from all hardware stores in the US and most gas stations in Canada too (especially ones near camping areas).

In Canada, it come in smaller 1 litre cans, which fills my fuel bottle about twice and the can is ok to carry about for a few days until you use the remainder of it. This costs about $7.

However, in the US it only seems to come in gallon cans which is far too big to carry around. So we moved on to using regular unleaded gas. This is lots cheaper – about 65 cents to fill up the fuel bottle which will last for about a week or so.

The difference in burning regular gas is noticeable – it’s a lot smellier and dirtier. It will blacken the stove more, and you can hear the fuel doesn’t flow quite as smoothly but it shouldn’t do any lasting damage and the cost savings should make up for any black fingers it causes.

We came across one kind soul on the trip – Mark, an ex-touring cyclist who carried around one of these large cans of Coleman gas in the trunk of his car and offered a top-up to any passing tourers he came across.