Military Coleman lantern

[rainjer]

I would like to sell it but I have no idea what to charge. I am still trying to find more info on the price ranges. Any clue??

Can you post a picture? Condition does count. I have seen them sell from $5 and up.

Jeremy

[WarPony]

I recieved one like this today but come to find out, it's not a Coleman product.....

Made in '71 by Form-Tech..... The thing is in really good shape but makes alot of noise when running. Cripes, is sounds like a jet taking off!!!!!!
Don't worry, I took it all apart because all I could get out of the mantles was air and found a bunch of green crud buildup on the end of the pickup tube.
I'll tell you what, though. This bad boy will put some light out!! Hell, I'm still seeing green spots from looking at the mantle burn......


Jeff

[starleen2]

Yep they are quite loud fro a low pressure burner!

[travelite]

I have a 1958 Coleman model. Can't seem to get it working right, I light it and it flames up, and never settles down. Any ideas?

[rainjer]

I would take it apart and clean the air tube. Those are the 2 larger round tubes on both sides of the generator. Some will have one plugged from the factory. Do not open it. Most likely you have a spider nest up inside and you are not getting the proper fuel are mix.

Jeremy

[travelite]

I have run a wire all the way through one tube, the other one does have a plug. I was thinking about removing the plug to see if it helped, as it still acts like it needs more air.

[Klaas50]

I have exact the same problem as travelite with my Coleman 252 from 1956. I already cleaned the air tubes and renewed the generator tube and nozzle, but nothing seems to work.

[Justin & Katy]

If you're interested you can join the Coleman Collector's forum and they could probably tell you exactly what's going on with it. I'm a member and it has proved to be a valuable resource.

http://oldtownyucca.websitetoolbox.com/

[doug hodder]

George and I both had similar problems with our 252's....a good cleaning and a new generator, took care of the issues. They need to be ordered however. You won't walk into a outdoor or hardware type store and find one.

Another thing....don't pump them up like you do a normal type lantern. They are a low pressure type. I'm thinking I do like 8 pumps, get it lit, then put a few more into it. The instructions on the lantern say 15-25 the folded instructions say 12, and don't open the valve too far...1/4 turn only and in the instruction folder...that's in bold print and underlined.

I think the design on the generator is more of a high volume/low pressure thing and needs to preheat the fuel longer than a typical 220. I could be wrong though. Doug

[cherokeegeorge]

Doug. I think your right on with your advise, that generator has to warm up. The first couple times i ran mine it was a little scary. But once the generator is warm crank it all the way open and it runs beautiful. Mine runs until its out of fuel and I never have to pump it again.

The military lantern is a beautiful thing........once you figure it out.

[Zollinger]

George and I both had similar problems with our 252's....a good cleaning and a new generator, took care of the issues. They need to be ordered however. You won't walk into a outdoor or hardware type store and find one.

Another thing....don't pump them up like you do a normal type lantern. They are a low pressure type. I'm thinking I do like 8 pumps, get it lit, then put a few more into it. The instructions on the lantern say 15-25 the folded instructions say 12, and don't open the valve too far...1/4 turn only and in the instruction folder...that's in bold print and underlined.

I think the design on the generator is more of a high volume/low pressure thing and needs to preheat the fuel longer than a typical 220. I could be wrong though. Doug

I never realized that it is a low pressure device. Always lit mine like and other Coleman lantern. I just goes to show ya learn something new every day!

[Klaas50]

As I wrote earlier my Coleman 252 MilSpec had the same problem that the lamp only flamed and would not burn even after complete disassembly, cleaning and reassembly.
I bought a new generator at Ebay and after difficult installing with a lot of friction the result was the same.
My diagnosis: too much petrol
I could not imagine that a military lantern was that difficult to operate so there had to be a a simple solution for this burning problem.
Last week I was at a meeting of lamp collectors in Germany and there we discovered why this problem occured.
The new generator was about 4 mm higher than the old original one and while trying to replace the generator into the lamp the nozzle tip loosened a little and the result was leakage between the aluminium generator tube and the nozzle.
We carefully remodelled the aluminium tube a little and also tightened the nozzle carefully again to prevent damaging the thread in the aluminium tube or destroying the nozzle and replaced the complete generator quit easy without any friction.
I preheated the generator a short time with a lighter and the lamp started burning when I opened the fuel valve just the way it has to be. The lamp already was under pressure offcourse.
Everywere in the internet I see people with the same problem with this lamp and they all say it’s a low pressure lantern, but I can give 50 strokes or even more and the lamp does exactly what it has to do: proper burning for several hours. So in my opinion it’s a normal pressure lamp with problems between the generator tube and the nozzle.
I hope people can use this information for their own lamps.
I just uploaded a video with the burning of my 252 at Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBrx4co0l9Q