What stove would you choose for your teardrop?

[Oldragbaggers]

I think a key thing to consider is keeping the galley area free of grease spatters, which to me means some sort of portable stove that can be set up on the picnic table or a separate table.

We started out using the same old Coleman liquid gas that we have used for 36 (?) since we began tent camping. Recently we updated to an auto-ignite Coleman propane 2 burner. In addition to it being much less futzy to operate, it heats more evenly and seems to heat things more quickly.

Though the idea of having a stove permanent in the galley seems nifty, I'm really glad we don't have that.

Pat, thanks for this post. I have been going back and forth on this question so much I'm getting whiplash in my brain.

Sometimes I think it would be so cool to have the counter mount (would make it seem like a grown up RV with a slight pituitary problem).......

Or the sliding drawer mounted type (a showcase for my sweet carpentry skills ( that's really funny)..........

But in reality it's always better to keep it simple and clean, I get enough kitchen cleaning at home thank you very much, and you just put it so eloquently and clearly that I'm climbing down off the fence and giving my brain a rest on this one.

Becky

[Wolffarmer]

I feel a permanently mounted counter stove is right up there with a built in counter sink. Not worth it.



Randy

[tearhead]

Sounds like a nice set-up, Mike.

[CarlLaFong]

My plan is for a regular RV range that pulls out on one side and a, pull out, reefer on the other side so I have a U shaped kitchen. I may steal the 4 burner unit out of my 5th wheel before I sell it. I hate the new 3 burner stoves that the nanny government says we need. My cast iron griddle fits perfectly on my current cook top with burners left over for the coffee pot and a pan of oatmeal or cocoa for the grandkids. Still undecided on the sink

[Moho]

Decided to go with the propane setup hooked up to bulk. Although the "coolness" factor of a liquid stove is tempting. I want more heat and a compact size (me without coffee soon in the mornings isn't a good thing, lol). Doing as below. The green shelf will be a slide out for the Coleman propane stove. The blue area will slide out of it and be a shelf for a Coleman propane grill. Both are the thin Coleman type which I already have. I so prefer charcoal to propane for grilling, but like the idea of built in. I also have a scissor lift which I think will work on the grill to raise it to the same height as the stove.

[DMcCam]

We really took our time looking into this topic. Like everything else about these little trailers, you need to consider how you camp, what you want to avoid doing on vacation (like clean-up issues) and what you need. We already have a Mr. Stove single burner butane burner that we've used for years. But we needed to replace our propane grill with a real camp stove that would fit into the space of our galley for transport.

Our Teardrop is going to have a swing-out table for our stove so we bought a Camp Chef Denali. It's a very lightweight compact unit and has the features that fit our cooking style. It has a center grill that's just right for a couple of steaks, burgers or chicken breasts and has two outboard regular burners. We used it on our last tent camping trip and my only difficulty was learning how low I needed to set the heat. It has way more heat capacity than I'll ever use. First morning I used our cast iron griddle for breakfast I set the flames like the old grill and seriously burned everything!

Cheers,

Dave

[Pizzaguy]

I had the Camp Chef "Ranier" model. I HATED it. It had a single burner & a grill area. The grate on the grill is a VERY poor design. It traps grease & then the grease burns and is very hard to clean. When we were out in Yellowstone last month the propane line snapped and I had a major flare up, threw the stove to the ground before it took my Tear with it and emptied my water jug on it to put it out. Went and got a cheap Coleman propane 2 burner and a stand alone grill for Steaks & Burgers. I'll never buy Camp Chef again!!

Bruce

[Gaelen]

Hmmm. I have in my camping box:
- single burner propane (although I've used an really like the single burner butane stoves)
- rectangular charcoal grill w/legs that fold up and over to hold the top on. It's about 18" long x 12" wide x 10" deep when closed, and maybe 18" high when the legs are in support positions...not my most compact piece of equipment, but light, easy to set up and carry, and dead reliable.
- a small (I'm talking 8" tall x 5" diameter) tabletop hibachi grill, that I mainly use to heat the coffee pot and keep water warm during the day. It burns 1 - 2 briquests for 6 hours of heat.
- an esbit stove that can also heat water in a stainless Sierra cup
- a 10 x 18 camping grate in case the site has a crappy grate.

All of that stuff is pretty light, but reliable. I'm usually only cooking for one, so prefer to cook with the smallest, lightest possible equipment.

If there's a fireplace, fire pit or fire ring, I usually cook in that because something about cooking over a fire just says outdoors to me. Of course this IS central NY - thus the propane stove and esbit stove which can be used to cook under cover. Sometimes I'll use the portable charcoal grill to cook in the firepit or on the back wall of the fireplace if the site has one.

I also don't want a permanent stove or sink emplacement in my galley. The Sunspot just had a shelf, on which I stored my camp kitchen box. The TD has a double shelf, and I'll store things there but doubt I'll spend much time cooking under the back hatch if the weather is not a deluge.

[bdosborn]

We had a pull out shelf for our Coleman grill stove in the tear.



We found after we used it the first time is that you want the grill as far away from the galley as you can get it. Grease splatters are hard to clean off wood finish. That was the last time we used the grill stove, I added a grill to the tongue after that.



Bruce

[schaney]

Bobhenry, Great to see another old Sears propone stove, I purchased mine new, it's 31 years old now and still going strong.

[Kharn]

I'm surprised at how the Coleman briefcase is the highest output at 11k btu, and the built-in 3 burners have only 9200 btus. I guess a builder could put a T after the tank, with one line running to the built-in and the other to a moveable 15k+ burner (stashed away when not needed) for spaghetti or other high-energy task. I always think my 17k burner at home is too slow when boiling 6qt of water, but that might just be me.

For those that have grease splatter concerns, have you considered the pop-up windshields for the built-ins, like on a briefcase stove? I know Atwood makes them for their models, but they seem hard to find for non-RV cooktops.

[Deryk the Pirate]

Anyone give thought to a rocket stove? http://www.stockstorage.com/index.html

I came across it on the internet today...looks interesting!

[Gaelen]

I have now, Deryk. That is a cool stove.
I do like the look of the square (heavy duty or SS) one over the round one - the square one just looks more stable.
The round one looks a lot like a high-efficiency charcoal chimney (even though it says you can't use charcoal inside...but I don't see why you couldn't?

OTOH, the pyromaniac in the testimonial video could use a burger cooking lesson (and maybe a grease disposal tutorial)

[Deryk the Pirate]

hee hee pyromaniac.... yeah something about it does interest me. I found another manuf, and I really like the idea of being able to close it down with burning embers and be able to adjust the airflow to simmer food on... http://www.stovetec.net/us/stove-inform ... ideo-demos but it isnt as solidly constructe as the Grover model (I also like the heavy duty model)

[chartle]

I never knew anyone made a larger version of this stove.

I first heard about these kinds of stoves when I thought I was going to hike the Appalachian Trail.

http://hikinghq.net/stoves/zip.html