Anyone Know About Tilley Camping Stoves?

[Turbo]

I acquired this 'Tilley Twosome' camping stove last week.

The paint needs tidying but before I go any further I want to see if it works. Going by the hose connection it is designed to run off camping gaz bottles at cylinder pressure.

I want to convert it to run on standard gas bottles because the camping gaz bottles are expensive & hard to get around here plus I need to change the hose anyway due to not knowing its age.

I have several Calor butane bottles, all with gas but it seems that you cannot get a bottle connector for them that allows the gas out at cylinder pressure!

My other option is to use a propane bottle along with an adjustable regulator, either one of the bottom 2 in this photo.

A propane cylinder runs at a lot higher pressure than a butane one so you need a regulator to get the pressure down. I would fit a nut & hose tail to the reg & connect it to the cooker with some new propane hose.

Anyone successfully tried this conversion before?

Another question - would I need to use high temp paint to repaint the cooker body? Does the metalwork get hot in use?

 

[Stueeee]

The camping twin burner setup that I bought some years ago works with either a low pressure Butane or low pressure Propane regulator without any modification to the cooker, the outlet pressures of the two gases are different but deliver pretty much the same calorific figures.

I would give one of the regs at top left or middle of your photo a try on your cooker and see if it works. On mine, I originally used a high pressure adjustable Propane reg (it was what I had) having too high a pressure was a problem in that the flame kept blowing itself out, and the high pressure reg didn't deliver a smooth flow of gas when it was turned down low; works fine with a low pressure non adjustable reg.

 

[carbon]

Does it not have a label on it that lists the gas pressure requirement?

 

[Turbo]

Does it not have a label on it that lists the gas pressure requirement?

It has a label on it that says Butane gas at bottle pressure.

From what I can learn on some camping forums all the older Tilley stoves were set up to operate on butane gas at bottle pressure & no regulator. Then in 1982 there was a change in rules so any cookers made after that had a regulator fitted at the gas bottle & worked at low pressure. My cooker is one of the early ones.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

https://www.base-camp.co.uk/

Speak to this place.
They will be able to advise on what you need and are very good for spares.

 

[winchman]

https://www.base-camp.co.uk/

Speak to this place.
They will be able to advise on what you need and are very good for spares.

I second that I would also look on here ( Warning you may loose several hours of your life)
https://classiccampstoves.com

Then several more here
https://classicpressurelamps.com

Its just like here but different topic, very helpful bunch, nice restoration projects too

 

[TechnicAl]

I wouldnt spend much on it...theyre not very good....takes about an hour to boil the kettle (slight exaggeration)
You can get them for less than a tenner on car boots

Tilley Lamps (paraffin) are much more expensive but Ive got a few (6 i think) that Ive bought off car boots for less than 20 quid......and Camping Gaz lamps, ive got loads, all off car boots except the first, all for not much........bought 5 for £1 on ebay....embarrassed to collect them so I gave him a tenner but he was adamant it was a quid.

Cadacs are the thing everyone wants......to be honest I use my George Formby grill more than the Cadac but I always use an EHU these days

 

[jerrytug]

I'm a bit amazed it runs off bottle pressure, didnt know it was even possible.

 

[winchman]

We has a battered petrol Coleman but then spotted this at car boot for £10 I think, runs on Petrol works in any weather its a special alloy one they made for one year in 1963 Its a Coleman 442, Cooks and boils quickly, one ring is hotter than the other.

 

[Cobbler]

I borrowed a Tilley one years ago that ran on bottle pressure, but I’ve got one that looks identical in the shed, that one uses a regulator.

 

[Turbo]

Thanks for all the tips & links, looks like I've some reading to do.

The hose fitted to it has 1/73 on it which I assume means Jan 1973, so probably the original hose! It is in surprisingly good condition but I'll replace it anyway. I've been able to fit a length of old acetylene hose with the correct LH 3/8" fitting for the regulator & I reused the fitting I cut off the old hose at the cooker end. I'll be able to test it tomorrow to see if it works before I spend any money on it.