Traildesigns

Background

Traildesigns aren’t on the same level as MSR, Coleman and other backpacking gear brands, but I think it’s worth mentioning them when it comes to backpacking stoves. Actually, they prefer you’ll refer their products as ‘cooking systems’ rather than just ‘stoves’.

The company was established around 2005, and they are the proud inventors of the Caldera Cone, an award winning alcohol cooking system. You can get to know the owners better with this interview they gave on a great backpacking blog.

Stoves (Cooking systems)

Caldera Cone

The first product by Traildesigns. An all-in-one windscreen and pot holder, made of some metallic-foil cone. It folds nicely and they make it tailor-made for your specific pot. You get a simple alcohol burner with it. The way the cone holds the pot makes the whole thing highly efficient.

• The cone weighs 28 to 78 grams, depends on the size you get (the size that fits your pot)
• It can run either on alcohol or using Esbit.
• It does NOT meant to run on wood (get the Ti-Tri if you intend to use wood)
• You get a burner with it, but you can use other alcohol burners too.

More here on the Caldera Cone..

Caldera Ti-Tri Stove

Pretty much the same basic principle as the Caldera cone but with few significant changes. The most important one is that this cone can hold fire based on wood. Therefore, you can actually refer to the Ti-Tri as a multi fuel stove... Not in the conservative way of Gasoline based fuels, but due to the fact that you can run it on Alcohol or Esbit or wood.

Another great improvement they put in is the ability to use it as a wood gas stove. You assemble the Inferno (a smaller, upside down cone) and you turn the cone to a gasifier.

You can get the Ti-Tri in three variants:

•  Classic Ti Tri. Weighs 57 to 177 grams, depends on what size you get (to fit your pot).
•  Sidewinder Ti-Tri - for wide pots, you can store the whole kit  laying sideways in the pot. Weighs 71 to 104 grams.
•  ULC Ti Tri - The lightest version, a bit shorter cone, so you can pack it in your pot. Weighs 47 to 128 grams.

Read  here on the Ti-Tri ...

Read here on using the Ti-Tri as a wood gas stove...

Read here on using the Ti-Tri as a wood burning camp stove...

Caldera Keg

Whereas on the Ti-Tri stove you have to have a pot, on the Caldera Keg, they made their own beer can pot that comes with the rest of the kit. The whole system is very light, weighing  as light as 171 grams - all included. You can get one of the three types: Caldera Keg-F, Caldera Keg-H and the lightest, named after Glen Van Peski - Caldera Keg-GVP.

Accessories

Not surprisingly, the company got some nice accessories you can get. I only mention here those I think worth mentioning, there are many more.

Primer pan

A simple flat ring to get some fire going around your alcohol stove to help it start.

Windscreens

If you’re familiar with MSR windscreens, these are of the same concept. A foil that is easy enough to handle and still holds itself nicely to block the wind. Out of all the windscreen they got, I’d go for the Vari-vent windscreen, it suggests some simple options to control wind flow around your stove.

And you can find all teh other goodies they got on Traildesigns web site