That $12 camp stove repair kit from the hardware store actually held up

A couple weekends back at Big Bend I watched a guy ditch his whole broken Coleman stove and drive 40 miles to town for a new one. I had a tiny kit I picked up at Ace for 12 bucks with seals and a little wrench. Took me maybe 20 minutes on the picnic table to swap the gasket and get it roaring again. Made me wonder how many people toss gear that just needs a cheap fix. Anyone else carry a small repair kit or do you all just replace stuff when it fails on the trail?

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william_taylor10d ago

Forty miles for a whole new stove? That hurts my soul just reading that. The kit probably cost less than the gas he burned getting to town, not to mention the price of a new Coleman these days. I keep spare gaskets and a tiny adjustable wrench in my truck's glovebox for exactly this reason, it's like five ounces of gear that has saved me on more trips than I can count. Once you learn that one little rubber ring is usually the culprit, you realize how simple these things actually are. People treat camp gear like it's disposable and it just kills me, especially when a twenty minute fix would give it another ten years of use.