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Hey everyone,

I would like to find out who around SA is making some part of their hiking gear?

I am experimenting with making alcohol stoves at the moment and will show some results as i can. There is a lot of info online to make gear of all sorts.

This is an interesting topic to me and i'm sure it will be to others who like me cannot afford all the gear needed to hike safely with.

I have also designed a tent i'm planning to make as an experiment as soon as i find suitable materials. its a 2 man tent and I've had a few ideas how i will put it together so the fly sheet will be one piece with minimal seams and such.

Lets hear your thoughts.

I personally would be very wary of home made equipment, but if you are successful with it, I would be interested to hear about it. If you do make your own tent, try to make it so that the outer sheet connects to the poles in such a way that, if assembling it in a storm, you could put up the outer sheet prior to the inner sheet in order to prevent the inner sheet from getting wet...

Hi

I have made a couple of those stoves from coke cans. They work really well but wouldnt carry it to the mountainsand rely on it.They take some time to heat up before it makes a pressure void and in wind wouldnt get going. A basic gas stove ia about R250 and well worth it!

What I am busy with at the moment is something to slip over your boot in ice for those rare occasions, have made a simple and light version using thin link chain formed into a V and a strap over the top and around the back of the boot to keep it in place.
Havent tested it yet but will be out in the Berg this weekend......doubt there will be much ice tho
I would like to make a plate with a couple of small spikes on that sits mid boot just to give some traction. A full crampon is just overkill and im sure that will work fine.Have designed someting already but havent got down to mking it.

Hi

I made a similar tent, but it used my bicycles wheels for a frame I used parachute sheet, for the top and those covers they use in restaurants for the bottom, it was completely waterproof. So much that the moisture would condense on the inside . It only weight 1.2 kg, and only cost me the Velcro. I would trust this tent in the drakensberg if I for some reason decide to take my bicycles wheels along



Then I put some hooks on my backpack to fix my bicycle to it. The backpack and sleeping bag you also see in the picture I got for R30 each at a second hand shop.



With this I did a 8 day bike/hike trip on the south coast with only R 180.

very cool ccjoubert!
and that ice-axe you took along on that Injisuthi hike!

I make a lot of my own gear, tho I am in the USA, and have used most of it in SA.

1. Coke can stoves - I cannot understand the rubbish people spout about pressure, temperature, etc. First, the real world. I have used alcohol as fuel at 14,000ft in sub zero (C) temps with zero problems. The stove of course must be properly designed and a windscreen is essential. No simmering, but I have lived without simmering for decades. People who make three course French cuisine will want a canister stove. The purpose of my stove is to boil water. The Physics is not all that interesting. At lower pressure fuels will evaporate more easily. The lower temps are not even an issue - alcohol at lower pressure burns hotter than water's boiling temp at lower pressure. Therefore it boils water at all altitudes. I have learned to trust my coke can stove. I have abandoned all others.

Yes, alcohol has the least bang for the buck (BTU or energy per gram) of any fuel. I couldn't care less that I boil in 3 minutes and others can do it in 30 seconds at jet flow. I claim I consume less fuel to get to boil, as I am not heating as much air. Most importantly, I am not carrying the metal canister (and pump etc) the other fuels require. I have way less to go wrong. I can measure out exactly what I need and carry that. If I come back the same way I go in I leave 1oz and $100 stashes at my camps and pick them up on my way out.

See Trail Designs if you want a dynamite (maybe not the right word for a stove!) commercially made one.

2. Tent. I have used my own home made tent for over a decade. I couldn't find what I wanted so I made it. This winter I will make version 2 - I still cannot find what I want. I was trapped for four days in a hurricane at 13,000ft in the Rockies a few years ago and knew if my tent failed I would die. It withstood 75mph sustained winds, 100mph squalls, shrieking spindrift and a 3ft wet dump of heavy snow. I lived. I am STILL using that tent. No one else believes in it - 1lb and single wall. What do I care that no one else believes? I trust that tent with my life.

I have made my own sleeping bag (okay, I designed it and had feathered friends make it), my own down knickers, my own mosquito wear, and my own gaiters. Some of what I have made has been a failure. That's to be expected.

Of course you must test your gear if you make it. But that's understood.

I say, go for it.