Companion forum thread to:

BushBuddy Stove Tweaks

> The BB stove needed a windscreen for better efficiency.

> Your turbo" fan is a good idea, esp. for damp wood. I may try it on my Sidewinder

> I still think my Trail Designs Sidewinder W/Inferno gassifier conversion (3 cup pot) is lighter than the BB. And its windscreen is built into the cone design.

BTW, Good photos and illustrations. Thanks.

Edited by Danepacker on 04/03/2012 17:11:08 MDT.

..you sure have added a lot of pieces into your kit. I thought the allure of the BB was reduction.

@Robert - thanks for a great article. It is apparent that you put quite a bit of work (and play!) into it. The diagrams are of particular note for their lucidity. Overall, this type of piece typifies the quality of content that really helps to set BPL apart and provide value for the community here. Often I find myself taking a different stove each trip, just to play around with it. It is therefore quite handy to have this kind of in-depth beta from someone who has obviously been more monogamous, having thereby reaped several skills from the developed familiarity.

Good TLUD description. Works on all woodstoves. (Virtually no smoke and a much more controllable flame)
Also your observation that fire skills are necessary to consistently cook on a woodstove is spot on. Thanks for the information.

Thanks a lot, this was really interesting. I'll definitively try these mods. The only downside i can see is that the screen addons require that plastic bowl to protect them. I don't carry a bowl like that but maybe they could just be kept flat against some surface in my pack.

Thank you for a well written, well documented, and well-illustrated article. The diagrams and explanation of how gasification works are superb. It's really outstanding to see a useable windscreen set up for the Bushbuddy which I have felt was something it could really used. Quite clever to rig up the donut to support the windscreen. Also quite clever to have the windscreen be able to configure to different modes as needs dictate. Overall, a most impressive and informative article.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving

Robert,
Very nice study on a popular piece of gear. Your description of the T-LUD approach and the benefits are really helpful. Although I have only used the Bushbuddy about a dozen times in various conditions, I never felt like it was really performing as well as advertised. I was either letting the flames down too much, putting in too many larger pieces, the wood was wet/frozen, or it was too windy. I can't wait to try out your wood strategy.

I like the addition of a wind screen, and would like to see that fleshed out more since your version makes the Bushbuddy even more bulky. Maybe something simpler, and compact. I am not so interested in the battery operated fan...as someone else said, it's not what I'm looking for.

You have definitely added to BPL's knowledge base, thanks!

Tom

P.S. How about adding a video to show us this in action?

Edited by TomClark on 04/04/2012 18:26:59 MDT.

Perhaps I wasn't reading the article carefully enough, but I'm confused about the difference in adding the fuel supply to the T-LUD and conventional approach. How is one add fuel and what kind of fuel should be added? Or is there no difference? When reading the BushBuddy's instructions it says to put the bigger pieces of wood at the bottom, then change to kindling above, and finally put the tinder at the top. I don't see how one can start out with coals at the top for the T-LUD method if you haven't started the fire yet.

Responding where I can possibly help:

I have not tried the Trail Designs 'inferno' setup, but it looks interesting. From comparisons on the web the 'inferno' may need more care to avoid bushfire risk, and with required stakes it may be heavier than the BBU? (I don't usually want to pull my tarp down before cooking.) Overall it looks like another great design: http://adventuresinstoving.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/bushbuddy-vs-ti-tri-caldera-cone.html

Yes, a few pieces are needed for improved stove function, but they are very light. Similarly I carry 4 Ti stakes as 'extra pieces' that improve the function of my tarp. I agree it is a personal call.

The lightest 'bowls' I have found are yoghut or margarine containers at 12-15 g for 450 ml capacity. I use them every day for presoaking dehydrated foods, eating one course while cooking another, dipping water from shallow 'trickles' etc. In the past I experimented with carrying foil shields other ways (e.g. between pack wall and pad). But the shield for a wood or hexamine stove gets sooty, so rolled inside the pot / bowl worked best for me.

The shield could be made shorter to fit inside the BBU. A shorter version would still work to block wind, but it would not be quite as efficient at directing heat up around the pot; and it could not provide the pot support for the fall-back hexamine stove use. Another personal call.

The fan mod may appeal most to people who like to hike without carried fuel, and already carry batteries in something like a GPSr. Where it is hard to find dry kindling, the 22 g fan setup is 'worth its weight in gold'.

On T-LUD and conventional operation: as Miguel describes the BBU is normally started in T-LUD mode (lit on top, and burning down through the fuel load). But if more fuel is needed (without a complete restart of the process), it can only be added on top. You can add the same kinds of fuel used in the original load (sticks broken to fit in the BBU fire chamber). When fuel is added on top of the existing fire, the stove works in a 'conventional' wood-gassifier mode. The wood gas from this added fuel is not 'improved' by passage through a glowing charcoal layer, but it is still burned using oxygen from the upper 'secondary' (pre-heated) air inlets.

I hope that helps without a movie!

It seems that the fan is blowing air towards the primary air only, I would suggest getting most of the air at the secondary. It will create a smaller but hotter and more completely burned flame. Have you tried it?

I have not experimented with boosting the secondary air. My impression is that there is plenty of secondary airflow in the unmodified design for combustion of the amount of wood gas generated in this small stove. In contrast, primary airflow in the unmodified design in convoluted, and it gets restricted to varying degrees depending on the packing of the fuel load. When the Bushbuddy is hard to light or when it snuffs through injudicious fuel addition, the problem seems to be insufficient primary air: in practice the modification to increase primary air greatly reduces those challenges.

But I have not tried your idea Mr T. It would need a sleeve to close off the air-intake ports at the base (otherwise much of the added air would blow straight out of them). Then all airflow would depend on the fan (whereas the described modification fan-boosts the natural airflow that enters through the ports around the base). Maybe someone else will be inspired to try your idea and report.