Old school ... but still cool ...

[Thumper]

Lynn and I spent a few days in Ft. Myers a couple weeks ago and spent a couple days hitting the Thrift Stores in the area. It's one of our favorite areas for "thrifting". We try to head down that way every few months for a few relaxing days. We love the area and the thrift stores are killer. (rich people dump cool stuff!)

Anyway, I'm just now getting around to going through all the crap I dragged home and I've got some real treasures that should bring some pretty decent cash. I totaled up $83 spent and after evaluating what I have here, I should be able to get close to $1000 for this crap. (a little better than I originally predicted)

I did pick up one item I think might fit in here. I don't normally buy this sort of stuff, but just couldn't resist. It's not a huge money-maker (they're selling for $50-$60 in this condition), but I wasn't going to leave it there. Heck, I'd be willing to bet it was only used once and put away. Everybody's gone to propane these days, but this thing sure brings back memories of about a bazillion camping trips I've done in the past. In fact, I'm 99% sure my old Coleman is still out in the garage someplace ... probably wherever my old 2-burner stove is stashed. Anyway, this was priced at $6.99 at a Goodwill Store, but it was 1/2-price day, so I walked out with it for $3.50. Heck, it even has a bag of replacement mantles with it. It's in pretty decent shape considering it's dated April 1983.


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[DeputyDog]

I’ve still got two of the red single mantle Colemans.


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[Arty]

I’ve got a red single mantle one as well... dated 1956

Thump, looking at the pics, I’m not sure that was ever used!



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[Chicken Dinner]

I bought mine in the mid-80’s and it’s propane. Those things light up way better than any battery operated lantern. Not very tacticool though...


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[Thumper]

Yeppers, I have a red single mantel somewhere around here also. It got more use than my double mantel actually as I'd use it for fuel economy when I just needed basic lighting at a campsite. I think I bought it right after getting out of the military in 1975. Everything I had BEFORE I went into the military was gone by time I got home as my brother had absconded with all my camping stuff. Arty, the mantels are burned, so it's been used. It's so new looking, there's a possibility they simply prepped the mantels and never actually used it, although I'm not sure why they'd do that, unless they just wanted to make sure it worked and they knew how to use it. Who knows? It's pristine anyway.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I don’t have a single mantle, but I have had a boatload of those old Colemans. I think I had probably five of them in my camping stuff at one time. Two sons and their love of camping and I’m down to one or two. I converted them over to use co2 cartridges and it really makes them bright. I have an old three burner coleman stove I converted over to propane and it works great too. Whoever engineered that stuff knew what they were doing. I’ll bet I could remove the air pump and reoil and reseat the leather seal with a blindfold on.

BKB

[Thumper]

I wonder if there's ANYONE here who has never owned an old school, pump type Coleman lantern that used White Gas/Coleman Fuel?

Ok you English majors ... is the above a question? Or a statement? (wasn't sure how to punctuate it, but I'd have to say it's actually a statement)

[BarryBobPosthole]

I wonder if there's ANYONE here who has never owned an old school, pump type Coleman lantern that used White Gas/Coleman Fuel?

Ok you English majors ... is the above a question? Or a statement? (wasn't sure how to punctuate it)

����

My Uncle Bill’s Texaco gas and grocery had a white gas pump.

And is it true that white gas is just unleaded?

I have burnt the hair off my ankles more than once lighting a campfire with white gas on a wet day.

A Polock was sky diving for the first time and when he pulled the rip cord nothing happened. Just then, he notices another Polock flying upward. So he yells, “Hey do you know anything about parachutes?”
The other Polock replied, “No, do you know anything about Coleman lanterns?”

Coleman lantern owners nodded with a silent appreciation for that joke. You were always that close to blowing yourself up.

BKB

[Thumper]

I've had 'em leak around the mantel pipe thingy and once you light 'em off, it gets pretty scary! I never knew if I should just run and get as far away as possible, or try to do something about it. Somehow, I never had one blow, but I sure expected it a few times. Has anyone actually had one blow up on 'em?

[Thumper]

Oh, and no, white gas and unleaded are different animals. Coleman fuel is actually naphtha (napthalene?).

I remember as a kid playing around with motorcycles, minibikes and go-karts, I was always told if you add mothballs (naptha) to your gas tank, you'd have a bazillion horsepower blazing out'ta the thing. I never actually tried it.

[Thumper]

Ha! I decided to look it up. Evidently mothballs are a BAD idea. So much for my 6th grade buddies being rocket scientists!

[DeputyDog]

Am I correct in thinking that the numbers stamped on the bottom are the manufacture date?

If so, I have one from 1952 and one from 1977.


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[Thumper]

Yessir. The first number(s) on the left is the month ... then across on right is the year (two digits).

http://www.oldtowncoleman.com/date.htm

The chart at the bottom is kind of interesting. The lantern above is a 200K and that model was produced between 1980 and 1983. The date stamp shows April of '83, so I guess it was among the last of the K-models produced.


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[BarryBobPosthole]

The new little models that screw on a propane bottle are handy as a pocket on a shirt.

If anybody camps, that is. I suppose there are led ones now that work better.
BKB

[Thumper]

Yep, that's why I titled it "old school". I can remember that hissing of the old Coleman as it burned would actually lull me to sleep while camping. Ya' just don't get that from LED's.

[airbud7]

����

My Uncle Bill’s Texaco gas and grocery had a white gas pump.

And is it true that white gas is just unleaded?

Yep...I was racking my brain reading this thread thinking who sold that gas....Texaco!

Man the stories I could tell sitting in front of one of them!...
middle-of-the-night floating down the South Edisto River at 10 years old with my Uncle Buddy....
we caught some eel that night and there were a lot of water moccasins around that hot summer night an one of those eel's got out just as we were going under a tree limb and rubbed on my brothers leg and he jumped up and knocked the Lantern off and started screaming!.....hahahaha!.....Old Times.

Good times I tell ya!