Media Coverage from Expedition Portal: The Best Camp Stoves for Overlanding

People tend to fall into two—if you’ll pardon the expression—camps when it comes to cooking on backcountry adventures. There are those of us who see it as the penultimate drudgery, a distraction from what we really want to be doing on our overland expeditions, and a source of never-ending dishes that must be cleaned. Others relish mealtimes, packing exotic ingredients, planning elaborate multi-course dinners, and spending lots of energy (and money) setting up their perfect camp kitchen.

As I collected the camp stoves that make up this wide-ranging gear review, I had the opportunity to reflect on where I fall on this continuum. I tend to shade toward the “cooking is a chore” side of things, which is surprising because I love to cook at home. But on the road, everything seems more difficult in the kitchen—the knives are duller, the pots thinner, the stoves more challenging to use. I also realized that my own camp stove, a classic two-burner unit that’s been in the family for quite a while, is over 40 years old and has some issues. We often refer to it as the Death Stove because it leaks fuel badly and can randomly burst into uncontrollable flames at the slightest provocation. While that makes breakfast prep a little more exciting, it certainly doesn’t make cooking easier or more efficient...

Primus Tupike

Wood accents seem like a puzzling choice for a device that literally spits fire. Still, Primus knows what they’re doing—the Swedish company pioneered the technology for the modern camp stove in the 1890s, and they’ve been refining the concept ever since. This shows up in the Tupike’s many engineering details that not only go into making a stove that’s pleasing to look at and operate but also functions at a very high level. Those oak laths? They add rigidity to the stainless steel stove body and ensure plenty of cool touch-points, including on the full-width locking handle. The brass hardware not only looks great but resists corrosion as well.

Primus goes its own way on fuel choice for the Tupike, requiring the isobutane canisters more commonly used with backpacking stoves. It pumps out a robust 10,200 Btu/hour from each of its two burners. The tightly toleranced stainless drip tray is angled to collect grease away from the burners and cleans up with one wipe. Built-in magnets for the wind deflectors keep them stuck to the inside of the lid when not in use, and ever-so-slightly tweaked corners make them easy to grab and deploy when the wind kicks up. The fold-out legs feel slightly spindly, but they open up space under the stove for stashing utensils or plates when prep space is at a premium. You can use the stove with the legs stowed as well. A sandwich-sized non-stick ceramic griddle plate is included in the base price.

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