I have a 249 that I found as a kid, in an old hurricane destroyed cabin waaaaay out in the woods along the Texas Guld Coast 50+ years ago. I sure wish I'd had great videos like this when I was leaning to fettle! Awesome job.
for years I used a Colman single mantle white gas lantern for doing my chores .. milking my cow etcetera .. I never knew there was a kerosene version ... I loved my lantern and wouldn't have traded for anything .. but now you have my curiosity up ..humph ..?
Coleman also made a big single in the 237 (500 candlepower) and also current production 639. They are a bit more of a production to light with the preheat cup, but they run fantastic and nowadays Kerosene is cheaper than Coleman Fuel.
You make some great videos! I’ve never seen that style lantern before. I’m going to keep my eyes open for one at the barn sales now. Have a great week.
I just wanted to make a comment about the “soft start” method. I believe it’s a safer way to pre heat the generator. With no pressure in the lantern and fuel valve open, a generator explosion is unlikely to occur should the cleaning needle be left in the up position or another blockage that causes fuel pressure to build up during the preheat time. There are at least 2 or more videos on RU-vid in which a kerosene generator exploded during preheat. In one instance the cleaning needle was left in the up position and in the other the brass was softened by excessive heating and quenching cycles during generator cleaning. I always use the soft start method to light my 237’s and 249’s. Keeping the fuel valve open with no pressure in the tank is definitely safer way to preheat IMHO.
My 249 has lost quite a bit of nickel from its fount as well. My theory is that the additional heat has something to do with that. Kerosene burns hotter, and the fount on mine gets quite hot. Mine pushes the 24a mantle beautifully.
Some lanterns just got a really thin nickle coating. This one's in nice enough shape that it might be worth sending it out to be replated. My fount also gets suprisingly hot. Usually don't experience that with the 242's. The 24a mantle just hung down way too far and ended up resting on the cup. Then of course the #21 just looks tiny on there. Oh well.
Great vid as always! Out of curiosity, do you have a fuel explainer video? I have been running the white gas lanterns for years, and have some from the 60's running great. But I have a bran new Coleman Kerosene lantern and It's running poorly after only 25 or so hours off Klean-Heat. I would love to know more about fuel options for these and the older ones (next on my list to find)
Maybe? It's a BIG generator compared to a 200a, so that's a fair bit of mass to heat, including the burner head. Yellow flareups usually mean liquid fuel is getting through, and I will say that after letting it run for a few minutes after I stopped filming, it stopped doing that. Just weird as my 237 also has a large gen, and it just starts and runs, no flareups.
That's a good suggestion. I'm just a bit puzzled the 24-A didn't work that well, as they're pretty much a direct replacement for the no longer made #99, which this lantern used. Maybe it's not running as strong as it should, or at least then? It runs pretty dang great now, maybe I need to try again.
Just about anything that fits! Burner tubes, fuel caps after burning out the old gasket, burner caps with clogged screens, air tubes, generators, gas tips, etc. It's pretty handy to have, and the small ones aren't too pricy. Also good for non-latern things too as you'll find out.
