Going on a road trip in the USA this year (car based) and will be taking lightweight camping gear and hoping to camp a fair bit.

Last time I did this I found it a struggle to get screw on gas canisters for my stove unless I could actually find an outdoor type store. I'm sure there were other types of gas canisters more readily available in err gas (petrol) stations but I can't remember what type they were. Any ideas? Can I get a convertor from whatever that is to a normal screw on fitting?

Should of paid more attention when I was there

If you can find hardware stores, the gas canisters that are used with small blowtorches normally use the same threads as camping stoves. They tend to be thinner and longer though, so are more suitable for "remote" stoves than ones that sit upright, on top of the can. Otherwise something like this? http://www.go-system.co.uk/catalog/prod ... tegory/67/ - probably a bit hefty though...

Why not ask REI.com

The Edelrid cartridge adaptor http://www.edelrid.de/en/sports/cooking ... keine.html is a good option for pierceable to screw top cartridges. (Pierceable cartridges are easy to find on mainland Europe not sure about USA) Edelrid also do an adaptor for camping gas fit cylinders to standard screw fit stoves. Both are available in UK

I don't recall seeing much in the way of non threaded canisters here in the US. Screw on type are all around- as said before, if you can't find an outdoors store, hardware stores tend to carry the small screw on ones for blow torches.
Where are you headed?

You will find "Car Camping" coleman 1lb propane canisters in Walmart. These have a screw thread, not lindal valve.

In some Walmart stores and most "outdoor" stores you will find the normal "Backpacker" 4/8/16oz canisters, with lindal valve.

I keep a Kovea adapter with me to allow for either option, as I have been caught out by this.

REI sell them. When I was across there last year my friend (who conveniently works there) picked some up knowing we couldn't fly across with them.

thanks for the suggestions, I think i'll try and dig out my old remote stove so at least I have the option of blow torch canisters too