Fulfilling a dream

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Yesterday I started working on the counter tops with the blue polypropylene I brought home last week. Stuff is tough to cut because it melts while cutting and binds up the blade. The first picture is the rear left corner, over the fridge. We'll have 3 chambers for cold stuff. The 3 holes are directly into the fridge, the other big one is an ice box. We can just lay pans over top to keep the contents cold.

The second picture is where the coffee machine was. I finally got the rest of the coffee machine removed today, it took grinding off the rusted screws and some rivets that were soldered heavily on top. That's going to be a small prep area and on the wall above it will be a gas heated broiler.

I have been riding every day. I use my bike to run errands most days. Monday I went to the paint store to get matching blue paint for the exterior. Tuesday I went grocery shopping, Today I went to the auto parts store to get oil for my truck, it needed changed. Yesterday I was going to ride down to the liquor store to buy vodka, but took the truck because I needed 2x4s and I wasn't ready to bring 8' long boards home on the bike.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

We met Robert Irvine today. My oldest daughter (15) gave him a big box of brownies that she made lastnight.

 

[keithj69]

Anyone else here work with Raspberry Pi or Arduino type devices?

I have some knowledge of both. More on the rasp-pi and less on the arduino. Used the arduino for simple temp sensors in my H.A. house. The pi's more for small linux machines, no gpio work.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Getting ready to run new gas lines. We removed the fryer and the griddle to make that easier and to clean everything up. It obviously needs a good cleaning.

This is my #4, he's 12 now and I have a history sticking him in tight spots. When he was about 18months, He climbed into an empty 5 gallon bucket and just smiled. When he was about 5, he climbed into an opening in a 55 gallon drum I was converting into a compost roller. Now he's in the cabinet below the griddle to help feed the gas line through the hole so we could move it. He always smiles when he's in such places.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

The broiler was delivered yesterday. We tested it today to reheat some sausages for lunch. They had been grilled the other day, and the kid in the picture above wanted one for lunch. Worked perfectly. But reheating sausages isn't it's focus in the truck. I also got us a booking for June of next year. A friend owns a business and he's having a 25th anniversary party next june.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Here's my tight spot kid in another tight spot. He's loosing all the hose clamps for the fresh water plumbing because we're replacing it all. I pulled out the sink today so that I can get in there an run new gas line. While looking at it, I figured it was best just to run new line. I like to joke with him about putting him in tight spots, since I delivered him myself, I figure I pulled him from a tight spot, I can put him back in tight spots.

All the plumbing as it stood.

It all removed except for the fill for fresh water and the overflow.

I ordered red and blue pex to replace it all, and now I can run 3/4" black iron for the gas line easier. That goes in first then the rest gets in around it. We've also been installing a pair of air shocks on the truck to help level the towing. One is in and plumbed, but needed to come in and make Chicken Parm for dinner.

 

[Rexlion]

You delivered him yourself, eh? Don't let your wife hear you talk like that! She might think you're discounting all the effort she put into it!

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

You delivered him yourself, eh? Don't let your wife hear you talk like that! She might think you're discounting all the effort she put into it!

I was there, he was the easiest of all the kids. I told the midwife that we should get a discount on the bill since I did the hard part myself.

Yesterday we picked up a new water heater of of CL. The original one showed electrical overheating damage and we were worried about it's integrity. That left to a problem of trying to find one that would fit into the space. Newer versions of the model we had were $800 and 2" too deep. That left us trying to find something else. I had resigned myself to finding a wall hanging unit, but was never happy with the reviews I was seeing on them. I was pushing it off and pushing it off hoping something else would show up. Yesterday it did. We picked up almost an exact version of what we had pulled from a 2021 RV. Everything on it looked good, Anode rod shows it was barely used. Got it for $175, and it's installed today. It's about 4" narrower than the original, but it's the same depth. We just welded a bar to close up the space and reskinned the opening with some extra aluminum sheet we had from the LP tank cabinet we removed.

We're almost done running gas lines. Just have to install the two lengths under the trailer connecting the front appliances to the rear appliances and we can then pressure test. The fryer we ordered has been delayed. That's a problem. A shelf that I ordered to hold the broiler has disappeared in transit. We did get the new electric landing gear installed and working.

We also installed new air shocks on the truck to help level it when towing. That went fairly easily. It rides nice. We installed them saturday morning with just enough time to give them a test drive, then drive to the Philthy Airport to pick up a friend from Portugal and come home.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

We got one of the tank mounts installed and tested today. Also the compressor cabinet is all but finished. That was the worst of the damage and needed to be completely rebuilt.

The shelf for the broiler showed up yesterday after it not being delivered last week. I had to cancel it and reorder. The broiler fit in perfectly and runs well after I adjusted the igniter spark. It wasn't a strong enough spark to light the pilot, I just moved the contacts a little closer.

After that, and before it got dark, we installed a new stereo in my truck. All the speakers were blown, and it just wasn't running well anymore.

Have to finish the rear speakers in the morning.

 

[sc00ter]

BOSS car audio has come a long way. I saw some of it recently when getting some audio work done on my Subaru. At first I was shocked to see they were still in business. They used to be sold thru a Zap Audio kiosk at the local malls. But now I would even consider a head unit by them, and I'm a audio snob! Nice choice you made.

Watching the progress of your food truck makes me hungry! I tried reaching out to my food truck owning friend but no luck yet. She does BBQ.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

I really liked

BOSS car audio has come a long way. I saw some of it recently when getting some audio work done on my Subaru. At first I was shocked to see they were still in business. They used to be sold thru a Zap Audio kiosk at the local malls. But now I would even consider a head unit by them, and I'm a audio snob! Nice choice you made.

Watching the progress of your food truck makes me hungry! I tried reaching out to my food truck owning friend but no luck yet. She does BBQ.

I hadn't looked at Crutchfield's website for years, so I was really surprised at how well it was laid out and how easy it was to get a complete system specifically for my truck. That's always been the biggest hassle, which harness, which dash place adapter, which speakers. It pointed to everything including the speaker pigtails to fit the factory harness. I ordered everything suggested and it all worked. Biggest issue was wiring the harness because I had to track the connections through. I did soldered butt splices with marine heat shrink and then wrapped the whole thing in fiber tape. I was worried about plugging it in, because what if I screwed up. But it worked perfectly.

The truck is coming along, hopefully the fryer shows up soon. We're hoping to have all the gaslines run by the end of this week. I need to find someone to re-install the compressor unit and repair the damage lines on it. I have someone in mind that I'm sure has the skills and equipment, but not sure about his time, he travels a lot. But he likes to eat, so that's a plus.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

My laptop took a dump last week and I just got another one today, swapped SSD between my dead and new one and I'm back up.

Progress has been made, mangled fender was straightened and re-attached and the well was relined.

Compressor cabinet on the bottom left is completed. The wheel well on this side needs to be lined, I'm waiting to hear back from the metal shop about the order I placed. Acrylic is on both snack cabinets now and I hung a menu board on the left side where it was a door that opened.

Gas lines are completed throughout, and the regulator is installed. Tanks got filled today and the water heater and broiler are attached to the gas system. My fryer finally showed up from china, we unpacked it, took pictures of the damage, packed it back up and returned it an hour later.

I only have one thing that runs 120vac, and that's the fridge. Even the exhaust fans are 12vdc. Which makes running it a lot easier. Saturday wife and I were running errands and I found this laying along side the road. Guy only wanted $25 for it, and it works perfectly. It's our backup 120vac source for the fridge.

 

[Rexlion]

How confusing to give your twin LP tanks the same name. I suggest changing one to "Millie." Mollie and Millie. Doesn't that sound nice?

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Fryer showed up monday after ordering it April 27th. We unboxed it. Took pictures of the obvious damage. File for a return and dropped it off at UPS within the hour. We were originally told we'd get a refund within 24 hours. But Amazon keeps changing terms after the fact. Now we have to wait for our refund till the seller receives it. I'm betting there's going to be a fight to get our money back, which is exactly why we shot a video like this:

It had a weld that was ready to break once the weight of the oil in the pans was applied. A supporting bracket for the burner in the video is badly bent. It's scratched all over the place due to poor packaging. We're going to order another one, but it's 3x the price of this one.

We tested the new gas system yesterday by lighting the broiler. It's working fine after purging the air from the system. We also unboxed the new griddle yesterday and converted it to propane by changing the orifices. There were other modifications done so that it will fit in the trailer, and I need to do some more construction for it to fit in. I think I need this sure, because we just didn't void the warranty on the griddle, we violated it in ways a warranty shouldn't be violated.

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Of course, the warranty was void the moment we told the manager of the store we bought it that it's going into the trailer. They don't warranty any appliance that gets mounted in a mobile unit. I'm not really concerned about the warranty, I spend so much time fixing things myself, and the parts that would break are actually fairly cheap. I'll fix it myself if I have to

 

[Rexlion]

Oh, the "commercial use" exception to warranties. Yep. Except usually I think that exception applies to things actually used commercially, whereas the fryer never got used even one time. Well, I hope they stand behind it for ya.

The forum seemed to be down for more than a day. I was beginning to think I broke it by cracking that "Mollie and Millie" gag!

 

[Roamers]

The forum seemed to be down for more than a day. I was beginning to think I broke it by cracking that "Mollie and Millie" gag!

So, did you get more done yesterday with the forum down, or did you waste more time hitting "refresh"?

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Oh, the "commercial use" exception to warranties. Yep. Except usually I think that exception applies to things actually used commercially, whereas the fryer never got used even one time. Well, I hope they stand behind it for ya.

The forum seemed to be down for more than a day. I was beginning to think I broke it by cracking that "Mollie and Millie" gag!

The griddle came from a place that mostly sells to commercial entities. The Restaurant Store, we've been customers there for many years now even though we still don't have a restaurant. Many times I get asked by new employees what restaurant I'm buying for, I tell them, I'm not, I just have 6 kids. Cooking for that many every night seems like being in a restaurant. Anyway, the warranty isn't void because of the commercial use, but because it's going on the trailer/truck. Plus the hole I drilled through the chassis, and the original parts I removed and replaced with 3rd party parts.

One of the best things we discovered while trying to find the regulator for the outside is that the system I built is capable of 570,000btu's. We're going to be using about 160,000 with everything fired up, so we shouldn't have any problems with gas flow.

 

[Rexlion]

Oh, you already modded it, ouch. Yeah, they won't like that.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Today I finished up the welding of the platform the griddle will rest on. The top will be fire resistant polypropylene, and I'll cover the sides with diamond plate after a painting. That's the biggest complaint I have of the original builders of this, they built the frame and left it raw, no paint.