Fulfilling a dream

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Hawaiian shave ice pour some of the sweetest syrup on it. $10 each.

Sorry, out here in farmland, we're kind of short on frozen hawaiians.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Got the new skylight installed today. I had some aluminum cut and bent to create covers over the wooden riser that was installed for the original skylight. Now it's wrapped in aluminum, with butyl acetate as a sealer around it and the corners wrapped up in actual real duct tape. I'm using 3/8" acrylic sheet that was a covid shield in a voting location. I hope it still doesn't have covid on it. I guess I can put my bullet resistant acrylic away now.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Wife has been working on getting all the business paperwork straightened out. We're registering in DE, and we're going to see what it'll take to operate inspection wise down there. If we get it worked out, we'll try to get into Pumpkin Chunkin' this year.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

We got back from our first unofficial gig around 9pm. I couldn't be happier with how the trailer towed. No lateral sway, brake controller worked perfectly. I didn't have to use any extra brake. We towed it 35 miles from our place to our friend's place. His "driveway" is about 3/4 mile long winding gravel path and up a steep hill. Put it in 4WD to get up the lane.

Everything on the trailer worked fine. We had filled the water system and heated the water before we left. The water heater didn't kick in at all while there. We made a couple of mistakes, nothing big, but we're learning. It took us a bit to get a rhythm going between putting the order together and getting it out the window, but we eventually got it. Wife and I are doing an AAR to determine how we can improve things.

Over all a very good day.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Water heater is all wired and buttoned up now. This is what it looked like before.

This is it with the original covering on, with some modifications to make it fit because this heater is exactly 1" deeper than the original.

I found this nifty thermometer to install. I slipped the probe under the foam insulation and sealed it up with aluminum tape. It's wired into the same circuit as the heater so it turns on at the same time. It's giving accurate enough readings. Heater shuts off when it reaches 122F and turns on when it drops below 110F.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

One of the things I decided to do a while ago was install another water tank for filling the steam table. This is so that I don't have to use our fresh water for that, nor have to carry bottles of water. I found a 5 gallon tank that fit nicely in the wheel well and built a stand for it to set it up higher than the pump which is inside below the steam table. Plumbed in a fill with a quick connect for the hose and into the pump. A toggle switch activates it and it pumps through a piece of soft copper that I bent with a pipe bender I bought years ago but never used.

Tomorrow the wife and I are going to run some errands dragging it around. Need to stop at a poultry place to see if we can use them as our primary source of chicken, then off to the propane place to get the tanks filled. I called my Amish friends to see if they're going to be around or not. His wife answered and said they're going to be threshing all afternoon. I told her we'd like to stop over and make them dinner on the trailer She was shocke and asked me repeatedly if I was sure I wanted to do that. I assured her that I'm sure, so tomorrow at 4:30 we serve dinner to the entire crew, I don't know how many that is.
If we hadn't met this family, because I killed their horse, we'd never have this trailer.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Serendipity(or the road) thereof, can have many unexpected convolutions, some say its planned, some say chance, some say its fate if you are of the "school of no coincidence" there has to be a loving God in there somewhere.

We've talked about this here. Call it serendipity, God's will, karma or my favorite, holistics. A lot of events came together to make this happen. Over the past few weeks as I grab a tool that I haven't used for a while I think back to where and why I got that tool, and if I didn't have it right now, what I would have to do.

A friend that stopped over last week kind of summed it up. It's not just doing a food trailer, it's plumbing, water and gas, being an electrician, metal fabricator, driver, chief cook and bottle washer, plus a lot more. If I didn't have my wife helping me, it would be impossible.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Just got back from my Amish friend's farm. We made them dinner since the entire crew was out threshing all day. 12 adult men, 20 kids running around and 4 adult women. When we got there we realized we didn't have enough for all the kids, wife ran up to the grocery store quick and got hot dogs for the little ones. They have a rare farm that's actually near a grocery store. I convinced my friend to eat pineapple on a boneless pork rib sammich. He doesn't think that pineapple should go with meat, but turns out he really liked it. I got a complement on my potato salad (kartoffelsalat) from his wife. When an Amish woman compliments your food, you're doing something right, especially a classic dish such as potato salad. She also liked the red beet eggs. The men ate, then went back into the fields to work until dark, or maybe after. The kids scattered like the kids do. My wife, his wife, and I cleaned up.

 

[Art Deco]

So close to 40 people served on your first try. The hungry ones ate and the picky ones complimented you. Not too bad ...

How far can you profitably travel with that rig if I may ask? I assume you will have all the fuel and maintenance costs under control as well as having all the appliances working well.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

So close to 40 people served on your first try. The hungry ones ate and the picky ones complimented you. Not too bad ...

How far can you profitably travel with that rig if I may ask? I assume you will have all the fuel and maintenance costs under control as well as having all the appliances working well.

She's not picky, she asked for a cheddar/jalapeno sausage with peppers and onions as well as a hawaiian slider. Plus the potato salad and the red beet eggs. The Amish generally enjoy trying all kinds of new foods when they have the chance.

If we're going to travel out of our area, we're going to be sure it's profitable. There's an event that we'd like to do next year in Ohio (6 hour drive). With the current price of gas, plus tolls, plus hotel, it'll cost us probably close to $500. But the potential to make thousands is real. It's a 3 day event with thousands of people roaming around and only 2 or 3 other trucks there, but they don't sell anything that's a meal, it's all snack food.

They're gas appliances so functionally they're rather simple. We have a found a great local place that can do anything we need related to them if I can't figure it out. For now, our goal is to stay relatively local, do a lot of lunch days, try to get into some of the real estate auctions. Most of those auctions are in the Amish community, and they can be tough to get into. We should be able to get into them without much trouble because we're already "friends" of the community.

 

[Art Deco]

Yeah we are 5 hours from our family in Ohio . It's a long pull across Pennsylvania. Not a lot of commercial restaurants or catering for hundreds of miles. If you just stay close to home then they can let you know what and when to setup.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Yeah we are 5 hours from our family in Ohio . It's a long pull across Pennsylvania. Not a lot of commercial restaurants or catering for hundreds of miles. If you just stay close to home then they can let you know what and when to setup.

I really dislike the idea of driving across the turnpike, and I'd probably go out of my way up to I-80 to avoid it. I can get to the destination in Ohio either I-80 or I-70, it's about the same traveling time, but I-80 even though being longer is far cheaper than the turnpike especially considering what they charge if you're towing.

 

[Art Deco]

Towing on I - 80 can be really dicy ( and icy ) up by the lake , even just the wind off the lake scared me once or twice. And rain ...
Never towed on the pike.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Towing on I - 80 can be really dicy ( and icy ) up by the lake , even just the wind off the lake scared me once or twice. And rain ...
Never towed on the pike.

This event is mid july, I doubt there's ice up there then.

 

[Art Deco]

Nope. No matter how weird the weather gets, July by the lake is always hot.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Only on the turnpike once, not impressed.105 degrees F. at Pittsburgh,PA May 31st,1987( Was a very hot year) We overnighted at Kittaning on the 30th, will always remember that excursion. We basically skirted the Amish didn't try any of their food, used to have a pretty good work ethic, don't think I could have kept up with the Amish, the "German Baptist" and Mennonites impress me.The food trailer sounds like its going to be a hit.

The turnpike isn't a terrible road to drive. There's spots that are probably too narrow for a main highway, but it was laid out over a hundred years ago and they've been making improvements to some of the tighter areas. The problem is the cost. Back in the early 90's when I would drive out to Pittsburgh all the time, it cost $7.40 between on and off ramps I'd take. Today, without SleazyPass, it's now $71, with Sleazypass, it's $35.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Saturday I told my wife that I wasn't seeing any hits for an inverter on CL, asked her to look on Facebook Market place. She finds one that had just been posted within the hour. 2000W/4000W, brand new in the box for $75, and about 30 minutes away. She contacted the guy and we ran up to get it. Just as he described, far bigger than I need. Yesterday I ordered terminals for 2/0 cable, and this morning I stopped by the autoparts store for some 2/0 cable. I don't like buying larger gauge wire sight unseen. Too much fraud out there, you never know what you're gonna get. Might order pure copper and get CCA and it's already terminated and heatshrinked and you won' t know it's CCA until it melts.

Today #1 and I got the inverter installed and drilled a hole between the two cabinets for the wire to run to the battery. I 3D printed a grommet to protect the cable and waited for Amazon to show up with the terminals. Around 6:15 they finally showed up and I was able to terminate the cables. Some time spent with propane torch and some heavy vintage solder that I had traded a french fry cutter for and everything got terminated and heat shrink. Another 20 minutes with help from the wife and it's wired up and tested. Works fine we now have 120VAC in the trailer.

Thursday my friend is coming over to help reassemble and charge the compressor for the fridge. I have a similar thermometer that I put on the water heater on the way to show us fridge temp, since that's something the inspectors always want to know, fridge and water temp.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

What did you need the 2/0 for,I am figuring 19 amps for the 220x 4000 watt thingy? Just curious was this something that required low voltage or was it an entrance cable, by my schooling 2/0 should be good for 150 amps at 220 volts.I'll bet you paid handsomely for the cable( was it welding cable?) If I sound poor you have to remember I live in the part of Appalachia poorer than West Virginia. Just curious.

I thought it was large too, but the manual and the labels on it said to use it. I paid $3.85/foot, which was their cost (it pays to drop off brownies and christmas cookies) Total was about $48. Power wise, you can't really go wrong in putting in a wire.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

I got the rest of the 120VAC system installed today. Wired up the 2 breaker panel I got months ago. A pair of 15A breakers, one feeds the outlet in the compressor cabinet, the other feeds a pair of outlets in the back of the kitchen. Both are fed from a pair of heavy duty cords with standard plugs on them that go into the inverter. Both the inverter and the battery are grounded via a standard automotive ground strap. Everything went together rather well. Thursday my friend comes over to finish the compressor, and it's pretty much done other than cosmetic stuff. The metal shop called me today and said the parts I dropped off to be shaped and bent are in.

3D printer has been going pretty much all day. Printed a heavy duty grommet for the hole the 2/0 wire passes through. Made caps to cover the water quick disconnects for the fresh water and steam table tanks. Printed a holder for the thermometer that'll indicate fridge temp. Same one I put in for the hot water. It printed some pigs earlier, and now it's printing covers in the snack cabinet/cooler to cover where the old lights were. I remembered that I have about 120' of 12v LED strip lights laying in the workshop, so they'll be going into those cabinets.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Here is my #4 crammed into a tight place again. I called him and said I needed him to get into a tight spot for me again. He asked, "the front cabinet again". I told him no, the refrigerator which is about 1/2 the size of the cabinet. I needed him to get in there and hold a board against the inside wall because that wall kept flexing as I was trying to drill a hole through it to mount a temp probe. Probe is installed, sensor is wired up and now tomorrow when we get the compressor charged we'll be able to see the temp fall.

I did get to use the outlets in the back to run the heat gun to set some heat shrink on the wiring.